Kahn provided the letter to the Timberwolves blog, On the Wolves, for dissemination. The new general manager for the T-Wolves wants the fans to know he is not happy about the way the season has started and he will not accept it, nor will he give up. In fact, he's just going to dedicate himself even more to attempting to correct the team's shortcomings.

At times like these, I am motivated to work harder. I want to scout more, watch more film, crunch more numbers, ask more questions. I know Kurt and the coaching staff feel the same. The coaches are the strength of our ballclub right now – I am proud to be working with them. We all recognized when we signed up for this mission that it takes a Herculean effort, from all corners, to turn around a franchise and make it championship-caliber.

I understand that it should be considered refreshing that a general manager would choose to be up front and honest with a team's fans, and that a proactive approach such as this should be applauded. On other other hand, it has all the appearances of an act of desperation by an already beleaguered GM only 10 games into the season.

But who knows? Maybe Kahn can turn the crappy franchise around - as former Timberwolves star KG once said, "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!"

But seriously, it aint going to happen.

From David Kahn [On the Wolves]

Kahn, who is either very smart or very stupid, made three trips to Spain and now claims he had a deal with Rubio that the 18-year-old backed out of Monday night. That seems a little unlikely, given Kahn's failed efforts to persuade Rubio's previous team, DKV Joventut, to lower its $8 million buyout price, toward which the Timberwolves could contribute only $500,000. (Had he signed with the Timberwolves, Rubio, the fifth pick in this year's draft, would've spent his first two seasons in the NBA as an outrageously talented volunteer point guard.) In any case, Rubio now has a six-year deal with FC Barcelona that will allow him to leave for the NBA in two seasons, and Kahn will continue to look like a man operating from whatever manual Kevin McHale used to drive the franchise into a ditch. Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski called the move "devastating for the franchise's new regime."

But maybe it won't be. Basketball Prospectus' Kevin Pelton points out that the Rubio who washes up on the shores of Lake Minnetonka in two years will be a more polished product — one with no time elapsed on his NBA service clock.

Given all the hand-wringing we usually hear about young players entering the NBA unprepared, how can it be considered a bad thing that Rubio will spend the next two years developing and maturing physically in Spain on Barca's dime? When he does come over, Rubio will be better prepared to contribute immediately. He'll also be (essentially) the same price. By waiting two years to bring Rubio over, the Timberwolves will get his age-21 through age-24 seasons on his rookie contract, as opposed to having to begin paying him market value at the age of 23. In the long term, this is a financial boon for Minnesota.

Part of Rubio's appeal right now is that he remains largely unformed, a vague collection of floppy hair and YouTube clips — a player to build a dream on. I saw comparisons to Pistol Pete. I saw comparisons to Charlie Ward. There was something sort of exciting about a player entering the NBA as a total mystery, which never happens anymore. It made him valuable both as a marketing phenomenon and, after the draft, even with all the buyout complications, as a trading chip. In two years, Minnesota will have a much better idea of what it's getting in Rubio, and if what it's getting turns out to be Charlie Ward, he will be neither marketable nor tradable, and the only question remaining about Kahn will be if Timberwolves fans want to run him out of town on a pole or a rail.

Rubio to stay in Spain for two more seasons [Yahoo!]
No Rubio, No Problem for Timberwolves [Basketball Prospectus]
Kahn: Rubio Backed Out Of Coming To MN This Year [AP]

I'm assuming for now that they keep both guys, especially considering the amount of time it's going to take Rubio to acclimate to the NBA. Flynn is ready to tear shit up, and he's plenty strong to hang with opposing point guards. By the way, as of now Etan Thomas is the de facto starting center in Minnesota. Awesome.

Originally, speculative rumors listed the number of emails from Simmonssupporters to the T'Wolves' executive department at 12,000. That's a high number, even for someone with the internet following of Sports Fella, when you consider how long it takes for a person to construct an email (even one as simple as SUBJECT: HIRE SIMMONS) and the fact that you'd be hard-pressed to find that many Timberwolves' fans who cared that much. Michael Rand, Minnesota's most intrepid (and trusted) pamphleteer of sports culture, originally reported the number as 12,000, but then heard from Wolves' public relations department that the number was more along the lines of 1,300. That's still a significant response, but probably not enough to ignite legitimate discussions among the higher-ups for it to actually happen. But there's still some clamoring about the number of pro-Simmons emails, apparently, as some "people" are convinced the number is actually higher than the 1,300 one T-Wolves' president Chris Wright claims he received. Why would he lie about something like that?

But here's who the T'Wolves have reportedly expressed genuine interest in for the position: Former Indiana GM David Kahn, Portland assistant GM Tom Penn, former Heat GM Randy Pfund. The T-Wolves' first choice, ESPN columnist Scoop Jackson, respectfully turned down the position early on.

