Short takes

Sometimes future is now

Thursday's trade that brought Kevin Garnett back to Minnesota basically means the Timberwolves traded Kevin Love last summer for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Garnett, surrendering a chance to keep Miami's first-round pick this summer the process.

And Wolves coach/chief executive Flip Saunders is good with that.

"I'll say this," he said about trading the Miami pick for Thad Young in August and then flipping Young for Garnett. "K.G., I believe, will have more of an impact than what that pick would have delivered over the years."

Saunders said he tried to get Garnett rather than Young as a third piece in the trade with Cleveland but said Brooklyn — or Garnett with his no-trade clause —wasn't ready yet to do that.

NBA teams gone wild

NBA teams made 11 trades involving 39 players before Thursday afternoon's deadline. Phoenix made three of those involving nine players and four first-round picks either coming or going. Even with Goran Dragic gone and Brandon Knight arrived, Suns coach Jeff Hornacek wouldn't call it the wildest deadline day he has seen.

He remembers a 1988 game during his playing career when his team didn't take the floor until a few minutes before game time while the Suns completed a trade that brought Kevin Johnson, Mark West and Ty Corbin. "To me, that was almost crazier," Hornacek said.

Have trophy will travel

Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine didn't want to let the trophy he won wowing the world in last weekend's All Star slam-dunk contest out of his sight, especially not in New York City.

So he lugged it home himself, bringing it home on the plane as carry-on luggage.

"In a big ol' bag," he said. "It looked like I was grocery shopping."

He also attracted a bunch of news fans, including CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He asked for an autograph and photo taken. "Wolf Blitzer actually reacted to me like I should have reacted to him," LaVine said.