Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn rebuffs Pau Gasol trade rumours – NBA Update
It was back in June when the Minnesota Timberwolves, searching desperately for a quality big alongside their franchise player Kevin Love, had formulated a deal which would have seen young forward Derrick Williams and Nikola Pekovic
head to Los Angeles in exchange for Pau Gasol and his heavy contract. The deal never got through though and the Wolves have since added a lot of pieces to the mix, and despite a wave of injuries, they are doing pretty well so far in this season, at 8-9.
However as the Wolves look to have all their players back from injuries, especially their point guard Ricky Rubio, the Gasol trade issue has re-surfaced again. What’s perplexing for the Wolves’ is that they are at the fore front
of rumoured trade.
This kind of chatter can pretty much throw the players involved, off focus, and David Kahn, the general manager took the matter into his hands on Friday, declaring that no contact has been made with the Lakers since the June negotiations
fell apart;
"There's absolutely nothing imminent that we're working on," Timberwolves president David Kahn said Friday. "I can assure you there have been absolutely no discussions with that team since last June.”
The Wolves have a pretty strong roster for this season. They have however had some hard luck with the injury issues. Kevin Love, Chase Budinger, Brandon Roy, Andrei Kirilenko, J.J. Barea and Pekovic have all served time on the
sidelines so far and Rubio, who has been out since tearing an ACL last March, is still recovering. The point guard however has started doing on court drills and can make a comeback as early as next week.
For Kahn, the focus as of now is the health of the team, which if fit can really be a handful when the season enters into its business end;
“My main concern right now is that the team simply regain its health and then maintain its health," Kahn said. "That's the No. 1 concern I have because this has been, since really the night Ricky got hurt last March, it's really
been difficult for us to become healthy again. Hopefully sooner rather than later the team will become healthy again."
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