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With the draft in a week its time to examine what the new boss (David Kahn) might be thinking as he approaches what will be an important evening for him and his new team.

The rumors say the wolves like Thabeet, Curry, Evans and Rubio. I think those are all useful picks in this draft. However it will be tough to land Rubio unless he magically falls to 6. We'd have to trade up to get him.

The tricky part of that equation is the Wolves and Griz (with this year's #2 pick) made a trade last year at the draft (Love, Miller etc for Mayo and garbage). The wolves can't re-trade guys they received from Memphis last year so it will be very complicated. Most likely needing a third team. The ace in the hole for Kahn and the wolves is that they possess over 20 million in expiring contracts plus three first round draft picks this year (6, 18, and 28).

Updated: Kahn has already been making moves. The report is that the Wolves and Wizards have agreed on a deal that will send Randy Foye and Mike Miller to Washington for the #5 pick and 3 other players (Etan Thomas, Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov). It might not look like a good trade for the wolves but Thomas and Songaila are basically a wash contract wise compared to Foye and Miller.  Note that I had this trade CLOSE to figured out below. I also cite why the trade might not happen with how Thomas's contract is set up. Allegedly he'll be compensated by agreeing to the trade with an extra million bucks. The trade should be official on Wednesday. Back to the other trade scenarios available...

Clips take Griffin #1, then Memphis, Clips and Wolves do a 3 way trade. We get #2 (Rubio) and Kaman, Memphis gets #6, Craig Smith and M. Colins (from Clips), Clips get out from under one of their 3 big men and get playing time for Griffin, plus Cardinal's expiring contract, Marko's Jaric and one of our later first round picks. Financially the deal works fine (contracts match, however the draft picks are hard to define a value on). The key would be getting the Clippers to take on Marko's bad contract.

Another option would be for the wolves, griz and kings to do a similar deal with the wolves taking Darko and #2 from Memphis, Memphis getting #4 and Kenny Thomas's contract, and the Kings taking Brian Cardinal's expiring contract and #6.

Original post: A newly developed option might be for the wolves to extend an olive branch to Washington (and our old buddy and their new coach Flip Saunders) and see if they'd be open to the idea of taking Mike Miller (and his 9 million dollar expiring contract) for say Etan Thomas and the #5 pick. Washington is shopping the pick and they want a veteran who is ready to play. Miller is a very solid player and could flip flop between SG/SF for them and also comes off the books at the end of the year. The wolves could turn #5 and 6 into Evans and Curry and suddenly have a young explosive back court.  The catch here is Etan Thomas has an early termination option on his contract. He could choose to become a free agent (and give up 7 million dollars in a tough economy-good luck) or exercise it...but the deadline is July 1st so until he makes a decison this scenario isn't available. Thomas makes the most sense for the wolves because it protects their cap space for 2010 and gives them a center to help Big Al. An alternative to this attractive trade would be the wolves offering up Brian Cardinal's 6 mil expiring contrat for center JaVale McGee and DeShawn Stevenson (both with team options in the next year of their contracts) and #5.

Updated: Wolves now have the 5th pick to barter with as well. Kahn (wisely) has refuted reports of the wolves offering the 5th and 6th pick to move up to #2 or 3. That is asking too much in my opinion. Offers of one of those picks along with #18 or 28 and an expiring deal (brian cardinal, mark madsen, Etan Thomas (when the first trade is completed)should be enough to move up 3 spots in the draft. I think moving to #3 is the most likely option given the restrictions Minnesota and Memphis face in trying to complete a trade.

The wolves could also try for a grand slam trade. This works financially (again the astericks is the unknown value of the draft picks).  But the Wolves, Wizards and Griz could make a trade. Combining the trade options I've outlined above it'd play out like this...

Wizards: Mike Miller (and perhaps one of our later first round picks 18 or 28)

Memphis: JaVale McGee, Brendan Haywood and the #6 pick.

Wolves: Darko Milicic (from Memphis), Dominic McGuire (from Washington) #2 pick and #5 pick.

The wolves could walk away with Rubio and Tyreke Evans!!!!!

Those are the likeliest scenarios for the wolves to trade up (that I can see). Otherwise the wolves will have to wait and see who falls to them at number 5 and 6.

The current projections have the draft playing out like this....

Clippers take Blake Griffin no surprise there

Memphis is a wild card and could do a number of different things. They could pull off a trade, or despite the signals from Rubio that he doesn't want to play there they could draft him. Or they could use Thabeet's length. While the Griz have Conley as their current point guard they also have the luxury of drafting Rubio and letting him compete with Conley for the job. If Rubio is as good as "the experts" keep claiming, they could capitalize on Conley's team option for 2010/11 (at almost 5 mil) and let Conley go (or trade him) opening up the position to Rubio.  

OKC could take Rubio if he is there but that would mean that 8 players on the roster are to compete for the PG/SG position (Watson, Durant, Westbrook, Atkins, Wilkins Sefolosha, and Weaver currently). I think they'd look long and hard at Jordan Hill. A solid PF with enough length and athleticism to solidify their rebounding and provide some much needed back up for Collison and Krstic. If Rubio is Memphis's pick expect OKC to take Thabeet.

Kings also need some strength and depth in the middle. After trading away Brad Miller last year they were left with Spencer Hawes as their sole big man. Jordan Hill/Thabeet could be options here as well if Rubio is off the board.  

Updated: Wolves are now in possession of the 5th overall pick. They could sit quietly and wait to pick any number of players that could fall to them here. My suspicion is that the wolve are not done trading. Given the difficulties that both the Griz and Thunder have had trying to work with Rubio and Thabeet they have to be open to trades. Especially when they can pick up an expiring deal and move down 3 or 4 spots in the draft. If either team were to pull the trigger on a deal moving back they'd only have 2 teams between them. Why wouldn't this make sense to either team?

My draft board ranks the available players the wolves to be interested in as

Rubio

Evans

Harden

Curry

Thabeet 

I lean towards Evans, Curry and Thabeet if Rubio is not available. I can't believe James harden hasn't been brought up before this point but he is an option as well. I think being able to move up from 6 to #2 or 3 for Rubio/Thabeet would be a massive swing for the wolves. If a trade were to go down like the ones I mentioned above the wolves could have a very busy draft week. The job isn't done yet but so far Kahn's moves have caught my attention and I"m sure the wolves hope the rest of the fan base as well. 

Comments? Feedback? Any trades I've missed? I'll be back closer to the draft to add more trade scenarios!