Minnesota Timberwolves: 2018-19 NBA season preview
By James Grieco
2018-19 roster
Key additions: Josh Okogie (draft), Keita Bates-Diop (draft), Anthony Tolliver (free agency), James Nunnally (free agency), Luol Deng (free agency), C.J. Williams (free agency)
Key subtractions: Cole Aldrich (free agency), Nemanja Bjelica (free agency), Aaron Brooks (free agency), Anthony Brown (free agency), Jamal Crawford (free agency), Marcus Georges-Hunt (free agency) and Amile Jefferson (free agency)
The impending Jimmy Butler trade notwithstanding, the Timberwolves mostly just shuffled out the back half of their roster this offseason. All five starters from last season are still with the team, as well as notable rotation mainstays in Derrick Rose, Tyus Jones and Gorgui Dieng.
In terms of the money the franchise handed out this summer, Anthony Tolliver signed a one-year, $5.8 million contract and Luol Deng signed for one year at $2.4 million. Once you factor in Andrew Wiggins‘s max extension, however, the team’s overall salary is sitting right up against the $123 million luxury tax line. Next year isn’t much better, as the team has over $70 million tied up between Wiggins, Towns and Dieng.
The Wolves have not paid the tax since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement instituted harsher luxury tax rules, and they are not about to start now.
Of all the names that have joined the team this year, only Anthony Tolliver and first round pick Josh Okogie are likely to get significant minutes. Thibodeau is notorious for riding his starters into the ground (all five starters averaged over 33 minutes per game in 2017-18), so there simply aren’t many minutes to go around unless he has had a sudden change in philosophy over the past few months.
If I were to write this article even a week from now, this roster would probably look quite different.
Butler will certainly not end the year in Minnesota, but what they can get for him remains a mystery as teams around the league complain about Minnesota’s asking price, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Any deal will certainly have to include a wing though, as without Butler, Minnesota’s wing depth is paper-thin.
If the Timberwolves are lucky enough to dump Dieng’s contract in a Jimmy Butler trade, they’ll have more breathing room in the coming years (although that doesn’t mean they’ll spend that money wisely).