With each passing day, the Minnesota Timberwolves are more and more coach Rick Adelman's team. Players are buying into his system, and he commands a respect that's of a rare magnitude. He's unquestionably in charge, but this week marked the second time this season that Adelman was for the most part powerless.
The first such instance came in the days leading up to Jan. 25, the deadline for the team to offer Kevin Love an early contract extension. That deal was between Love and Timberwolves management, but even so, no matter what the outcome, Adelman's team would not have immediately changed. That's what made this week worse – he had to sit and wait, to travel from Minneapolis to Phoenix to Utah all the while unsure who would be sitting on his bench Thursday night.
That might seem like a lot for a coach to deal with, but for a veteran like Adelman, the trade deadline is a yearly ordeal. Some years it's worse than others, with more names being batted about, but the speculation and rumors are just another part of the ebb and flow of every NBA season.
"Something comes up, it's close, you look at it," Adelman said. "I wasn't sure what was going to happen. It's usually likely nothing happens."
It's as simple as that.
Even so, Adelman said he's happy the team can move on and see where the season takes it. After perhaps its toughest week in terms of morale, the Timberwolves need to move on more than anything.
And despite the frustrated tweets that appeared from players like Love and Anthony Tolliver on Thursday, Adelman said he didn't sense the team was too worried about what was to come as the clock ticked closer to 1 p.m. in Utah. Even those tweets showed more a frustration with the system, with speculation and jumping to conclusions, than a worry the team might be torn apart.
"There were just a few names out there," Adelman said. "There was some discussion about one or two. It's just rumors. People just throw names out there, and then everybody thinks it's possible."
Those names were Michael Beasley, Luke Ridnour and, a few weeks ago, Derrick Williams. No one will ever know how close to being moved any of those players actually were, but Beasley bore the brunt of the NBA gossip. All week, speculation that he'd be dealt to the Lakers swirled on the Internet.
Beasley would be part of a three-team deal. Ridnour was also a part. The Timberwolves didn't want to eat the cost of Derek Fisher's contract and bowed out. It all might be true, or none of it. Most likely, there were shades of truth to all the rumors, and Beasley, though he denies following the conjecture, has undoubtedly had a long week.
After learning that he would remain with the Timberwolves, Beasley first commented that it would have been a pain to move all his stuff. But despite that flippant remark and the denials that he follows the business side of the league, Beasley knows how to play the trade game. He's been dealt before, to Minnesota from Miami, and though he's in just his fourth year in the league, the forward knows a little something about the off-the-court game.
"One thing I've learned in my short career is it's just a business," Beasley said. "You have no say-so in where you go and where you don't. You get traded; you pick up and leave. Life goes on. Of course you don't want that, but sometimes you have no choice over it."
Life goes on. It's true. Life will go on for Fisher and for Nene, for JaVale McGee and Andrew Bogut and everyone else who was traded this week. Life elsewhere for Beasley might have meant a starting spot, and in any other year that might have been enough for him to hope for a trade. But in 2012, the Timberwolves have built something new, a cohesive group, and Beasley feels like he belongs.
"I'm happy because I love these guys," Beasley said. "These guys have become more like teammates to me. They're like brothers, like family."
With everything quiet for the Timberwolves at the deadline, Beasley will remain. He'll continue his locker room banter with Love about everything from lost socks to poker. He'll keep the hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time as a member of the Timberwolves. He'll keep his spot on the bench, at least for now.
That's what he knows, and he doesn't seem to mind it. By hanging onto Beasley and keeping their lineup intact, the Timberwolves didn't solve any problems, but they also didn't create any new ones. No matter what, they'd have moved on, but this way just seems a little easier.
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