We've thought a lot through these first 21 games of the Wolves' season (almost one-third over, by the way, in these lockout-shortened times), trying to pinpoint the No. 1 reason Minnesota has become a functional (and fun) basketball team as opposed to the sloppy mess it has been for several seasons.
Is it the arrival of Ricky Rubio, a charmed passer and excellent overall player who is virtually unstoppable on nights his shot is falling? Is it the continued improvement of Kevin Love, who continues to reset his ceiling on a weekly basis? Is it the coaching of Rick Adelman, a veteran who knows the right buttons to push? Is it the improved defense? Is it overall depth, whereby the team can lose a few players temporarily to injuries and still stay afloat and that suddenly now looks like it has an abundance of good players at a lot of positions as players return to health?
And the answer we come back to is this: The common denominator is David Kahn. Though Kahn can't take all the credit for all those things, he can take credit for hiring Adelman, finding roster depth while still creating future cap space, extending Love on the Wolves' terms and, perhaps most importantly (and job-savingly) getting Rubio to Minnesota.
Kahn hasn't been perfect; we can revisit flaws in his first two drafts, a couple other questionable personnel moves and his initial hiring of Kurt Rambis as major examples. Those helped the national media bury Kahn, who did himself few favors along the way. Almost two years ago, Bill Simmons put on the boxing gloves and delivered these jabs:
Bumbling GM David Kahn told Minnesota fans last week, "I don't expect to be a playoff team for at least two years." Great, just in time for the lockout and a new-wave NBA world with lower salaries and shorter contracts that's going to make Ricky say, "You know what? I think I'll just stay here for a couple more years and make three times as much money unless you trade me to a big-market team." In fact, I thought about making Kahn the following bet: If Ricky Rubio plays even one minute for the Timberwolves, I will drive from Los Angeles to Minnesota for his first game while wearing a T-wolves jersey that says "KAHN" on the front and "No. 1" on the back. (It's an 1,835-mile trip. I looked it up.)
These days, Simmons might be tempted to make the drive simply to watch a compelling on-court product -- one which Kahn played a major role in assembling nearly from scratch and on the fly. It's been haphazard and imperfect at times. It is not nearly done, as anyone can plainly see by the minutes pinch at the two forward positions now that players are getting healthy. But the Wolves might be in the midst of one of the better building projects in the current NBA and the best piece-by-piece, ground-to-top-floor roster assembly in franchise history. There's plenty of credit to go around, but don't forget the man helping to put it all together.
