Sports

Saunders gives a pre-draft update

Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders talked about the deep draft class -- and didn't shed much more light on Kevin Love's future with the team.

By Kent Youngblood

June 24, 2014 at 7:30PM

Flip Saunders (Colleen Kelly — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Wolves president of basketball operations and head coach Flip Saunders spoke at some length today about Thursday's draft. And while much of his time was spent reiterating company lines we've already heard on a number of subjects (including Kevin Love's immediate future), there were some nuggets to be had.

First let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Saunders isn't tipping his hand in regards to Love, but it didn't prevent reporters from asking about it today.

He was asked if he'd talked with Love lately." I talk to all of our players,'' he responded.

Saunders was asked about the prospects of trading Love by Thursday night. "I've been saying it for four weeks," Saunders said. "I feel comfortable with the guys that we have. If we can get something that makes our team better, we'll do it. If we don't, we'll stay pat and go forward and enter into free agency on July 1.''

Saunders also said he felt the draft was an "artificial deadline" when it came to trades, and that, historically, few top players get dealt by that day. "I don't know about the prospects of us trading anybody by Thursday night."

In other items:

--Asked if he thought Cleveland would trace the No. 1 overall pick: "Nothing would surprise me," he said. "They've always done a lot of things out of the box. It wouldn't surprise me, but I'll still be surprised if they do."

--About how busy the phones have been at Wolves headquarters? Flip mentioned that he took three calls before he came to talk with the media. He said the phone is busy from 8 a.m. into the wee hours of the next morning. He likened that building buzz to the feeding frenzy of feeding catfish. He said most of the work is being done by teams with a lot of picks, who feel that trading the uncertain value of a pick for a proven player is the way to go. He mentioned Philadelphia, which has two top 10 picks and a bunch of second-round picks, as a major player.

What Philly does, Saunders said, could have an impact on the rest of the top of the draft. "I guess we'll have to wait and see," he said. "I thought there might be some (movement) if (Joel) Embiid hadn't got hurt. But now with him hurt, I believe that the top is pretty much zeroed in."

--Saunders said the Wolves are preparing as if Embiid and Dario Saric will be available when the Wolves draft at No. 13. This is, of course, because of Embiid's foot surgery and Saric's decision to stay in Europe for another year.

--Saunders said the much-praised draft class is a deep one, especially in this sense:

"Here's what I think,'' he said. "I believe the draft, players taken at 17, 18 and 19, those players have the ability to be rotation players next year. To play 15, 20 minutes. If you can get that out of a draft you feel pretty good. So what people felt it was a deep draft because you had the three great players at the top and then you had the depth behind. … I believe there is a lot of potential in the draft and a lot of guys who will go in the top 10 have a chance to be All Star players."

--Flip wouldn't touch the whole issue regarding reports of LeBron James opting out of his Miami contract.

--Flip was asked about how important character was when drafting. During his answer Saunders offered this nugget about something he calls an S-box regarding players the team won't draft. "It's a box I call an S-box," he said. "I put players in there and that means no matter what we're not touching those guys. We've got a few guys in that box. As we brought the 60 guys in to work out, I told them you don't want to get into that box, because it'll hurt you a little bit.''

Meanwhile, newly-hired assistant Sam Mitchell talked today.

Mitchell allowed that his return to the NBA comes with the hope that this job will perhaps lead to another head coaching job. But, for now, that is not his focus. "My focus is on helping Flip, getting the Timberwolves back to where we want them to be. We have great fan support here. They appreciate hard work. They appreciate effort. They appreciate good team basketball. That's something, playing here all those years under Flip, that we did."

That's about all for now. Have a great rest of your day.