National Basketball Association

Wolves let deadline pass without another trade

Published Feb. 25, 2011 12:56 a.m. ET

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The Minnesota Timberwolves let the NBA's trade deadline pass without any more moves, leaving the team with the second-fewest wins in the league 24 more games to work on player development and confidence building.

The Wolves acquired the 6-foot-11 Anthony Randolph earlier this week from New York in the big Carmelo Anthony deal that sent Corey Brewer to the Knicks and Kosta Koufos to the Denver Nuggets, but that's it until the summer.

Struggling second-year point guard Jonny Flynn saw his name spin around the rumor mill, but he stayed put on deadline day. Coach Kurt Rambis said Flynn had ''a really good practice'' Thursday but declined to elaborate on a plan to work Flynn back into the rotation.

''We'll just see how it goes,'' Rambis said.

Rambis didn't sound overly enthusiastic after the Randolph trade, acknowledging the addition of another young player was not his preference. Asked Thursday how much this team misses having veteran voices in the locker room and on the floor, Rambis said simply, ''a lot.''

Several prominent players were traded around the NBA this week, including Kendrick Perkins, Gerald Wallace and Shane Battier on Thursday. All-Star Kevin Love said he wishes his team could've got ''a couple of those guys.'' Love said he's looking forward to seeing what the 21-year-old Randolph can do down the stretch, though.

On the heels of another lethargic loss at home, 104-95 to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, Love questioned his team's effort.

''We need to play hard. I'm going out there every night playing extremely hard. I know that,'' Love said. ''But it doesn't take one person. It takes everybody, and we need to go out there and try to get the job done by any means possible.''

Rambis said he thought the whole team had a ''great, great practice,'' but there are a lot more questions than answers regarding the Wolves and their inability to transfer that to a game.

''We're very good when no one is looking. We need to be very good when everyone's watching,'' Love said. ''We just need to have tunnel vision and not worry about the crowd, not worry about what the other team does defensively, just take what the defense gives us and then obviously we need to step up on the defensive end as well. We need to be a little tougher and lay people out. That goes from me all the way down to the last player on the bench.''

With the trade of Brewer, Love is now the longest-tenured player on the team at the ripe old age of 22.

''Crazy. I never thought it would be like this,'' said Love, who was drafted in 2008.

Still, the NBA's rebounding leader said he believes the Wolves ''can only get better from here.'' Rambis maintained his mostly positive attitude, too.

''It's very difficult to be consistent in this league,'' he said. ''Inconsistency is what you get with young players and young teams, so it's a process and we'll continue to work through it.''