MINNEAPOLIS — Just 81 games, 169 days and at least 15 pounds ago, Kevin Love's commenced an NBA rookie season that ends Wednesday with a symbolic act.

It's the last time he has to bring the doughnuts.

Snubbed by league assistant coaches before All-Star Weekend and mostly an afterthought to the Rookie of the Year race, Love reaches Wednesday night's finish after a carefully measured inaugural season in which he has proven himself at age 20 worthy of that bold midnight trade with Memphis on draft night last summer as well as one of the most efficient rookie rebounders ever.

For all that promise shown, Love's final task Wednesday morning is a reminder of this season, when first Randy Wittman and then Kevin McHale steadfastly, stubbornly moderated his playing time.

Their resolve might have kept the former UCLA star out of the All-Star rookie-sophomore game and from being more in the discussion for Rookie of the Year.

It also — along with Al Jefferson's season-ending knee injury in February — perhaps allowed him to surge in the season's final weeks while O.J. Mayo, for whom he was traded, swooned after carrying too heavy a burden for too long.

All Love likely will carry Wednesday morning is a couple of dozen doughnuts from his local Lund's bakery.

All season, the rookie has been obligated to gather and lug his teammates' sneakers and bring the morning treats, even if they often get left untouched.

"A lot," Love said when asked how much he has spent on pastry this season. "All my per diem. I'll get 'em and people won't eat 'em. I guess it's more principle than anything else."

In that task alone, he has proven himself willing and diligent. Wednesday night's game against Sacramento, though, is a demarcation point. It's the beginning of the transition for a player who reported to training camp last fall pudgy and unenlightened and now is about to embark on an offseason he calls hugely important.

"I think I've proven I do belong in this league, I can play," he said. "Once I get my body right..."

He estimates he has lost 15 to 17 pounds — thanks to a personal chef he hired and the rigors of an 82-game season — since October and wants to turn his current 255-pound body into a more chiseled 245-pound version by next season's opener. He watched Carlos Boozer, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh when he spent time around the U.S. Olympic team last summer and saw how he must transform his body in the coming summers.

He'll split his summer between his new home in Los Angeles and Minnesota working on his jump shot, his ball handling, his body.

"You'll see him lean out," McHale said. "He's 20. You'll see it and you won't even recognize it. It's kind of like us getting fat as we get older. You don't recognize it until it gets too late and you say, 'What happened?' You won't recognize it until you look back at the pictures."

A photographic mural in a Target Center concourse depicts an incredibly skinny, young Kevin Garnett, whose physical maturation McHale didn't really notice until years later. He expects Love to be like that, in reverse.

"I will get leaner, I will get faster," Love said, "so I can play above the rim a little bit more."

Wednesday night, he will break Christian Laettner's team rookie record for double-double games in a season if he gets his 29th, and his 25th since Jan. 1. His 28 right now is 10 more than the next best rookie, New Jersey center Brook Lopez. His 25 minutes a game average is fewest among all the top rookies, and 13 minutes a game fewer than Mayo's season average.

He calls a 17-point, seven-rebound game against Memphis on Dec. 29 the turning point of his season. He considers it so not because it was his first game against Mayo, who at that time was making the trade look mighty lopsided, but because he had just played only eight minutes at New York two games before and decided enough was enough.

"There's a presence down there," Golden State coach Don Nelson said of Love. "His game will continue to be refined and get better, I suppose. Right now, he's a rebounder. He rebounds every night, and he's able to get double-digit points and double-digit rebounds. In the pros, that's hard to do."

You could argue Love's rebounding numbers have been inflated this season because he has missed so many shots around the rim — and had shots blocked there — and collected his own misses. That work around the basket is among his top priorities this summer, when he intends to drill one-on-one against longer, quicker players.

"That's going to happen for him, he's going to learn how to get his shot off," Wolves guard Sebastian Telfair said. "He's going to be a special player, a special player. He's going to be in this league a long time. I'm anxious to see what he's going to do. He just has it. I can't say exactly what that is. He just has that ability. He looks so comfortable when he's out there. When he learns those little things, that this is not college and its the NBA..."

So, when that happens?

"How good can I be?" Love asked. "I'm 20 years old. I need to get in better shape. My body is going to mature. I think, at worst, I can be a 10-10 guy every night. Absolutely I can grab 10 rebounds. If I get 30 minutes a night, I've proven I can score the ball. I just need to be a lot more consistent.

"Since I got an opportunity and started playing 25, 30 minutes a game, I've been averaging a double-double. I think I can be pretty damn good."