The Wolves came back from a week's All-Star break and practiced tonight with Kevin Martin back on the floor but with Kevin Garnett and Nikola Pekovic still sidelined and with Nemanja Bjelica out after he hurt his foot working out while he spent the break in California.
The team is calling Bjelica's injury a sore right foot.
Sam Mitchell said Martin will be available to play Friday at Memphis if he comes through Thursday's practice fine,
The question is: Will Martin still be on the team then?
The NBA's annual trade deadline is Thursday at 2 pm Central time.
The Wolves are trying to deal Martin by then so they don't run the risk that he'll opt in this summer for a $7.4 million salary for next season. They also could trade Adreian Payne by then, depending perhaps on the extent of Bjelica's injury.
The best the Wolves probably could do in a Martin deal? Convince Sacramento they need a veteran shooter to reach the playoffs and get young shooting guard Ben McLemore for him -- the Wolves would even include Andre Miller (a George Karl favorite) I'm sure -- in return.
The least? A swap for a player who's contract is expiring just so the Wolves can be sure they won't have Martin's money on their books when they go free-agent shopping this summer.
Zach LaVine, Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins all were back Wednesday after lugging home all the hardware they won at last weekend's All-Star festivities.
LaVine brought home his Rising Stars Challenge MVP trophy and the more impressively sized trophy he received for winning Saturday's slam-dunk contest.
"Actually, I was stuck in the airport for three hours, holding the trophy," he said. "I probably took a picture with everybody in Toronto."
Towns took his home to New Jersey for a couple days. He said his dad, Karl Sr., set the Skills Challenge trophy on a long dinner table the family never eats at and had dinner with it.
"He sat down with the trophy and ate with it," Towns said. "It was like his date. He was so proud. That was my first one. I know my dad was really proud."
LaVine was asked after practice if his duel with Orlando's Aaron Gordon was the best dunk contest ever.
"I feel like it was, man," he said. "I don't want to take away from the greats that went before. I feel like we went out the reand did things never thought of or done before."
