Minnesota Timberwolves: Is Tayshaun Prince Still An NBA Rotational Player?

The Minnesota Timberwolves continued their march to strengthen their veteran core this past week when they signed former NBA champion and four-time All-Defensive second team member Tayshaun Prince for the veteran’s minimum.

On plain surface, Prince, in conjunction with Kevin Garnett and Andre Miller — the other “old heads” on the Wolves — will bring a level of professionalism and experience the team sorely yearns, as outside of the trio, their current roster makeup consists of a battalion of former lottery picks from the past several draft classes.

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Sure enough, coach Flip Saunders expects the intangibles brought forth by the former Prince of the Palace and the Big Ticket to effectively change the culture of the franchise — especially on the defensive end. It is also worth noting that Tayshaun played under coach Flip for three seasons down in Detroit between 2005-08.

However, if Miller, Garnett, and Prince all crack the rotation and receive regular playing time, the mixed blessing facing the Wolves will suddenly become the daunting minutes crunch foiling over Saunders and his coaching staff. More explicitly, the following cluster illustrates Minnesota’s depth chart as it currently stands:

PG: Ricky Rubio / Andre Miller / Tyus Jones / Lorenzo Brown

SG: Kevin Martin / Zach LaVine

SF: Andrew Wiggins / Shabazz Muhammad / Tayshaun Prince / Damjan Rudez

PF: Kevin Garnett / Nemanja Bjelica / Adreian Payne / Anthony Bennett

C: Karl-Anthony Towns / Nikola Pekovic / Gorgui Dieng

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As you can see, the Wolves have some decisions to make as soon as training camp. In particular, there are currently 17 players under contract; as such, the team will likely have to cut a couple of prospects, barring a trade from now until October.

Likewise, there is a significant logjam in the Timberwolves frontcourt. Surely, Muhammad and Dieng have shown enough in their first and second seasons to warrant material playing time next year. In fact, a case can be made for ‘Bazz as the team’s sixth man, and similarly, Gorgui as the team’s third big.

Things get a little complicated, however, when you factor in the minutes veterans like Pekovic and Prince will ostensibly demand. Will there be enough court time to spread around the aforementioned foursome?

Sure, Saunders will have the luxury of sliding Dieng to the 4 at times in jumbo lineups, but the more ideal scenario in the modern NBA would be to go small and place Tayshaun as the team’s resident stretch 4.

While Prince does not necessarily have a reputation for spreading the floor, the former Kentucky Wildcat is actually an extremely efficient deep ball artist.  The problem lies with his shot allocation, as only 16 percent of field goal attempts derived from beyond the arc last season.

But, if Prince is indeed relied upon to become a designated floor spacer — as oppose to playing the 3, where he is seduced to operate in the high post and jack up an inconsiderate amount of contested mid-range twos — he can still be a net positive for the Wolves this upcoming campaign.

In fact, Tayshaun made approximately 51.1 percent of his corner 3-point attempts last year, and shot a blistering 46.3 percent from beyond the arc overall.

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Additionally, when playing at the power forward position with the Detroit Pistons last season, Prince produced a PER* of 17.2 and scored on an eFG%** (effective field goal rate) of 53.9 percent, per 82games.com. In comparison, when placed as the small forward, his PER and eFG% plummeted down to 10.8 and 44.3 percent, respectively.

*PER = Player Efficiency Rating

** eFG% = (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA

Defensively, Tayshaun has undoubtedly lost a step; thus, he can definitely benefit from playing against slower, more lumbering players.

By all accounts, the Wolves are committed to developing their young core of Wiggins, Towns, Rubio, LaVine, and Muhammad. But, that does not mean their veterans will not play pivotal role.

A coach’s best friend has long been his ability to dictate playing time. And while KG, Miller, and Prince — and to some extent, Pekovic and Martin — will provide plenty of wisdom and intangibles, they also give Saunders the collateral and the threat of taking away minutes from his young pups.

Nonetheless, Saunders has done an exemplary job this offseason of blending the new with a trio of wise, experience-filled old.

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