Rambis throws it all at Flynn

Jonny Flynn hasn't played a real NBA game yet, but already Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis knows his rookie point guard can run successfully the two-man pick-and-roll play at the sport's highest level anytime and anywhere he so chooses.

That's why he's not letting Flynn do it.

At least not yet anyway.

Rambis wants Flynn to concentrate on skills he hasn't mastered -- and those his team needs most -- in a preseason that's two games old.

"He's learning the importance of the point guard in this league," Rambis said. "I need him to orchestrate the offense and get his teammates involved. They're counting on him."

Oh, is that all?

At the age of 20? At a position Rambis calls the most difficult to learn in the NBA?

All he needs to learn, really, is how to organize his teammates, how to manage the game clock, how to establish the tenor for an inexperienced team at either end of the floor without relying at least for now on what he does best.

"That's definitely tough," Flynn said. "Coming into a new league like this, it's almost like going from high school to college. It's like learning the game all over again. His style of play is what's going to get us wins. It's going to take a little while for a guy like me, who's used to having the ball in his hands all the time."

For two seasons, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim placed the ball in Flynn's hands and let him create, often involving only one other player in that two-man game that emphasized the gifted point guard's individual talents.

"That's what we did all the time," Flynn said. "Coach Boeheim gave me a lot of freedom out there. There's different styles of play for every team, and you have to adapt. You play like that for two years and of course you're going to want to play like that. That's all your body knows."

Now, Rambis is asking Flynn -- in whom the Wolves invested the sixth overall pick in last summer's draft -- to think bigger in an offense that intends to run first and flow into elements of the Los Angeles Lakers' triangle offense secondarily.

"There's an encyclopedia of information that he has to learn in a rapid pace and at a young age," Rambis said. "He has to learn about who's hot, who's a picker, who's a roller, where do teammates like to receive passes, who needs help defensively and who doesn't. Showing me he can make quality, accurate decisions will help me release the reins on him more.

"As I gain confidence in his decision-making, then I'll give him more and more freedom."

Rambis allowed his guards to call the plays -- the relatively few actual plays he has in an offense that relies upon its players reading and reacting -- in practice Tuesday. Rambis said Flynn "didn't miss a beat" in organizing and leading.

"That's something he couldn't have done a week ago," Rambis said. "He can do that now. I've said it before, he has a chance to be a very special player."

Flynn has played 49 minutes in the first two preseason games -- he started both -- with mixed results. He didn't make a field goal until the third quarter of his second game, but made 14 of 15 free throws and had seven assists in the preseason-opening victory over Milwaukee. He scored 14 points in each game, but had one assist and five turnovers in Friday's ugly loss to Toronto and didn't gather any steam until Raptors reserve Marcus Banks took over for starter Jose Calderon.

In time, Rambis said he will incorporate what Flynn does so efficiently into the Wolves offense.

"We can get into any kind of pick-and-roll we want," Rambis said. "Any type of thing he can imagine, we can do out of this offense. But I think there's more that we need to learn, and we have to make sure everybody stays involved in the offense before that happens."

That timetable is undetermined.

"I don't know when, but there's going to be time for that," Flynn said. "We need to get this offense down first. It's going to take us a while, but we're going to get it."

• Third-year forward Oleksiy Pecherov, sidelined since breaking his left wrist two months ago, said he feels ready to make his preseason debut tonight against Chicago at Target Center. Rambis said that decision will be determined today by the team's training staff.

• Rookie guard Wayne Ellington sat out part of Tuesday's scrimmage but otherwise practiced after spraining his ankle in practice Monday.