Minnesota Timberwolves Signed a Player Because He Was 'Within a Train Ride Away'

Like dual fighter jets grappling below the radar horizon, the Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks remain locked in a low-altitude dogfight at the bottom of the NBA sub-basement.

The struggle came to a head Thursday when the 14-53 franchises met at Madison Square Garden with a lead in the tanking battle hanging in the balance.

Only one squad could lose, and the Timberwolves front office—veteran tank commanders that they are—made use of a loophole in the system that would keep them street-legal while their starters convalesce.

This brings us to D-League guard Sean Kilpatrick, a former Cincinnati Bearcats player who was playing for the Delaware 87ers as of Thursday morning. According to ProBasketballTalk's Sean Highkin, the injury-ridden Timberwolves brought Kilpatrick in at the last minute Thursday night as part of a "hardship exception" allowing them to sign a 16th player to their roster. 

With eight players listed in their injury report, the Timberwolves signed Kilpatrick to a 10-day contract. Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said it was a shrewd, last-minute decision based on their prior knowledge of Kilpatrick and the fact that his physical body happened to be the closest one to New York City.

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"We had to fulfill our rules, so we had to go find somebody that was within a train ride away," Saunders told reporters.

Opting to drive, Kilpatrick made the three-hour trip to Madison Square Garden by car, arriving 45 minutes before tipoff. He said the call-up is a blessing.

"I was just getting ready. We had practice today to get to play one of the other D-League teams," Kilpatrick told the media. "I didn't think I was going to end up here. It's kind of a blessing."

Saunders said the team signed Kilpatrick due to familiarity and distance.

"We had him in before so we worked him out, so we knew about him and we've been following him, but there's no question that geography helped," Saunders said. "We had to have a guy here ready to play at 7:30."

Kilpatrick would play 10 minutes for Minnesota, shooting and missing his lone field-goal attempt of the night and notching a rebound and one turnover. Despite perhaps their best efforts, the Timberwolves won 95-92 in overtime, ceding the Knicks the low ground in the tanking race.

While I would've appreciated Saunders' stopping by Rucker Park and telling the guy closest to the curb to "get in," I suppose signing a known (to them) quantity from the professional circuit is a sound(ish) decision.

Get well, Minnesota. You're two injuries from going into NBA default.

Dan is on Twitter. Low man always wins. Except in the NBA draft, in which case Cleveland wins.