Wolves deal Hollins, Sessions, and 2nd round pick to Cleveland, Yahoo sources: Flynn out for 3-4 months and more
From Marc J. Spears' twitter account:
Wolves Jonny Flynn expected to be out 3-4 months after hip surgery next week, NBA sources tell Y! Sports. Missed summer league with injury.
From the Timberwolves site:
The Minnesota Timberwolves announced the team has traded center Ryan Hollins, guard Ramon Sessions and a future second-round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the player contracts of guards Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair.
"I want to thank Ramon and Ryan for their time with us last season," said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. "With the arrivals of Luke Ridnour, Michael Beasley, Nikola Pekovic and the signing of Darko Milicic, it was clear that Ramon and Ryan would have lesser roles this season if they were to remain. This move provides them a better opportunity in Cleveland and adds to our flexibility both this season and beyond in relation to the salary cap."
From Jon Krawczynski/AP Sports:
The young and rebuilding Timberwolves aren't interested in taking on a player with West's baggage. His $4.6 million contract will only cost Minnesota $500,000 if West is waived by Aug. 5, and that's what the Wolves plan to do.
Telfair, who played for Minnesota for two seasons after coming over from Boston in the Kevin Garnett trade in 2007, also likely will be traded or bought out.
The principle reason for the Wolves to make this deal was to alleviate log jams at both point guard and in the front court. The Wolves have Flynn returning and signed veteran Luke Ridnour to a four-year, $16 million deal last week. They have also brought in forward Michael Beasley and re-signed centre Darko Milicic and have agreed to a three-year deal with centre Nikola Pekovic that is expected to be announced any day now.
From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:
The deal further pares the Wolves' payroll.
Expect them to sign a veteran point guard to a one-year minimum contract as their next move.
Available players who fit that profile: Earl Watson, Anthony Johnson, Rafer Alston, Earl Boykins and maybe Chris Quinn or Jamaal Tinsley.
From Marc J. Spears' twitter account:
Wolves will waive Delonte West, source tells Y! Sports.
With Hollins out of the picture, sources said the Timberwolves will take a hard look at possibly signing free-agent forward Anthony Tolliver, who averaged 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds last season for Golden State. The other primary suitors for Tolliver are the Warriors and Dallas.
From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:
By now you know that David Kahn got fined $50,000 and the team got fined that amount as well for his comments about Michael Beasley's marijuana use on the Reusse/Mackey show on 1500ESPN.
In the wake of that, Kahn has changed his media policy: No longer are reporters allowed to call or text him directly on his cell phone. From now on, he says all requests will go through the team's media-relations department.
I'm guessing that will mean a considerable delay at times to get his response to trade rumors and other stuff that breaks. Previously, he'd often quickly text back an answer, which I'd quickly throw up here on the blog.
As you all know, he likes to talk, so only time will tell if this new policy truly lasts.
From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:
But other than the apparent Milicic hiccup, Kahn seems to have given Wolves' rooters at least a reason to become interested.