Minnesota Timberwolves offseason blueprint
The offseason for the Minnesota Timberwolves began Sunday night, May 16, after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 136-121. After finishing the season 23-49 and placing 13th in the Western Conference, the Wolves must find ways to upgrade their roster through trades and free agency.
Minnesota found itself in a bigger hole after it was announced on lottery night that the Wolves would be without a draft pick. Gersson Rosas spoke on KFAN about the team’s plans this offseason:
For us, trades are going to be the primary route for us to upgrade our roster, along with development, and that dips into free agency as well with signings and trades. We’re having a lot of conversations now. We’ve identified our needs, we’ve identified our options.
Rosas has always been an aggressive president of basketball operations and these comments come as no surprise. Rosas is an aggressive-minded POBO who isn’t afraid to make trades. Despite the team not having a draft pick, he did mention the idea of potentially trading for one.
I don’t know what assets they’re giving up, but I would assume they could get a late first-round-to-early second-round pick. If that’s the case, they’re probably trading a future pick and or Jarrett Culver. Something along those lines will probably entice some team.
As for free agency, Minnesota will not be able to sign players to max contracts. This season, the Wolves ranked 14th in the NBA in terms of total salary spent at roughly $130 million. Next season, they will be eighth in the league and see an increase in pay for the 2022-23 season. That’s in part to D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Town’s contracts increasing.
In general, most players will see an increase in pay each season. For a team that didn’t make the playoffs and is up against the cap, spending into the luxury tax isn’t something Glen Taylor probably wants to do.
For Minnesota, these are the only three players that may leave this offseason:
- Jordan McLaughlin: RFA
- Jarred Vanderbilt: RFA
- Ed Davis: UFA
Davis is almost guaranteed to not re-sign with Minnesota because he only played as a last resort (i.e. Towns’ injury or foul trouble). McLaughlin and Vanderbilt are ultimately tossups and will come down to price.
This puts the team in a position to sign someone for the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (T-MLE).
The T-MLE for the Wolves is priced at $5,890,000. Minnesota will be able to sign players like Daniel Theis, JaVale McGee, Torrey Craig and Austin Rivers. Whether the Wolves have interest in these players is another discussion, but that is the general idea of who they can target with the T-MLE.
Now comes the fun part… trades.
Rosas alluded to the idea that the Wolves will improve their roster through this route. Recently, I wrote about Ben Simmons and what it would mean for the team to trade for him. Much like Simmons, Myles Turner is another player the Wolves have been in contact about.
Turner would cost less than Simmons and Indiana has been linked to liking Ricky Rubio in the past. Rubio doesn’t offer a lot of trade value, but he is on an expiring contract.
Would Malik Beasley interest the Pacers? If so, Minnesota will not have to give up as many assets. The Turner-Towns pairing may not work, but Turner can knock down 3s and be an elite rim protector.
John Collins is another name Minnesota fans should pay close attention to. He’s set to become a restricted free agent and Minnesota can’t sign him this offseason.
Collins will likely receive a contract around $18-25 million a season. For Minnesota, he would space the floor, create an elite pick-and-roll pairing with Russell and fit a positional need at power forward.
The biggest question comes down to money and if he makes your team significantly better. During the playoffs, he showcased that he can be an average-to-above-average defender.
Those are three names Minnesota has interest in and who would likely improve their team next season.
The Wolves are in a tricky situation because they don’t have cap space and are without a draft pick. Luckily, Minnesota is retaining most of their players next season and will put all their chips into making trades.
