What's the point? Timberwolves still don't know

The Timberwolves' current biggest problem isn't their sordid history or misguided ownership, their inconspicuous fan base or their embarrassing record.

The Timberwolves' current biggest problem is that their new brain trust spent the draft, free agency and the 2009-10 season trying to identify, find, lure, sign and develop point guards, and with only eight losses remaining in the season, they might as well have William Avery dribbling upcourt.

Forget about the lousy record and the remarkably long losing streaks. The Wolves were required to stink this year. They needed to give themselves every opportunity to land one of the top picks in the draft. Winning 30 games this season would have been pointless and counterproductive.

This season should have been all about the draft -- developing the point guard taken in last year's, and maximizing chances at landing a top player in this year's.

Instead, the position in which the Wolves invested the most has yielded the least.

They took three point guards in the first round of last year's draft, signed a point guard in free agency, and 10 months later they still lack an NBA-quality starting point guard. To quote Charles Barkley, that's "Tirble."

Even Kevin McHale and Randy Wittman, the worst combination of general manager and coach in the history of the NBA, might not have been able to pull this off.

David Kahn's first signature move was taking Ricky Rubio with the fifth pick in the draft. Rubio stayed in Spain and might never play in Minnesota -- and he still represents Kahn's best personnel move ever.

While the failed negotiations with Rubio proved embarrassing, at least there is a chance of that pick someday improving the franchise, either if Rubio comes to Minnesota and thrives or if he yields a good player or draft pick in a trade.

Those who thought Rubio could have made a difference this year in a Wolves' uniform are delusional. He either would have helped them improve just enough to ruin their draft chances, or he would have gotten so depressed losing dozens of games during a brutal winter that he would have quit basketball forever.

Kahn's second big move was drafting another point guard -- Syracuse's Jonny Flynn. The problem is, Flynn's not a point guard. He has the talent to accumulate numbers but lacks the savvy and mindset to run a team.

Had Kahn taken Stephen Curry, he would have his shooting guard for the next eight years, and Curry would have played the point better than Flynn this year.

Kahn's third move was drafting -- you guessed it -- a point guard, North Carolina's Ty Lawson. Had Kahn taken Rubio and Curry and kept Lawson, he'd have promising players at the point and shooting guard, and he'd still have Rubio in reserve.

Instead, he traded Lawson, meaning that after drafting three point guards, he had to sign another, Ramon Sessions, in free agency, to keep this collection from losing 78 games this season.

Kahn's moves would look more sensible if his hand-picked coach, Kurt Rambis, had been able to develop Flynn. It's hard to say whether Rambis has coached Flynn poorly or if Flynn is at fault for failing to improve; what is certain is that Flynn was more promising six months ago than he is today.

After drafting three point guards and signing another, the Wolves are closer to having their center of the future than their point guard of the future. And that center of the future -- Darko Milicic -- is a draft bust who didn't even want to show up in Minnesota.

After acquiring four point guards last summer, the Wolves' best hope for salvation remains a point guard.

If the Wolves are lucky enough to land John Wall, this cursed franchise might experience a rare stroke of luck: Failing to find a point guard this season could lead to the drafting of the best point guard in Wolves' history this summer.

With Wall on board, the Wolves could trade Rubio's rights, along with Flynn and either Al Jefferson or Kevin Love, and land a player or two who can take full advantage of Wall's speed. That would be a start for the Wolves, a year after the false start of 2009-2010.

Jim Souhan can be heard at 10-noon Sunday on AM-1500. His Twitter name is SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com