McHale says Minnesota is not shopping around Garnett

MINNEAPOLIS -- As far as Minnesota Timberwolves basketball boss Kevin McHale is concerned, any trade talk involving Kevin Garnett so far has been just that -- talk.

"Who knows what's going to happen?" McHale said Wednesday after the Wolves worked out college stars Jeff Green and Al Horford in preparation for next week's draft. "But we're not out there actively shopping Kevin Garnett around the NBA. I can tell you that much."

McHale was pressed on the topic a day after Danny Ainge told The Boston Herald that he has talked to McHale about Garnett.

But McHale dismissed that news as the typical chatter that happens between team executives in the days leading up to the NBA Draft.

"At this time of year, all the teams are talking to each other," McHale said. "Everybody phones each other saying, 'Hey what are you looking at? What are you doing?'

"We talk about a lot of different stuff and, unfortunately, some of that stuff seems to creep out or get speculated or, the best thing I like, things you haven't even discussed are out there."

Garnett can opt out of his contract after next season, meaning the Timberwolves run the risk of losing him without compensation if they don't trade him before then and he tires of not playing on a competitive team. That has ramped up speculation that he could be on the move, and the possible destinations -- many of them completely baseless and unsourced -- are popping up all over the place as they always do this time of year.

One thing that appears to be different this offseason is McHale's acknowledgment of conversations involving his star player. Where in the past, he has completely dismissed questions of Garnett's availability -- including after last season when he said emphatically, "We're not going to trade Kevin Garnett" -- McHale is now qualifying those remarks.

But he said Friday that he has always listened to proposals from other teams.

"What, do you think I hung up on them when they called?" McHale quipped in his typical tone. "Nothing has changed. You always listen. You listen, and it doesn't go very far and it hasn't gone very far now."