Andrei Kirilenko did the Timberwolves a favor by deciding not to pick up the $10 million player's option for the 2013-14 season. There now will be some money for Flip Saunders to try to make up for his blundering in Thursday's draft.
This was the first draft that officially belonged to Saunders and, whatever his excuses, this was the bottom line:
He started with a choice in the top 10 and wound up with a player that he didn't want and doesn't fit with his team.
If David Kahn had maneuvered to turn the No. 9 selection into Shabazz Muhammad, the Wolves fans (still plural, I believe) would be hostile and the NBA's Kahn-bashing national media would be celebrating his ineptitude. Since it's Flip, the fans are merely agitated and the national folks have ranged from tolerant to positive.
Hogwash.
Kevin Love is coming off a season in which he played 18 games, yet he's still getting the star treatment ... so much so that Saunders rejected a chance to turn him into Victor Oladipo, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. He also could have then kept Trey Burke, the potentially great player who wound up in Flip's lap on Thursday, however briefly.
Saunders decided Burke was rendundant as a point guard on a team with Ricky Rubio, sent him to Utah, and wound up with Muhammad. He's 6-foot-6, never threw a pass that he really wanted to on a basketball court, and won't be quick enough to guard an off guard or strong enough to guard a small forward.
The worst part of Muhammad's resume are those 0.7 assists per game as a UCLA freshman. He would rather take on a triple-team than find an open teammate.