The Minnesota Timberwolves were rumored to be entertaining a trade of Ricky Rubio ahead of the deadline. The Wolves decided to keep Rubio but it's unclear how he fits with the team in the long-term as they build around Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

Rubio signed a four-year, $55 million extension before the 14-15 season with the Wolves.

"When you are signed to a contract, you can not control (the situation)," said Rubio. "Before the All-Star break, they spoke the possibility of trading me because teams want to change things if they're not doing well. Now I feel comfortable and I think they won't trade me anywhere."

The Wolves could be one season away from contending for a playoff spot.

"We have a great future. We're a young team that has high expectations. But there have been young teams in this organization that have not made it. We have the pieces to be in the playoffs."

Glen Taylor isn't sure yet about the future of Sam Mitchell and Milt Newton with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Mitchell and Newton have helped the Wolves' transition this year following the passing of Flip Saunders.

“I like my coach [Sam Mitchell], I like my general manager [Milt Newton], they’re really nice people,” Taylor said. “We’re working together. What I told them is in this business of basketball, we’re going to do the whole season first and then at the end of the season we’ll do the evaluation.”

Taylor purchased the majority ownership of the Wolves for $95 million in 1995 and he believes the current state of the team is similar to then.

“I just think when we first bought it, we had a franchise that was pretty down and hadn’t done very well,” recalled Taylor, who also owns the Star Tribune. “We put a plan to get some young guys in here. That’s when we went out and took a gamble on KG [Kevin Garnett] and [Stephon]Marbury and our goal was to build for the long run and get a better team. We did that. It took us a while to get a championship team.

“In one sense we’re sort of like that again. We have a lot of young guys and we have to be patient, and I’m hopeful we’ll have a chance for the championship again, just like we did during those earlier years. So I’d say we’re similar.”

The Minnesota Timberwolves will sign Greg Smith for the remainder of the season.

Smith is coming off the second of two 10-day contracts.

Smith gives the Wolves depth in the frontcourt.

Smith was previously on the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks in the NBA.

There is uncertainty surrounding the potential acquisition of the Minnesota Timberwolves by a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Steve Kaplan, who is a California venture capitalist that had planned to sell his Grizzlies stake to buy 30 percent of the Wolves with a path to eventually take over as controlling owner. But a dispute between Kaplan and Grizzlies owner Robert Pera over shares in the team led to a behind-the-scenes battle that took months to resolve.

It was recently settled after Kaplan threatened to initiate an arbitration procedure.

The resulting delay has put Kaplan's deal with Wolves owner Glen Taylor in jeopardy. Kaplan and an investor went to Minneapolis earlier this month to meet with Taylor to help salvage the process.

Pera has been distant from Memphis over the last year, and has excluded minority owners from any meaningful participation in team decision-making, which is his right as controlling owner. 

Kaplan has been asking for close to $100 million for his 14 percent share -- pegging the team's value at roughly $700 million.

The situation could drag on until October of 2017 as Kaplan and Pera have a deal in which he has the option to make a bid for controlling interest in the team at a price of their choosing. At that point Pera would have two options: buy out Kaplan and Straus at that named price, or sell his shares to them based on the same valuation. 

The so-called "buy-sell" clause is merely an option, and it is unclear if Kaplan or Daniel Straus would ever actually trigger it.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have signed Greg Smith to a second 10-day contract.

Originally signed to a 10-day contract on March 2, Smith has averaged 2.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per game over six contests with Minnesota.

Myles Turner and Karl-Anthony Towns have been named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month, respectively, for games played in February.

Turner, who earned Rookie of the Month honors for the first time, ranked third among East first-year players in scoring (13.4 ppg), rebounding (6.6 rpg) and minutes (29.8 mpg). He also shot 51.0 percent from the field, the second-best mark for East rookies. Turner recorded his first two career double-doubles during the month and produced a run of nine straight double-digit scoring games. On Feb. 19, Turner scored 16 points and blocked a career-high six shots in a 101-98 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, part of a 4-1 stretch for the Pacers.

Towns, the Western Conference winner for the fourth month in a row, led all rookies in scoring (21.1 ppg), rebounding (11.8 rpg) and minutes (34.6 mpg), and ranked third in field goal percentage (53.7) and blocked shots (1.64 bpg). He posted double-doubles in nine of 11 games, including a 30-point, 15-rebound performance in a 112-110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 27. Towns scored a career-high 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in a 117-112 victory against the Toronto Raptors on Feb. 10, and he matched his career high with 17 rebounds to go with 26 points in a 112-105 win over the Chicago Bulls on Feb. 6.

Kevin Martin has agreed upon a contract buyout agreement with the Minnesota Timberwolves before the deadline to make him playoff-eligible.

Martin will be pursued by multiple teams with the San Antonio Spurs already considered a strong contender.

The Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets will also pursue Martin.

Martin and his agent had to negotiate a complicated settlement of the player option on Martin's contract that was scheduled to pay him $7.4 million next season.

Martin averaged 20 points per game as recently as last season.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will sign Greg Smith to a 10-day contract.

Smith has been playing for Raptors 905 and has averaged 17.4 points and 11.8 rebounds on 46 percent shooting from the floor over his past five games.

Smith has previously been in the NBA with the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.