Sessions Will Join Minnesota After Bucks Decline to Match T’Wolves Offer

T’Wolves team president David Kahn can breathe easy - his master plan of acquiring every available point guard is back on track. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The T’Wolves seem intent on pioneering the two-point guard backcourt. Here’s Kahn’s statement about Sessions when they signed him to the offer sheet a week ago:

Welcome to the exciting world of NBA capology. NBA Fanhouse reports:

Lost in all of these moves is this question: why don’t the T’Wolves just commit to developing Jonny Flynn. He’s a very solid prospect. And if David Kahn doesn’t agree, why did he draft Flynn?

Is this crazy to anyone else? From the Baseline:

Like I said, this is crazy to other people, right? It’s not just me, right? Right?

Marc Stein tweets:

CORRECTION: Last year of R. Sessions’ new contract w/Wolves is a PLAYER option, not team option. Four-year deal worth $16.4 millionSo if Sessions plays well he can hit free agency in three years instead of four years.

Now that Ricky Rubio has spurned the T’Wolves to stay in Europe at least two more years, what will the T’Wolves do? Go after another point guard, naturally. Gery Woelfel of the Journal-Times reports:

According to some NBA officials, [Ramon] Sessions may wind up signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves are in the market for a guard after their top choice in the 2009 draft -- Ricky Rubio -- recently decided to play for Regal FC Barcelona.Let’s recap the T’Wolves’ tumultuous offseason. After drafting four points guards, they have traded two, lost one to Europe, and are now going after the best one left on the free agent market. But unless they seriously plan on playing Jonny Flynn at shooting guard, why bring in another promising young point guard in Sessions? This makes no sense. Then again, nearly all of the T’Wolves’ moves this summer have been inexplicable.

Chris Sheridan at ESPN is reporting that Ricky Rubio will probably end up playing three seasons in his homeland as opposed to the previously reported two.

According to Sheridan:

Over at AOL Fanhouse, Tom Ziller checks in with a reaction to yesterday’s statement from David Kahn, which cast doubt on the Spaniard’s ability to make the transition to the NBA this year.

His words:

Read his whole piece here, where Ziller (as always) captures the nuance in all of this.

Speaking to his hometown Niagara Gazette, the Timberwolves other lottery pick point guard expressed disappointment about missing out on the opportunity to play with a guard of Rubio’s caliber:

As the reality of the Rubio news begins to set in around the league and in Minnesota, SBN’s Timberwolves blog, Canis Hoopus, asks the operative question:

As for Rubio’s role in all of this, the Associated Press emerged from Barcelona with a report this morning:

While many in the media have found fault with Wolves GM David Kahn for his inability to see these negotiations through successfully, Sean Devaney of the Sporting News suggests that the NBA’s limit on buyouts of European contracts may be the greatest inhibitor.

Every year at the NBA Finals, David Stern heralds the dawning of an increasingly globalized basketball culture. The NBA has enjoyed an increased presence the world over, and indeed, stars like Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, and now Ricky Rubio, are the products of that expansion.

This is a rumor from last night, and with major outlets reporting that he’s signed in Spain, it seems unlikely that a deal of this magnitude could happen successfully. Still, murmurs have persisted into today, so pretend for a moment.

From the Jerry Zgoda at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Now that Rubio is officially staying in Europe for at least the next two seasons, Sporting News’ Bethlehem Shoals imagines what the team may have looked like had they passed on Rubio. He lists several candidates that Minnesota could have drafted, but two, in particular, are most intriguing in hindsight.

From Shoals:

The last few weeks have seen rampant speculation regarding his future, but now, it appears the Ricky Rubio sweepstakes have come to an end, and David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves have come up as losers. Kahn had spent recent weeks traveling to Spain in hopes of negotiating a buyout with Rubio’s former team, DK Jovenut, but according to Yahoo! Sports, the Spanish club agreed to terms with another Spanish team, instead.

From Adrian Wojnarowski and Yahoo!: