Kahn must decide on offers for Love, Brewer, Pecherov

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 2, 2009 - 7:12 AM

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WOLVES NOTES

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PHOENIX — Wolves boss David Kahn must decide by today whether to offer Kevin Love, Corey Brewer and Oleksiy Pecherov contract extensions for the 2010-11 season.

On Sunday, Kahn wasn't saying what he'll do.

Kahn said during training camp that extending Love a $3.64 million salary for next season is a "no-brainer."

At that same time, he said he "couldn't fathom" not extending Brewer -- the seventh pick in the 2007 draft -- a $3.7 million offer.

If Kahn doesn't extend Brewer or Pecherov ($2.38 million), he would save $6 million and give the Wolves even more salary-cap flexibility -- with the option of signing multiple free agents, including perhaps one to a maximum contract -- for a long-awaited free-agent class next July in a summer when nobody is certain how much the NBA salary cap will diminish.

With Love a given, the Wolves are only committed to six players and salaries totaling roughly $27 million for the 2010-11 season. This season's salary-cap figure is $57.7 million.

If the contracts of Brewer and Pecherov aren't extended, they will become unrestricted free agents next summer and the Wolves still could sign them then.

"I'm not even going to lie to you; I don't know," Brewer said when asked what he expects the team to do with his contract. "We'll see. I don't know anything yet."

The deadline was extended from its traditional Oct. 31 date to today so it would fall on a business day, a two-day delay that caused Love to ask Sunday, "Am I a free agent?" and grin.

"It's a decision guys who are in the office upstairs are going to make," Pecherov said. "If they're going to pick up the option, it's good. If not, I've just got to keep working. I'm just not thinking about this right now."

Tinkering

Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said he inserted Pecherov into the starting lineup for Damien Wilkins for the first time Sunday because he wanted to move Ryan Gomes back to his natural small-forward spot and because he likes center Ryan Hollins' energy off the bench.

So was Pecherov the starting power forward and Al Jefferson the starting center, or vice-versa?

"Whatever you want to call Pechie and Al," Rambis said. "I look at Pechie as a '4' [power forward] and Al as a '5' [center] just because of their offensive games. You could flop them in my mind. That doesn't matter."

Coachspeak

Rambis played three-plus seasons in Phoenix for Suns coach Cotton Fitzsimmons, from whom he borrowed several "Cottonisms."

The other day, Rambis said he told his players he'd rather have them kick the ball in the stands because "at least we get a chance to get back on defense," as Fitzsimmons used to tell his players.

Sun, sun, sun

The Wolves flew to Phoenix on Saturday morning and practiced at U.S. Airways Center rather than practicing at Target Center and flying later in the day as they usually do. Why? Maybe because Rambis has lived most of the past three decades in Los Angeles and it was sunny and mid-80s in Phoenix.

"It's been pretty dreary in Minnesota the last few days," Rambis said. "This was a chance to have some time and some sun."

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