David Kahn denies Jefferson trade rumors

Ward Rubrecht

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Earlier today, we discussed a rumor, first reported on Yahoo! Sports, claiming that Timberwolves' GM David Kahn had offered the Indiana Pacers' Al Jefferson in exchange for forward Danny Granger. Well, says Kahn, as reported by ESPN's Marc Stein, it just ain't so:

"I spoke to [Pacers president] Larry Bird in person Friday in between our shootarounds for 20 minutes," says Kahn, "and neither player's name was ever mentioned." Moreover, as he has said in the past, he has "no intention of trading any of our core players this season."

So there you go then. As we indicated before, there was a certain whiff of fishiness about the story in the first place. First of all, there's been no evidence of the jealousy issues between Jefferson and Love reported in the Yahoo! story. And for another thing: why would Kahn explicitly offer Jefferson, his own team's only legit inside scoring threat, in exchange for Granger? Wouldn't he instead inquire as to whether Granger were available and then wait for Indiana to name a price?

Personally, I'm happy to hear this little rumor squashed. While it is indeed unclear (to the Wolves and everybody else) whether Big Al and Kevin Love can develop good on-court chemistry, it's seemed to me that Jefferson is making strides in adapting his game to Kurt Rambis's offense. As far as I can tell, its too early to tell whether this will work; and if there's a chance that it will, I think its worth a shot.