Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 players facing the most pressure in 2018-19

3. Jeff Teague

If the Timberwolves run a dual point guard starting lineup with Derrick Rose and Jeff Teague, the latter won’t get many chances to make plays like this:

https://twitter.com/Timberwolves/status/1048388830443843585

Teague is one of the Wolves’ best 3-point shooters, posting a 36.8 percent on over three 3-point attempts per game. Rose, a career 29.6 percent 3-point shooter, is a complete non-factor off ball. Likewise, starters Andrew Wiggins and Taj Gibson cannot be relied upon to space the floor either, meaning Teague will likely spend most of his time on offense off-ball.

That’s not entirely new to Teague, who sported the sixth highest usage rate on the Timberwolves last year — crazy for a team’s starting point guard. His 20.6 percent usage rate was the lowest he’d had since the 2011-12 season, just his third year in the NBA.

Even with Butler and his 24.9 percent usage rate presumably taking his talents elsewhere, the Wolves are not likely to feature Teague more offensively. That has been clear watching Rose largely initiate the offense during the preseason.

So why is some of the pressure on Teague then? His contract. The Wolves owe him $38 million over the next 2 years (2019-20 is a player option that seems like a no-brainer for Teague to pick up). Gibson is an expiring deal and both Derrick Rose and Luol Deng signed for the vet’s minimum, so it’s hard to hold any of them at fault.

While Gorgui Dieng’s contract may be worse than Teague’s, he seems more likely to be traded. Dieng is also a homegrown product, and wasn’t brought in (at the cost of the beloved Ricky Rubio) exclusively to make the playoffs.

If the Wolves are out of the playoff race by the All-Star Game, fans will be clamoring for Teague’s head. With that kind of heat, he’ll either be uncomfortable picking up his 2019-20 option or facing a free agency market that’s full of dozens of players better than he is–hardly a recipe to sign a big deal.