--Al Jefferson isn't the only Timberwolf who has lost weight. Kevin Love says he weighs 20 less pounds than he did this time last season, his rookie year that he remembers more for what it didn't deliver rather than what it did. Love led all NBA rookies and set a franchise rookie record with 29 double-double games in points and rebounds. But six months later, he still bristles when he is reminded he was excluded from All-Star Weekend's rookie-sophomore game and left off the league's postseason all-rookie first team. He attributes that partly to playing time. He averaged 25.2 minutes while playing 81 of 82 games.
"That's not too much," he said. "I think, a lot like last year, my success depends on the minutes I play," he said. "If I play five or 10 more minutes a game, I could end up averaging a double-double. There's not too many people in the league who can do that. Al's one of them."
--Hope springs eternal with the arrival of another NBA season.
Turns out, praise flows unfettered, too.
Timberwolves rookie point guard Jonny Flynn hasn't played a preseason game yet, let alone a regular season game. But already teammate Al Jefferson is smitten.
"Oh, man, I'm just going to say that kid's special," Jefferson said when asked about Flynn at the team's traditional media day Monday. "I don't want to hype him up right now, but I'm so happy that I got a chance to play with him. Just playing 5-on-5 with him these past two weeks, that kid's special. The way he sees the floor. I think he's got a chance to be just as good as Chris Paul.
"That's just my opinion. I know that's saying a lot. But I really believe that."
Chris Paul? The Hornets guard who was the NBA's Rookie of the Year in 2006 and the MVP runner-up to Kobe Bryant in 2008?
Oh, is that all?
"That means a lot coming from a guy like that," Flynn said when told about Jefferson's comments. "Chris Paul is a great player. Just to be compared to him before you play a game is kind of crazy. I'm not even going to comment on that. Hopefully, I can just be as valuable to this team as he is to the Hornets."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "What happened to the First Amendment law?" -- Wolves forward Kevin Love, a once prolific tweeter who hasn't posted on his Twitter account since Aug. 14 partly because he said he tired of front-office guys Fred Hoiberg and Jim Stack calling and telling him he shouldn't have posted this or that.
