No timetable yet for Love's return

Wolves coach Rick Adelman missed Monday's practice on the Target Center's main court for personal reasons. So we had to go without his comments today. But the team's president of basketball operations, David Kahn, did speak with the media, and here, in a nutshell, are some of the things he had to say:

--Kevin Love had his broken right hand examined by a local doctor today, but no definitive course of action has been decided on, nor has a timetable been set for his return. Kahn said Love will still confer with the New York City-based specialist he has dealt with before with problems with both hands. But that doesn't necessarily mean Love will have to travel to New York; the MRI of Love's hand was sent to New York this morning. Still, it might be a day or two before that specialist can offer an opinion.

"I think the doctor is unavailable today," Kahn said. "So maybe tomorrow, maybe Wednesday at the latest. I think it's important that we let that doctor weigh in."

Kahn said Love us understandably disappointed, but is doing as well as can be expected. " I'm sure he'll be out a number of weeks," Kahn said. "But because we don't' have anything else definitive yet, I can't say precisely what that means. But a number of weeks is a number of weeks."

Kahn would not say if surgery on the hand is a possibility.

--With Love out for a while, Kahn said the team is considering ways to deal with that loss. With Ricky Rubio back – he is expected to return to action Tuesday against Atlanta at Target Center – Kahn was asked if any potential personnel move would be focused on getting a big man rather than a forward/guard combination player.

Not necessarily, he said.

Kahn indicated he would be interesting in making a trade, and said he's having conversations with other teams, but that nothing was imminent. "It's very difficult to make trades, especially significant trades, in the month of January," he said. "If you look historically, they almost don't occur. Typically the league is a deadline-driven league, and it tends to do trades as we get close to the (Feb. 21 trading) deadline."

In other news:

--Both Rubio and Nikola Pekovic are expected to play against Atlanta Tuesday, though Pekovic (hip) was held out of practice today for precautionary reasons. With Adelman gone, assistant coach Terry Porter talked with the media, and he said it isn't clear how many minutes Rubio would be able to play; that decision will be made after Rubio and Adelman talk on Tuesday. But Porter didn't think Rubio – who lost some conditioning while dealing with back spasms last week – would have to be cut back significantly in minutes.