The Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to pay $44.3 million of a $100 million renovation of Target Center. The City of Minneapolis will pay $50 million, while AEG is still negotiating the remaining $5.7 million.

The Wolves hope a deal will be approved next month formally by the City Council.

The Wolves are the primary tenant of Target Center.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to hire Milt Newton as general manager.

Newton was a longtime member of the Washington Wizards' front office and long thought of as quality GM candidate.

Newton will report to Flip Saunders.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are close to bringing Bobby Jackson as a player development coach to replace David Adelman.

Jackson played for the Minnesota Gophers collegiately and also played for Rick Adelman with both the Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets.

Jackson was an assistant coach for the Kings over the past two seasons.

David Adelman was promoted to a full-time assistant following the departure of Bill Bayno to the Toronto Raptors.

Flip Saunders expects Ricky Rubio to become more efficient as a scorer.

"In order for him to get to the next level, that's what he's going to have to improve on," Saunders said. "And he will improve on it. He will really work at it."

Rubio shot just 36 percent from the floor last season, including 29.3 percent on three-pointers.

"He's kind of in between a set shot and a jump shot a lot of times," Saunders said. "That happens a lot when you're younger and coming up."

Adding a jumper could open up a lot of things for Rubio.

"That's his next step in the evolution of the point guard position," Saunders said. "Being a bigger scoring threat, being able to knock down shots, which will make the game much easier for him."

Ricky Rubio played in 57 games last season coming back from a torn ACL.

Rubio will participate in EuroBasket for Spain.

"Ricky has been training hard," said Flip Saunders. "He hasn’t been locked away, not answering phone calls and hiding from everyone like Pek (Nikola Pekovic). He’s doing more cross-training, going on 25-mile bike rides into the mountains around Barcelona and getting out kayaking on the ocean."

Flip Saunders credits his year working in the media realm for helping him transition from a head coach to president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"People talk about the importance of the agents and how they can dictate things; I believe my year with ESPN helped me tremendously in dealing with media and even agents," said Saunders. "You understand these people have an agenda and you have to respect what their agenda is. It might not be the same as yours, and you might not like what they’re doing, but it’s not out of spite to you. It’s because they have a job to do. You have to respect that. I understand that more now, and I don’t take it maybe as seriously, to be honest, as I would have in the past."

Flip Saunders made clear the signing of Nikola Pekovic will not prevent the Minnesota Timberwolves from extending Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio.

"This signing of Pek will in no way hinder anything having to do with Rick down the road or with Kevin," Saunders said. "We've got three cornerstones in the franchise that all complement each other, which is very important."

Saunders discussed the Pekovic deal with Love, who himself was not offered a maximum-length extension before last season.

"More than anything else, Kevin wants to win," Saunders said, "and as we talked about Pek, (Love said) you have to do what you have to do. As Kevin knows, I think he really understands and believes that I haven't been here for things that have been done in the past, and I don't care."

Nikola Pekovic and the Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed upon a five-year, $60 million deal.

Pekovic will also have up to $8 million in additional incentive-related bonuses.

Pekovic has been a restricted free agent, giving the Wolves the opportunity to match any offer sheet he were to sign with another team.

Pekovic has had a PER over 20.0 in each of the past two seasons.

Flip Saunders has continued to state his confidence in the Minnesota Timberwolves' ability to re-sign Nikola Pekovic -- now positive a deal should be done before training camp.

“We’re moving in a positive direction,” Saunders said. “I still believe he wants to be here. I believe we are the best situation for him. He has had some success here. Success is not guaranteed in this league.

"I’m confident we’ll have a meeting of the minds.”

Pekovic will not play for his home country of Montenegro in next month’s European championship because of the risk of injury until he signs an NBA contract that is expected to guarantee him $48 million or more with the Timberwolves.

Milt Newton formally interviewed for the general manager position with the Minnesota Timberwolves this week.

Newton has been in the front office of the Washington Wizards for nearly a decade.

Flip Saunders worked with Newton when he was head coach of the Wizards.