Rumors are going to start swirling fast and furious, and he heard his name right in the middle of one of them over the weekend. His reaction? Just a chuckle and a shrug.
"I laugh at rumors," Jefferson said after shootaround Monday in Denver, a few hours before the Timberwolves were set to play the Nuggets. "That's why they're rumors."
Jefferson was responding to a report by Yahoo! that cited anonymous sources in saying Timberwolves president David Kahn offered Jefferson to Indiana in exchange for Danny Granger. Given that Jefferson was billed as the centerpiece of the seven-for-one trade that sent longtime Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett to Boston three years ago, the report raised eyebrows around the Twin Cities.
The Associated Press left a message with Kahn seeking comment. He has said previously this year that he did not envision a scenario where he would trade any of his core players this season. Kahn and Rambis want a full season to evaluate who fits into the new, more uptempo, scheme that has elements of Phil Jackson's triangle offense.
Jefferson said he and his agent met with Kahn last week and were assured that he was staying put. Jefferson is averaging 17.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and is still working his way back from a torn ACL suffered last February.
"He talked to us and let us know that nothing like that was going on," Jefferson said. "When you see stuff like that coming on TV and coming up out of the woodworks, that's why it's in one ear and out there other one.
"I've been in this league long enough to know, this time of the year, every year, you're going to hear rumors about trades and stuff before the trade deadline. That's why it didn't bother me. Actually, me and my teammates, they all are making jokes about it."
In his two and a half seasons with the Timberwolves, the 25-year-old Jefferson has emerged as one of the best low-post scorers in the game. He has 71 games with more than 20 points and 10 rebounds in a game since 2007, the third-highest total in the league behind Orlando's Dwight Howard (91) and San Antonio's Tim Duncan (73) in that span, even though he missed nearly three months at the end of last season with the knee injury.
Jefferson was averaging more than 23 points and 11 rebounds before the injury last season, and he is still working his way back into shape following the long layoff.
Kahn took over for Kevin McHale as the team's architect last summer and has made huge changes to the organization since then in an effort to restore some legitimacy to a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2004. He has said in the past that he views Jefferson as a good second-option on an elite team, not a No. 1 player.
The question remains whether the 6-10 Jefferson and the 6-10 Kevin Love can play together in the same frontcourt. Jefferson currently plays out of position at center for the smaller Timberwolves. While both players are putting up big numbers on offense, they have had trouble matching up on the defense against taller opponents.
"When you look at the elite teams in the league, the length, the height, the size, [Jefferson and Love] are both power forwards," Rambis said last week. "Do they do their jobs very well? Yes. Do they need to do it much better, particularly on the defensive end to compete with those guys? Certainly."
Chemistry certainly is not an issue. The 25-year-old Jefferson has tried to take on a mentoring role with the 21-year-old Love, who is in his second season out of UCLA, and the two get along very well.
"Kevin is like a son to me in this league," Jefferson said.
Love said he's braced himself to hear similar rumors involving the Timberwolves in the coming months, especially leading up to the Feb. 18 trade deadline.
"I heard I was getting traded in the summer. I heard everybody was getting traded in the summer," Love said. "We'll see what happens before the trade deadline. I don't think Al's going anywhere. I don't think I'm going anywhere."
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