Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 players most likely to be traded in 2018-19

3. Gorgui Dieng

The Louisville product is a good big man off the bench in today’s league, but $15 million per year is not the price you’d like to pay to fill that role. Gorgui Dieng still has three years and over $48.7 million on the four-year, $64 million extension he signed in 2016 — a contract that looked like an overpay even at the time.

After losing his starting spot to Taj Gibson and seeing his minutes reduced from 32.4 per game in 2016-17 to 16.9 per game last year, Dieng struggled to acclimate to his new role, seeing his shooting percentages drop almost across the board and struggling to defend the pick-and-roll.

With the Timberwolves signing veteran Anthony Tolliver in the offseason, it’s not likely that Dieng will get more minutes this year than he did last, despite his ability to play the 4 or 5. With Gibson and Tolliver in the fold, Dieng may be reduced solely to backing up Karl-Anthony Towns at center. KAT tallied 35.6 minutes per game last year.

The Wolves’ frontcourt is thin, however, and 2017 first round pick Justin Patton is expected to miss the first few months of the season as he recovers from multiple foot surgeries he had earlier this year. Minnesota probably needs to wait until the trade deadline to unload Dieng’s contract or risk running its main bigs into the ground.

Once February rolls around though, the Wolves will be looking for someone to take on Dieng, just as they were at last year’s trade deadline, per KSTP and all-around Minnesota sports expert Darren Wolfson.

Minnesota is dangerously close to the $123.7 million tax level, with a roster sitting at $119.5 million. To make some room for Towns’ extension and Butlers’ free agency without completely crippling the franchise in the future, they’ll likely need to attach a future first-rounder to Dieng so someone is willing to take both the money and the years left on his deal (preferably in exchange for an expiring contract).