Minnesota Timberwolves: Analyzing Luol Deng’s signing for the ‘Timberbulls’

The effect on the rotation

Despite jokes of Thibodeau playing Deng 42 minutes a game, the more pressing question will be where his spot in the rotation is. At 6’8″, he’ll be one of the first guys off the bench, and there is little reason to doubt he will due to the troubles Thibodeau went to bring him to Minnesota. Deng will likely see between 16-22 minutes per game.

Last year, which saw Thibodeau use just an eight-man rotation as early as December, the primary contributors off Minnesota’s bench were Jamal Crawford (20.7 minutes per game despite being 37 years old), Nemanja Bjelica (20.5 minutes per game), Tyus Jones (17.9 minutes per game), and Gorgui Dieng (16.9 minutes per game). Beyond those four, Thibodeau barely played anyone else.

Crawford and Bjelica are no longer with the team, but the starters (Jeff Teague, Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, Taj Gibson and Karl-Anthony Towns) remain the same. Assuming Thibs hasn’t magically changed his ways this summer and the starters continue to burden unusually heavy loads, that means the Wolves will have at least 41.2 minutes per game to fill.

Newly signed veteran Anthony Tolliver will likely take most of Bjelica’s minutes at power forward, and until Luol Deng signed a few days ago, the minutes Crawford vacated looked like they’d go to a trio of youngster: James Nunnally, fresh off a successful stint in the EuroLeague where he shot 55.4 percent from 3-point range, first round pick Josh Okogie, and second round steal Keita Bates-Diop.

The minutes Deng takes will mostly certainly not be from Jimmy Butler or Andrew Wiggins, which means that instead of developing the young guys, Thibs will be placing his trust in a 33-year-old who essentially hasn’t played since the 2016-17 season, hasn’t been good since the 2015-16 season, and is 16th in career minutes among active NBA players.