2019 Minnesota Timberwolves Off-Season Thread

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Howl Wolves!!
 

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Howl Wolves!!
 

Marcus chimes in:

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Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Marcus chimes in:

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Go Gophers!!
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Lol Marcus always playing the hometown angle. You can't choose where you're born or drafted, but you can choose your college and Tyus turned his back on us. He can go **** a duck as far as I am concerned

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Westbrook wants out of OKC. Anyway they can package Wiggins and a couple 1st round picks for him? Or would that still be too little? Westbrook's contract isn't great from what I understand. So it would be bad contract for horrible contract with 2 picks to even it out. Or maybe trade Culliver in addition.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Lol Marcus always playing the hometown angle. You can't choose where you're born or drafted, but you can choose your college and Tyus turned his back on us. He can go **** a duck as far as I am concerned

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Childish.
 





Chip is spot on with his column...given the current state of the NBA, this should be a major concern for Rosas and part of the reason why we can't afford a "slow build." I imagine we have two years left with KAT before he asks for a trade if we can't become a contender.

Timberwolves must guard against losing Karl-Anthony Towns in superteam fray

Within this new landscape, the onus lies on new Timberwolves President Gersson Rosas to build a roster that wins enough to keep Towns excited, happy and optimistic about the organization’s direction.

Towns is a top-15 talent. He represents their foundation, their centerpiece, however you want to describe the most important person in the organization. Yes, Towns needs to improve in certain areas and continue to expand his game, but the team must grow around him.

The Wolves can’t risk Towns becoming dismayed or tired of missing the playoffs and ultimately decide he’d be better off elsewhere. Then what?

To be clear, Towns has shown no signs of that. In fact, just the opposite. He sounded exuberant the day Ryan Saunders was introduced officially as head coach. Towns and Saunders are particularly close, and Towns was vocal in his support of Saunders getting the job.

Rosas noted that players shouldn’t be part of the hiring process for coaches and front-office officials, but picking a guy who already has Towns’ trust and support was a savvy (and probably calculated) move.

Towns also seems energized by changes implemented by Rosas in philosophy and organizational infrastructure. Towns has spent time with both Saunders and Rosas this offseason, and he has returned to Minneapolis several times for workouts. Towns is in Las Vegas this week watching his young teammates compete in the summer league.

All those things are not insignificant. They show his investment level in the new regime and the overall direction.

Rosas made a push to sign Towns’ buddy, All-Star guard D’Angelo Russell, before the Golden State Warriors flashed their championship rings and ruined the Wolves’ — and Towns’ — dream. The outcome was dejecting, but the attempt showed that Rosas is determined to shake up the roster. That’s not an easy task, considering the mess he inherited.

“Big picture, we’re always going to be focused on the best available players, whether they’re in trade, in free agency or in the draft,” Rosas said.

Rosas hasn’t been in the job long enough to know whether he can successfully execute his vision, but he hasn’t been bashful in expressing his desire to be aggressive.

Does that mean he will make a play for Russell Westbrook? Not sure if that option is even feasible given contractual challenges, but a Westbrook-Towns pairing would be a formidable scoring punch.

http://www.startribune.com/timberwo...rl-anthony-towns-in-superteam-fray/512447482/

Howl Wolves!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Chip is spot on with his column...given the current state of the NBA, this should be a major concern for Rosas and part of the reason why we can't afford a "slow build." I imagine we have two years left with KAT before he asks for a trade if we can't become a contender.

Timberwolves must guard against losing Karl-Anthony Towns in superteam fray

Within this new landscape, the onus lies on new Timberwolves President Gersson Rosas to build a roster that wins enough to keep Towns excited, happy and optimistic about the organization’s direction.

Towns is a top-15 talent. He represents their foundation, their centerpiece, however you want to describe the most important person in the organization. Yes, Towns needs to improve in certain areas and continue to expand his game, but the team must grow around him.

The Wolves can’t risk Towns becoming dismayed or tired of missing the playoffs and ultimately decide he’d be better off elsewhere. Then what?

To be clear, Towns has shown no signs of that. In fact, just the opposite. He sounded exuberant the day Ryan Saunders was introduced officially as head coach. Towns and Saunders are particularly close, and Towns was vocal in his support of Saunders getting the job.

Rosas noted that players shouldn’t be part of the hiring process for coaches and front-office officials, but picking a guy who already has Towns’ trust and support was a savvy (and probably calculated) move.

Towns also seems energized by changes implemented by Rosas in philosophy and organizational infrastructure. Towns has spent time with both Saunders and Rosas this offseason, and he has returned to Minneapolis several times for workouts. Towns is in Las Vegas this week watching his young teammates compete in the summer league.

All those things are not insignificant. They show his investment level in the new regime and the overall direction.

