No matter the cash, Rubio wants to be the best

Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio didn't cater breakfast for his teammates Saturday with his newly achieved wealth, but still they could sense the coming financial sea change in an NBA where players already are wealthy.

Rubio's new four-year, $55 million contract extension foreshadows an expected, approaching explosion in the league's salary cap when its new $24 billion TV contract begins in 2016.

"Of course you think about it," Wolves veteran forward Thaddeus Young said. "You see all this money being tossed around and you definitely want some of it. At the end of the day, you can't worry too much about it. If you play and if you and your team do well, everything will work out."

Young can opt out of the final season of his contract next summer and become an unrestricted free agent. If he doesn't and plays out that final year for $9.7 million, he will become an unrestricted free agent in 2016 just in time for the new TV deal's arrival.

At age 31 and with three seasons left on his contract, guard Kevin Martin probably will be too old to surf the wave by then. But he knows the Wolves' younger players are headed toward a new era in the NBA.

"They understand there's a lot more money coming in the next couple years," ­Martin said. "If they handle themselves properly on and off the court they should be set because everything is starting to go on a much bigger scale than when I came into the league."

Bulls superstar Derrick Rose missed Saturday's game because of an ankle turned in Friday's home overtime loss to Cleveland. Forward Taj Gibson also did not play because of an injured ankle, but swingman Jimmy Butler made his season debut now that his sprained thumb is better.

"He's going to make it all the way back," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "It's going to take a little time, but you see the flashes. There will be some bumps along the way, but he'll be fine."

Wolves second-year forward Shabazz Muhammad now has something to aim for after Cleveland's Tristan Thompson set the bar for offensive rebounds with 12 of them against the Bulls on ­Friday. "I was watching that game and my eyes were lighting up," Muhammad said. "That's something I'm really anxious to do. I mean, if they're not boxing out, I'm going to the glass every time."

Rubio played the first game of the rest of his career Saturday. Asked how obliged he feels to live up to that big contract, he said, "Well, even if they weren't paying me that much money I want to be the best player I can. So I'm going to do the same thing: Keep working hard, trying to be as best I can. I love playing basketball. I'm going to work hard every day to reach my level."

• Martin started his first game of the season at shooting guard after he missed Wednesday's opener at Memphis and played 20 minutes off the bench Thursday against Detroit because of an ankle injury.

• Wolves coach Flip Saunders said before the game that center Ronny Turiaf is better from hip soreness that caused him to miss the season's first two games. But he was inactive again along with rookie Glenn Robinson III because Saunders wants him to practice hard a couple times before he plays again.