Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading their moves in NBA free agency

Minnesota Timberwolves free agency move No. 2: Jarred Vanderbilt

After spending his first season and a half with the Denver Nuggets, Jarred Vanderbilt came to the Timberwolves as part of a four-team trade. He would only play two games for the Timberwolves after the trade until the start of the 2020-21 season.

In the season just gone, Vanderbilt played 64 games, starting 30 of them. However, despite so many starts, Vanderbilt would only average 17.8 minutes per game. He is very limited in what he does on the court having no range to shot from beyond the arc. He also had issues from the line, hitting 57 of his 102 free throw attempts, good for 55.9 percent.

While this does not stop players from having a meaningful impact on games, it stopped Vanderbilt from having a great impact on the fortunes of the Timberwolves though. He was only able to average 5.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game.

He was able to hit 60.6 percent of his field-goal attempts but only took 3.7 per game which is a small sample size. His play allows Karl-Anthony Towns to take more shots from the perimeter but given the Timberwolves’ lack of winning, maybe they need to change this strategy.

Grade C