Rosas made a push to sign Towns’ buddy, All-Star guard D’Angelo Russell, before the Golden State Warriors flashed their championship rings and ruined the Wolves’ — and Towns’ — dream. The outcome was dejecting, but the attempt showed that Rosas is determined to shake up the roster. That’s not an easy task, considering the mess he inherited.

“Big picture, we’re always going to be focused on the best available players, whether they’re in trade, in free agency or in the draft,” Rosas said.

Rosas hasn’t been in the job long enough to know whether he can successfully execute his vision, but he hasn’t been bashful in expressing his desire to be aggressive.

Does that mean he will make a play for Russell Westbrook? Not sure if that option is even feasible given contractual challenges, but a Westbrook-Towns pairing would be a formidable scoring punch.

http://www.startribune.com/timberwo...rl-anthony-towns-in-superteam-fray/512447482/

Howl Wolves!!
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While it would be fun to pair Westbrook with Towns, Westbrooks contract is WORSE than Wiggins. He is due to make $47M in the 4th year, when he will be 33/34! That will kill the team. Anyone who trades for Westbrook needs to win now and the wolves would likely be a 5/6 seed with Westbrook. OKC couldn't do win with him and now will trade him. Westbrook is exciting and would draw fans. Unless he changes his style, hes not suited to help win a championship.

I would much rather have D'Russell (G State will trade him this year). He is cheaper and younger and could compliment our big dog better.
 

Westbrook has reminded me of Marbury in his career. Not willing to sacrifice for the team and only looking out for numero uno.
 

I know westbrooks contract sucks but I think the wolves would be stupid not to get him if they could.
 



Rouser said:
While it would be fun to pair Westbrook with Towns, Westbrooks contract is WORSE than Wiggins. He is due to make $47M in the 4th year, when he will be 33/34! That will kill the team. Anyone who trades for Westbrook needs to win now and the wolves would likely be a 5/6 seed with Westbrook. OKC couldn't do win with him and now will trade him. Westbrook is exciting and would draw fans. Unless he changes his style, hes not suited to help win a championship.

I would much rather have D'Russell (G State will trade him this year). He is cheaper and younger and could compliment our big dog better.
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When is the last time the TWolves found a draft sleeper or really developed a player into a star that wasn't a high draft pick? It seems that they reach and overpay for free agents or make trades for has beens because they never have built anything solid from the ground up. They have been terrible at scouting talent , drafting talent, developing talent and making deals. Otherwise they have been an awesome franchise.
 

march madness said:
Westbrook has reminded me of Marbury in his career. Not willing to sacrifice for the team and only looking out for numero uno.
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Westbrook is just like Marbury except a vastly superior player in every way. That being said, I wouldn't want him on the Wolves unless it's a salary dump, which I'm sure OKC isn't willing to do.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Westbrook is just like Marbury except a vastly superior player in every way. That being said, I wouldn't want him on the Wolves unless it's a salary dump, which I'm sure OKC isn't willing to do.
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He's making 38 million. I'd to Wigs, Teague, and Okogie. Thats it.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Sorry your panties are in a bunch over an overrated back up PG. One of us one of us goober gobble goober gobble one of us......

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actually, the correct quote from the movie "Freaks" is:

"We accept her, we accept her. One of us, one of us. Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble."
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
He's making 38 million. I'd to Wigs, Teague, and Okogie. Thats it.
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Right, that's a salary dump. Wiggins and Teague are both useless, and Okogie is a promising young player who may not prove to be anything more than the 8th or 9th guy in a rotation.
 

RandBall: Shabazz Napier might be a better fit for Wolves than Tyus Jones

*An interesting side note to the Wolves’ roster reshuffling and decision not to match Tyus Jones’ three-year, $28 million offer in Memphis: Based on a new metric introduced this week by FiveThirtyEight, Minnesota might have a defensive upgrade at point guard already on its roster.

The new metric, which tracks shot data, defensive positioning and opponent field goal percentage, says that last season Shabazz Napier — acquired by the Wolves from the Warriors after playing in Brooklyn last season — was worth plus-1.92 points per 100 possessions based on his scoring defense.

That was the best mark of ANY point guard in the NBA last season who played at least 2,000 possessions and put Napier in the top-30 of an overall list dominated by seven-footers with long wing spans.

Jones, meanwhile, was in the bottom 25 of all players at minus-1.79 points per 100 possessions last season.

Neither player, it should be noted, qualified for the larger sample size of 10,000+ possessions played since 2013-14. Also keep in mind this only accounts for shooting defense; Jones clearly has other valuable defensive skills and instincts.

But it is interesting to see that Napier, by the reckoning of this new metric, was worth almost 4 points more per 100 possessions than Jones last year based solely on shooting defense. It likely speaks to more quickness and ability to contest a shot.

Those are valuable traits, and they form part of the framework of what might be an unpopular opinion: Napier, whose one-year, $1.88 million contract became fully guaranteed Wednesday, might offer equal (or more) production than Jones next season for a fraction of the cost of Jones’ deal at $9.3 million per year.

