No Garnett yet, but buzz keeps growing

Kevin Garnett has not yet returned to Target Center, but the buzz about his pending return continues.

At this morning's shoot-around we had a chance to talk to Zach LaVine about Garnett's return, and he was, as you might expect, effusive.

"It's definitely going to be intense," he said. "I'm definitely looking to learn a lot from him on and off the court, see how he works. He's a future Hall of Famer. I want to get to where he is someday.''

Meanwhile, Ricky Rubio continued to talk about how excited he was about the trade. "Yesterday I watch TV and it was Timberwolves, all over. So that was great. He put us back on a bright spot, and we want to take advantage of that.''

Rubio said he can tell how excited the city is. "I was walking yesterday on the street and [the fans] were all talking, 'Oh, KG is back!' '' Rubio said. "And I said, 'Yes!' They were so excited. So that's great.''

Here are some other anecdotes gathered this morning.

--Even more KG: Rubio said as a kid, when playing NBA basketball on video games, he always chose to be the Timberwolves because of Garnett. He admitted to piling up a lot of cyber assists to Garnett while doing so. "I hope I can give him more on the court,'' he said.

--Meanwhile, LaVine imparted a few more anecdotes from his weekend in New York for All Star weekend. First, he said he carried his dunk contest-winning trophy with him on the plane, carrying it in a sack like a bag of groceries so no one would recognize it. "I never left it out of my sight,'' he joked.

His exposure in the dunk contest certainly made him recognizable in New York. "I got some crazy requests," he said. "I was walking around and [CNN anchor] Wolf Blitzer actually reacted to me like I should have reacted to him. He was like, 'Let me have a picture.' I was like, 'Man why do you want a picture of me?' … I was like, 'Man, you're Wolf Blitzer, why do you want an autograph and a picture from me?' ''