Now that Ricky Rubio has made his season debut, will Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman and his staff be able to stick to a specific plan for his playing time?

Wolves trainer Gregg Farnam and the team’s medical personnel want to limit Rubio to 18 minutes in the early phase of his return from a major knee injury and rest him in the second of back-to-back games.

“We all have to have some patience as we work through this thing,” Adelman said. “Ricky is a very mature young man. He understands everything he has to go through. We have to be conservative and increase his minutes as we see fit.”

Another problem for Adelman is getting Rubio in sync with his teammates after the second-year guard had not played for nine months.

via Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press