T-Wolves' president Chris Wright has received 1,300 emails about Bill Simmons, but source says it's 15,000 [Randball]

Like: "so do you ever think about the different path your life might have taken if you had been the son your father named 'O'Lewis Jr.'?" Or, "I've been meaning to ask someone what's it like to be arrested for lynching…" But this was back in the day as they said back in the day. And he had just signed a contract with Adidas, which used to outfit the Nazis, and I wrote a story that was all, "Kevin Garnett Tim Duncan whatevs." And Adidas was kind of proud of this fact because they'd just disposed of Kobe and then he had gone and raped some girl, but none of this did anything for sneaker sales.

In any case, sometimes I think that it's bad that the internet gives everyone access to all this personal information about total strangers they might someday meet and think, "hey, I saw you on the sex offender registry," because it sort of takes the element of discovery out of first encounters, but I didn't realize there was such a wealth of discoverable nuggets of information to learn about Kevin, and that, I guess, is the difference between known and unknown unknowns, or as Malcolm Gladwell would put it, "puzzles" and "mysteries." Watergate, he wrote, was a puzzle; Enron was a mystery; and I am getting the sense that Kevin Garnett's future in the playoffs is out of our hands, but that said it seems to be what everyone's writing about this morning so I thought I'd start there.

That's right. Kevin McHale apparently got tired of Matt Millen taking all his "worst GM in history" thunder, and now that Millen is out of the picture, he's seizing the opportunity to take Minnesota's futility to hilarious new heights. McHale actually ran the show once before, playing out the string after firing Flip Saunders towards the end of '05 and acquitted himself well, with a 19-12 record. Of course, that team still had Kevin Garnett and was not (quite as) laughably bad as this one.

“Kevin has assembled the players on this team, and believes in their talent and skill level,” [Timberwolves owner Glen] Taylor said. “It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players in his new role as head coach.”

This is the 14th season that McHale has had his job. Fourteen. From one Lions fan to the Minny faithful, I can only say, "This too shall pass. It's got to, right?"

Timberwolves fire coach Randy Wittman; Kevin McHale takes over coaching duties [Inside Hoops]
Timberwolves fire coach Randy Wittman [AP]
Create-a-caption: Ballin' on a prayer [Ball Don't Lie]
Timberwolves Game Recap (Brandon): So this is how the Randy Wittman era ends [Star-Tribune]

When last we saw them: Finished 22-60, fourth in Northwest Division and 13th overall in the West, sadly watching KG reach the promised land without them.

Shimmying on in: Brian Cardinal, Calvin Booth, Jason Collins, Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Rodney Carney

Shimmying on out: Antoine Walker, Greg Buckner, Marco Jaric, Antoine Walker (his departure is worth noting twice)

The Good: The Wolves have a solid franchise/foundation piece in Al Jefferson, who was the only NBA player to average at least 21 PPG and 11 RPG last season. (He was also only the second Minnesota player - with Kevin Garnett being the first - to ever accomplish that feat.) He loves to score and doesn't mind hitting the backboards (he grabbed 16+ rebounds 10 times in 2007-08). The Acquisition of Mike Miller should improve the Minny's lousy outside shooting (see below) and help spread the floor for Big Al to do his thing (double-teams severely limited Jefferson's effectiveness at certain points last season). First round draft pick Kevin Love's strengths are well known - high basketball IQ, footwork, solid mid and long-range shooting, "legendary" outlet passing, and an expansive inside scoring repertoire - but less well known is the fact that he's gotten himself into amazing shape. With Miller starting at the two-spot, Rashad McCants is going to be able to explode off the bench (he averaged 14.9 PPG last season). Randy Foye - who played only 39 games last season - is healthy and will be looking to build on last season's strong finish (Foye averaged 18.5 points, 5.2 assists and 3.0 rebounds in April). And the Foye/Sebastian Telfair combo is actually showing some promise.

The Bad: Last season, the Wolves were a bad offensive team: 29th in free throw attempts (20.7), 26th in scoring (95.6), 26th in assists (19.9) and 21st in three-point percentage (.350). To a certain extent, they addressed this by drafting Love and trading for Miller and Rodney Carney. But what seemingly went ignored during the offseason was their pitiful team defense: 29th in blocked shots (3.7), 27th in opponent field goal percentage (.472) and 21st in points allowed (102.4). They were also a poor rebounding team (-0.29) and got outscored by an average of 6.8 PPG (making them 26th in point differential). So all coach Randy Wittman has to do is get his guys to move the ball around, shoot a higher percentage from the field and beyond the arc, crash the boards and bust their asses on defense. Yup. That's all. Corey Brewer has loads of potential, but he was awful last year, shooting 34.7 percent from the field and 19.4 percent from three-point range. Jefferson acts as though playing defense might prove fatal. Moreover, he's playing out of position at center, and the guys behind him on the depth chart - Calvin Booth, Mark Madsen and the injured Jason Collins - are, at best, mock-worthy. And on top of all that, the Wolves are an exceptionally young team with little in the way of veteran leadership...which probably explains why they're so awful on the road (they were tied for the second-worst road record in the league last season at 7-34).

