Notebook: Rubio looking forward to playing with new teammates
MINNEAPOLIS -- Meet Ricky Rubio, the insomniac.
After Spain's quarterfinal loss in the FIBA World Cup, the Timberwolves point guard couldn't sleep for two days. He's still hurting emotionally after a blown chance at upsetting the United States on the Spaniards' home soil.
But Rubio didn't let the angst derail him for long. About 90 minutes after he landed back in the U.S. earlier this month, president and coach Flip Saunders said, the fourth-year pro was already lifting weights.
"Since he's been here, he's been in the gym every day," Saunders said Monday at the team's annual media day. "He's come back at night and worked with different people, (shooting coach) Mike Penberthy, (assistant) Ryan (Saunders).
"That shows a commitment, a guy who worked all summer and put in a lot of time and effort. He gets here, he landed and an hour and a half later he's down here in the gym lifting weights. I do believe he has that commitment."
That trendy 'C'-word is cause for discussion when it comes to Rubio lately. His agent Dan Fegan and Saunders are still negotiating the terms of his rookie contract extension, and if they don't reach a deal in the next month, he'll become a restricted free agent at the end of the season.
Fegan's job is to garner the heftiest contract for his client; in this case, a five-year, max deal. But the Wolves are reportedly offering somewhere in the neighborhood of $11 million annually for a four-year accord.
The topic slunk around in the shadows as the blockbuster Kevin Love trade took shape. Then it hovered over Rubio's play in Spain -- the second World Cup he attended this summer after checking out the more acclaimed soccer version in Brazil.
Rubio wasn't willing to discuss the negotiations Monday but did reiterate his loyalty to the team that drafted him fifth overall in 2009. "My agent's dealing with that," he said. "I like it here. So we'll see what happens."
Saunders said he's not overly concerned, either.
"We have two people in our league: people with contracts and people without," Saunders said. "He has a contract right now."
Rubio likes the club's direction, too -- even though it's "strange" to show up for camp and not see his friend Love around anymore.
But playing alongside athletic youngsters Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine and veteran trade get Thaddeus Young ought to offer the passing wizard some prime alley-oop opportunities, he pointed out with a grin.
"I like to run, and I like to throw the ball up in the air," Rubio said. "They can jump high. So I'm gonna throw the ball over the backboard and see if they can catch it."
Backup cluster: While Rubio is the surest starting lock on the team, the situation behind him isn't nearly as stable.
After a calendar year full of trade speculation, J.J. Barea is still with the Timberwolves. Mo Williams, signed as an unrestricted free agent, is here, too, and expected to serve as the true Rubio backup Minnesota has yet to deploy.
It means Barea's either in a lame-duck session while Saunders seeks to move him -- or pay him the $4.5 million he's owed for this season and cut him -- or a role switch in which he plays more of a combo guard part.
"I see the players and know this team could use me," Barea said. "I could help them a lot."
But someone's got to go. Of the 18 players heading to Mankato for training camp, 16 including Barea have guaranteed money coming their direction. Teams have until Oct. 27 to set their 15-man rosters for opening day.
Williams, for his part, said he's thrilled to spend his 12th NBA season with a team eyeing resurgence.
"It's a new beginning for me," said Williams, who signed a one-year, $3.8 million deal after stints with the Jazz, Bucks, Cavaliers, Clippers and Blazers.
Center focus: Starting center Nikola Pekovic says he's fully healthy after spending the better part of summer rehabbing the injured Achilles tendon that caused him all kinds of trouble last season.
Missing at least 17 games for the fourth year in a row, Pekovic dealt with a sore ankle and other nagging injuries that kept him out of 28 contests in 2013-14. He was in a walking boot for a few weeks this summer and couldn't run until August, he said, instead maintaining his conditioning via swimming and elliptical workouts in his home country of Montenegro.
He's trying out different shoes and orthotics this year, too -- anything to help mitigate his chances of sitting out for significant stretches.
"Last season, I think, was the most frustrating for me," said Pekovic, who signed a five-year, $60 million extension last summer.
But he's 100 percent now, he said. And backup Gorgui Dieng's full year of NBA experience could help him stay that way.
Dieng earned second team all-rookie honors last year after a scintillating close to the season. Year 2, he said, is about stretching that success across an 82-game slate.
"That's what I want to do," said Dieng, who averaged 12 points and 11.3 boards in his final 18 games last season. "I can't say a lot about it, but one thing I can tell you is I will be ready."
Said Pekovic: "I welcome that. . . . The better he does, it's less pressure on me."
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