--Even before finalizing a deal with the Wolves, Kurt Rambis reportedly was assembling a coaching staff with training camp less than two months away.
His staff could include Boston assistant general manager Dave Wohl, who coached New Jersey and was a Lakers assistant on Rambis was a player there in the 1980s. It is not known which current assistants, if any, will be retained from a group that includes Jerry Sichting, Dean Cooper, J.B. Bickerstaff and Ed Pinckney.
--Just back from his four-day Spanish trip intended to free Ricky Rubio, Wolves boss David Kahn continued to remake his team's roster on July 28 when he made his second trade in a week aimed toward clearing salary-cap space and making future deals.
Not long after he traded three players to the Los Angeles Clippers Quentin Richardson's expiring $9.3 million contract, Kahn acquired guards Chucky Atkins and Damien Wilkins from Oklahoma City for center Etan Thomas and two future second-round picks in a transaction that was mostly about obtaining Atkins' largely non-guaranteed contract.
On first glance, the trade looked as if Kahn added a 34-year-old veteran point guard to mentor rookies Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, the unsigned Spanish guard whose arrival in Minnesota is uncertain.
But only $760,000 of Atkins' $3.48 million contract is guaranteed, which means either the Wolves can save nearly $2.75 million by paying off Atkins or they have a valuable trade piece simply because of that contract.
Kahn referred to the deal and Atkins' contract as "savings we hope to realize in another way shortly."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Kurt is real good at this and he's willing." -- L.A. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson, after appointing Kurt Rambis to be the team's defensive coach last fall in a move that helped produce the franchise's 15th NBA championship.
