by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
David Kahn and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ quest to trim the team’s payroll goes on uninterrupted.
The latest move involves trading away three assets to Cleveland in return for two they will almost surely get rid of as soon as possible.
The Star Tribune has details of the swap:
They have traded point guard Ramon Sessions and forward/center Ryan Hollins — two players David Kahn signed last summer to multi-year deals — as well as a 2013 second-round pick to Cleveland for two players who likely will never wear a Wolves jersey.They receive in return guard Delone West and former Wolves guard Sebastian Telfair.
Expect West to be waived by an Aug. 5 deadline so they can pay him only $500,000 of a mostly non-guaranteed $4.6 million salary. Telfair probably will be either bought out of the final year ($2.7 million) of a three-year deal Kevin McHale originally signed him to three years ago or traded away before training camp, if the Wolves can find a team willing to take him.
The deal further pares the Wolves’ payroll. Expect them to sign a veteran point guard to a one-year minimum contract as their next move. Available players who fit that profile: Earl Watson, Anthony Johnson, Rafer Alston, Earl Boykins and maybe Chris Quinn or Jamaal Tinsley.
Sessions will fill the role of backup point guard to Mo Williams, something Cleveland had been looking to shore up. The good news for Minny is that they get to save themselves quite a bit of cash, and will have some financially flexibility going forward. What they ultimately decide to do with that, of course, is anyone’s guess.
It’s not all good news, however. According to Yahoo!, point guard Johnny Flynn will miss at least three months because he needs hip surgery. Yikes. The team is expected to release a statement regarding this report sometime today.
