Two weeks ago, the Timberwolves internally set Wednesday's game against Denver as the target date for Ricky Rubio's long-awaited return from March knee surgery.
On Monday, coach Rick Adelman said he still doesn't know if Rubio will return against the Nuggets, Saturday against Dallas or somewhere there beyond.
He said that decision will depend on strength and endurance testing of Rubio's left knee and a consensus between management and the medical staff about what's best given that the team will play four games in five nights -- three of them on the road -- after Wednesday's game.
"He could go out and play some right now, but is that the smart thing to do?" Adelman asked. "I'd like to see him where he's ready to go, and right now I don't think anybody can gauge that. He seems fine given the injury he had, but you don't want him to get other injuries by going out too soon and pulling a muscle, doing something like that."
Other decisions that still must be determined after Rubio's knee is next tested, a process that Adelman says occurs "almost every other day": Will he be restricted to a certain number of minutes? Will he be allowed to play back-to-back games, such as Friday at New Orleans and Saturday at home or Monday at Orlando and Tuesday at Miami.
"He wants to play every time, all the time and all the minutes; we'll just have to see," Adelman said. "We have to see if there's a minutes limitation. I've been through that with Yao [Ming], and it's not easy to determine that. Is it better to have him play one half or play the start of one quarter and the end of another quarter? Those are things we'll have to figure out.
"It doesn't just affect him. It affects the whole team and how you play other people."
Talk is cheap Second-year forward Derrick Williams said he hasn't talked with president of basketball operations David Kahn about trade rumors that last week had him headed with center Nikola Pekovic away in a deal that supposedly would bring Pau Gasol to Minnesota.