As senior vice president and chief marketing officer for the Timberwolves, Ted Johnson has a hand in quite a few things right now. The organization is seeking a renovation of Target Center, the NBA draft lottery is Tuesday, and the team remains in pursuit of a very marketable player -- Ricky Rubio, whom the Wolves hope to bring over from Spain. In the midst of it all, Johnson took time this week to speak with the Star Tribune's Michael Rand.Q In past years, the Timberwolves have gone pretty big with the gimmicks and promotions for the NBA lottery with little luck in terms of draft lottery results. It seems a little more low-key this year. Am I on the right track?

A I think it's once bitten, twice shy. We've done these extremely elaborate campaigns, and we're going to low-key it, try some reverse psychology and see if that's it [laughs]. The other route hasn't worked. We'll see if this one does. ... David Kahn will be there [at the draft lottery] representing us. Two years ago it was Kevin Love. Last year it was Paul Allen. We did the Lucky Charms boxes. We did sort of think we'll be the anti-gimmick campaign this year and see if it delivers any better results for us.

Q I see the "Pay the Pick" promotion came back this past week, with the offer of season tickets at a per-game price for whatever draft slot the team winds up in. How can you even fathom selling tickets for $1 from a business standpoint?

A First of all ... the inventory is not down next to the floor. Those are seats that we're challenged to sell anyway. More importantly, it gives us an interesting promotion at a time when people normally aren't paying attention to us, and gets them engaged in what's going on. Third and finally, like any business you want to build the next generation of customers. It's a great way to get people in to sample the product at a low cost. Over time, it's convinced some people to buy more tickets at better locations. It's the cost of doing business to create pipeline of customers.

Q If you get the No. 1 pick this year and get good enough to avoid the lottery, you might not be able to do "Pay the Pick" someday.

A [Laughs] As much as we all like the "Pay the Pick" promotion, we all envision a day when we won't be able to do it because our team has done so well.

Q I know the pursuit of bringing Ricky Rubio to the Timberwolves is ongoing, but I'm curious if there is a marketing plan in place in the event that he does arrive?

A Wheels are in motion and discussions are in motion to how we introduce Ricky to the market if and when he comes over, and how to get fans engaged. We haven't absolutely locked into the creative concepts, but I think it's a challenge we're looking forward to. ... Overall fans are excited about his potential on this team. It might take us a while to figure out how to build on that excitement, but I'm sure we'll learn that pretty quickly.

Q As you said, there is a lot going on right now. We haven't even touched on the biggest one, which is the push for a Target Center renovation. What is your role in that?

A I'm the point person for the renovation. My career started in politics. So we're right in the heart of it, trying to find a solution to our building. We have a number of different paths we can pursue. ... As anyone who has been around these issues for a couple decades knows, you don't know how these things are going to work out.