Mitchell trying to keep Wolves players fresh

Greetings from the Timberwolves' practice facility, where today's practice was more mental than physical.

Those are the words used by interim coach Sam Mitchell. He has an injury-shortened roster, and he's doing his best to keep his players – particularly big men Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng – as fresh as possible with a stretch coming up that includes five games in seven nights starting Wednesday against Dallas at Target Center.

The thin roster has forced Mitchell to forego some of the teaching when it comes to his young guys. "It cuts into our preparation as far as practice time," he said. "Now you can't spend the time teaching, so they're kind of learning on the fly, which is not always a bad thing. But we're putting a lot of minutes on these guys.''

Mitchell is trying to keep from grinding his guys down in practice so they can save their energy for the games. Again, with the league's deadline for buying players out, there is a good chance the Wolves will be able to sign a big who can take minutes off Towns and Dieng.

Still, with Kevin Garnett out, with Tayshaun Prince playing fewer minutes and Andre Miller gone, the transition to the youngsters is already in full swing.

"We started the year off with these veteran guys playing and mentoring them," Mitchell said. "As the season progressed, your young guys are starting to take over the team. At some point we have to transition the team over to these guys. We have to put the onus on Andrew (Wiggins), and Zach (LaVine) and Shabazz (Muhammad) and Karl and Gorgui.''

Meanwhile, Dieng was unable to attend practice due to a personal matter, according to the team. If he is unable to play in tomorrow night's game with Washington an already thin frontcourt will be even thinner.