NBA Rumors: Timberwolves Right to Stay with Young Nucleus

Fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves can breathe easy, as it seems as though their core group of talent will be kept together. Anything that deviates from keeping that group together would be foolish.

Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press quoted team President David Kahn, talking about communicating with other NBA executives, dismissing the possibility that it means anything. 

"

It's nothing out of the ordinary. We're a month out (from the trade deadline), and now teams are starting to feel each other out. But typically our league is a deadline-driven league, and I don't expect any team probably to do anything significant until March.

"

Earlier in the article, Kahn was quoted saying the following:

"

The likelihood of us doing something dramatic is minuscule...That doesn't mean that maybe we do something minor. But the last thing I want to do is send a message to our players that they should be looking over their shoulders right now.

"

For the first time since the departure of Kevin Garnett, the Timberwolves have reason to believe. Doing anything to break up the nucleus of talent that has been assembled in Minnesota would be foolish. 

The Timberwolves have two players on the current roster over the age of 30. Brad Miller barely plays, and Luke Ridinour splits time with two other point guards. Those are both completely expendable players. 

Looking at the rest of their team you see guys like Kevin Love, who is 23 and Ricky Rubio, 21. Michael Beasley has had some issues since joining the NBA, but he is only 23 and still averages more than 13 points a night in just over 27 minutes. The talent is in place for this franchise to be strong for several years with a deep roster, not unlike Oklahoma City. 

The superstar is there in Love and he's a big man, which makes things even better. Rubio is a solid point guard that seems to love passing the ball and other players are there to be good role players. 

The Timberwolves have reason to be encouraged with this team and absolutely nothing major should happen to break that up. This is a team that's headed in the right direction. The fact that the team is acknowledging that by keeping it together gives the fanbase has no choice but to be excited. 

There is no fathomable reason to break this group up. They are already doing better than expected and will be a real force in the Western Conference by next season.

Photo courtesy of tchuddle.com.

Follow @mdixon1985