Thanks to a few unsavory contracts, the Minnesota Timberwolves are unlikely to make much of an impact in 2019 NBA free agency. Here are some semi-realistic options.
Let’s get this out of the way immediately: The Minnesota Timberwolves are not a free agent destination (no matter how much we may love them). Minnesota is too cold for most to want to go there and the franchise isn’t close enough to contention to draw vets and role players coming north as their first choice.
No matter. Most of last year’s rotation is still on the books for Minnesota, with Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Robert Covington, Josh Okogie, Gorgui Dieng, Jeff Teague and Keita Bates-Diop all essentially slotted in for varying roles. Throw in 2019 No. 6 overall pick Jarrett Culver and many of the minutes are already accounted for.
Thank God for that, because thanks to owing Wiggins and Dieng nearly $44 million combined, the Wolves have negative $7.7 million in practical cap space, per Spotrac.
For the few remaining roles, the Timberwolves’ own free agents, largely Taj Gibson, Derrick Rose and Tyus Jones, present solid options simply because adequately replacing them all will prove to be incredibly difficult with the limited cap space the Wolves have, even removing their cap holds. Those guys would have to be both willing to come back and deemed worth (likely) passing the luxury tax threshold for in the eyes of the Wolves’ front office (spoiler: they aren’t).
With Minnesota currently situated as a fringe playoff team, Gibson and Rose may go elsewhere to chase a ring. Both would likely command an annual average salary of at least $10 million, making it tough for the Wolves to pay both of them anyway.
Chaos is the one variable that we cannot currently account for. New decision-maker Gersson Rosas has, according to various reports, made everyone not named Karl-Anthony Towns available in trade talks as they try to dump salary, and he already shipped out Dario Saric to move up in Thursday’s draft.
The roster we think will enter training camp could turn out to be drastically different; the Wolves may not have the cap space to make dramatic free agent acquisitions, but they have the capital to make some crazy trades.
Here are some realistic and logical candidates to come north in the event of a trade opening up minutes or Minnesota not re-signing its own free agents.