"The Timberwolves conclude their fleeting European excursion Wednesday knowing that, whatever happens together the rest of this season, they'll always have Paris.

Jonny Flynn?

Well, he always has his physical therapist.

Flynn's teammates completed their schedule of two-a-day sessions a week ago when they left training camp in Mankato bound for London.

He continues on, working twice daily not in practices as players did with one another but alone with therapists rehabilitating a hip that a Colorado surgeon repaired 10 weeks ago.

In the mornings, he tackles exercises that increase his range of motion and build strength back in that left hip.

In the afternoons, he runs and jumps suspended in a swimming pool or shoots and dribbles on the basketball court inside Timberwolves physical therapist Andre Deloya's Accelerated Sports Therapy facility in Plymouth.

He calls his workouts these days "Stage 3" in a recovery process that started with three weeks spent in Vail, Colo., right after surgery that repaired a torn labrum and shaved-down bone in his hip joint. His recovery also included weeks on crutches that have since been trashed.

"This is way more fun because I get to go out there on that hardwood floor," he said, motioning to a basketball court across the way. "It's just so tough when you go two months without even thinking of stepping on a court. I've never, ever done that in my life before. I had surgery on my wrist when I was 14, but there was no kind of rehabilitation like this. You look at it and your love for the game really grows."

He is preparing his hip and his mind for an Oct. 18 check-up visit to the Colorado clinic where the surgery was performed and is hopeful that his surgeon's evaluation there will clear him to run and jump thereafter.

He expects to play his first game sometime in November, a timeline that would appear to rule out a return by the Oct. 27 season opener against Sacramento."