Fun Facts: Minnesota's team name was chosen as the result of a "Name that team" contest (Minnesota is home to the largest population of Timberwolves in the lower 48 states...about 1200). Their generous contributions to Boston's 17th championship are well noted, but note also that it was Kevin McHale's acquisition of Carney, Booth, and a first round pick from the Sixers that allowed Philly to clear the cap space necessary to sign Elton Brand this summer. So, you know, McHale continues to build Eastern Conference powerhouses. Speaking of McHale, take a look at his amazing draft picks from the last 10 seasons: Rasho Nesterovic, Andrae Patterson, Wally Szczcerbiak, William Avery, Louis Bullock, Igor Rakocevic, Loren Woods, Marcus Taylor, Ndudi Ebi, Rick Rickert, Blake Stepp, Rashad McCants, Bracey Wright, Brandon Roy (traded to Portland), Craig Smith, Bobby Jones (traded to Philly), Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Corey Brewer, Chris Richard, O.J. Mayo (traded to Memphis), Nikola Pekovic and Mario Chalmers (traded to Miami). WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, KEVIN?!

Videotastic extra: Does anybody else think that the NBA was insulting our intelligence by creating one of their "Where Amazing Happens" commercials for the 22-win Timberwolves? What’s next? “NBA Stadium Restrooms: Where Amazing Happens”?

Per the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Collins was injured in what a team spokesman called a "freak" golf-cart accident. He partially ruptured his triceps tendon after his golf cart skidded and tipped over."

This investigation is just beginning. Because coming from someone who has narrowly avoided his fair-share of golf cart accidents, alcohol is always involved in "freak" golf-cart accidents. Always. Well, except for the time my 11 year-old cousin drove our cart into the lake in Michigan. That was a tough one to explain.

Wolves' new center will miss training camp after freak elbow injury [Star-Tribune]
Jason Collins out after freak golf cart accident [Sports By Brooks]

This means it is possible to pay only 43 bucks for season tickets in Minnesota next year. But you have to buy now. According to ESPN's nifty Lottery Mock Draft, the T-Wolves have a 15.6 percent chance of the top pick. Worth a shot, right?

The deal: Your season ticket pre game price is equal to whatever pick the Wolves get in the draft. They pick No. 1? $43 for 43 games, or $1 per game. Seriously. $86 for the No. 2 pick. And so on. Perhaps this underscores our insanity or our love of a great deal, but it intrigues us. It's a huge risk-reward — the cheaper the ticket, presumably, the more reason you would want to watch this team because they would be bringing in a higher-caliber pick, presumably either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley in the case of the under $100 options. They take a tumble in the lottery and end up with a stiff and you're stuck with a couple hundred bucks worth of tickets in the cheap seats to watch a still not ready for prime time squad.

What a fascinating concept: You either win big, or lose big. Forty-three bucks for season tickets to see Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose play all year? We're 1,200 miles away, and we're tempted to buy them.

Pay The Pick [Randball]

• Yee-Haw! I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Joe Johnson is the Armadillo Cowboy. Why? No reason. But please give me this, OK? Seriously. It's the only thing that keeps me going these days. I think I have the black lung, Pops. *cough* Minnesota held a one-point lead after Marko Jaric's layup with 2.2 seconds left, but the Armadillo Cowboy nailed an 18-footer at the buzzer to lift the Hawks — CAW! — to the 90-89 victory. "Two and a half seconds is a lot," Jaric said. "I'm upset right now. I was less than three seconds from hot hero sex."

• Who's Team Is This Again? A day after scoring 51 points, Iverson may have been even better, dropping 35 points and 12 dimes to lead the Nuggets past the Mavericks 122-109. A.I. made 12-of-19 shots and was 11-of-13 from the charity line. It was his first 30-10 game of the season. Kenyon Martin, who it's nice to see back raping rims again, had 18 points and seven boards.

• Fooked. The Heat are a [expletive] mess. Shaq doesn't want to "[expletive] communicate," Pat Riley isn't happy with wearing a [expletive] mic during games, and the team can't even beat the Portland [expletive] Trail Blazers. Brandon Roy, who finally found his shot again (it was in his pants leg!), scored 25 as the Blazers posted the 112-106 win.

For the love of David Stern, make Antoine Walker an NBA All-Star today. Thank you.

Make 'Toine An All-Star
You Can Make Antoine Walker an All Star Again! [Deadspin]