Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 big questions for the 2019-20 season
By Ethan Becker
2. Which players will stay?
The Minnesota Timberwolves have overhauled their roster in a big way during the 2019 offseason, losing Taj Gibson, Tyus Jones, Derrick Rose and Dario Saric.
To replace them, the Timberwolves drafted some really impressive talent in the form of Jarrett Culver and Jaylen Nowell, as well as adding Jordan Bell and Noah Vonleh, along with Shabazz Napier and Jake Layman.
With all of these changes, it looks like the Timberwolves are starting to go towards a younger, more small-ball leaning approach to their play.
However, there are still some players on the Timberwolves roster that don’t exactly fit into that system, namely Jeff Teague and Andrew Wiggins.
Wiggins has been a thorn in the side for many Timberwolves fans for years. His contract is widely considered to be on of the worst in the league and he just doesn’t seem to have a lot of drive in him that pushes him to play at his top level.
Finally, rumors began spreading this offseason about the Timberwolves trying to shop him around, but couldn’t find a home for him because of said contract. Wiggins is now under a spotlight and if he doesn’t step up, he could be looking at a short-lived NBA career.
If Wiggins doesn’t begin playing at the top of his game, Minnesota could be looking for any chance to dump his gigantic contract, at any cost.
Chances are, the Timberwolves will probably have to take a deal where they would be losing in terms of asset, but would be winning by clearing up a lot of cap space for next year’s free agency.
Teague’s game has dropped dramatically since he was the leader of the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks, who were dubbed the “Spurs of the East”.
Since then, he’s went from 15.9 points to 12.1 points and 1.7 steals to 1.0 steals per game, as well as 34.3 percent 3-point shooting to 33.3 percent and 46.0 percent overall to 42.3 percent.
Teague has improved in his passing game, going from 7.0 assists to 8.2 assists per game, and that playmaking has been a highlight for the Minnesota fans.
Still, there is a hope that he can keep up that playmaking and good shooting and if he can’t, Teague might be on the way out due to him not fitting into the new Timberwolves system.