The Wolves were pushed into that business decision in large part because of a philosophical shift under Gersson Rosas and because of other bloated contracts clogging up their salary cap. If they want to be nimble next offseason, they don’t want more salary on the books.

But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

When it’s easier to simply pay Jones, you probably do it without thinking as hard about it. And as much as I like Tyus as a person and appreciate his skills on the court, he’s not an ideal fit as a backup point guard because he isn’t a great shooter nor a great creator of his own high-percentage looks. His skill set is better suited for a starting role, but I’m not sure his overall skill warrants that.

In a similar number of career minutes as Jones, Napier has attempted twice as many three-pointers and made them at a higher rate (35.4 vs. 33.3). Their offensive efficiency numbers the last two seasons, when playing time increased for both players, are similar.

The downside for the Wolves is this: Jones just turned 23, while Napier will be 28 in three days. Napier pretty much is what he is, while Jones could still get better.

As a backup point guard fit, though, Napier might be better and more productive.

http://www.startribune.com/shabazz-...ter-fit-for-wolves-than-tyus-jones/512586922/

Howl Wolves!!
 


Sid: Glen Taylor stands behind Gersson Rosas as Timberwolves reshape roster

While Taylor couldn’t be reached for comment on the decision to let Jones go, he did talk earlier this week about how he views the first offseason under Rosas.

“I like him very much. I like the work that he is doing, and I like the staff that he is putting around himself,” Taylor said. “I think the only thing that didn’t work out the way that we hoped was we went after [former Nets point guard D’Angelo] Russell and thought that he was interested in us only to find out he made a deal with Golden State.

“Other than that these are the type of players we hoped to fill our bench with, guys that have big upside and that we can sign to contracts and keep them around.”

Is he worried about going over the salary cap?

“We’re over the cap but we’re not into the tax situation, yet,” Taylor said.

The Wolves have added some young players with upside such as center Jordan Bell (one year, $1.62 million), point guard Shabazz Napier (one year, $1.88 million), power forward Noah Vonleh (one year, $2 million) and small forward Jake Layman (three years, $11.5 million), but for the most part they didn’t make any risky moves.

But the fact is this club also lost some really key veteran players in Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, Anthony Tolliver and Luol Deng to free agency.

And while there’s no doubt Taylor was not happy about the players leaving, it was mainly just a case of salary cap issues and former players getting bigger contracts, like Rose getting $15 million for two years from Detroit.

http://www.startribune.com/glen-tay...wolves-reshape-roster/512561492/?refresh=true

Howl Wolves!!
 

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Howl Wolves!!
 

dpodoll68 said:
Right, that's a salary dump. Wiggins and Teague are both useless, and Okogie is a promising young player who may not prove to be anything more than the 8th or 9th guy in a rotation.
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Well, OKC just got two more first round picks. If they can swing Paul for more picks and expirings (or close to), i will fall out of the chair i am sitting in and claim Sam Presti as a god
 

Nearly every team in the conference got better this off season and we are worse. I'm not going to argue with letting Gibson and Rose go. I think the Saric move was probably OK, though it bothers me that we drafted another player who can't shoot. I'm even fairly OK with not keeping Tyus at $9M/year. He's a solid backup who runs the team well and plays good defense. He's also undersized, not athletic and he can't shoot. I would have kept him for $6M/year.

I'm not concerned about KAT leverage hysteria for at least three years. He has no practical leverage until he has two years left on his deal.

I'm concerned about who's not here and why. KAT's good buddy Russell was gone in a blink once GS showed interest. GS is a declining, tenuous situation that is not a good on the court fit for Russell, but he grabbed it with no hesitation. (I'm not claiming Russell is the "be all." However, he has talent. I was fine not signing him if the Plan B was something better than Shabazz Napier.) There were probably half a dozen decent free agents who signed $5M-$10M/year contracts after the first wave that we were not in on. We signed guys who were going nowhere elsewhere for cheap, short deals. That's not a championship or even a playoff path.

If the plan now is to tank again and go into 2020 with a high draft pick and a lot of cap space, it's fool's gold. This is not a free agent hot spot. I don't think the next Zion will wear a wolves' cap on draft day next year. If the plan is for Wigs to blossom in his sixth year and become KAT's second star, also fool's gold.

I thought the new management team was playing 12D chess a month ago. I still think they are strong long term, but this is their "Welcome to the NBA, this is a helluva lot harder than it looks" phase.
 

jamiche said:
Nearly every team in the conference got better this off season and we are worse. I'm not going to argue with letting Gibson and Rose go. I think the Saric move was probably OK, though it bothers me that we drafted another player who can't shoot. I'm even fairly OK with not keeping Tyus at $9M/year. He's a solid backup who runs the team well and plays good defense. He's also undersized, not athletic and he can't shoot. I would have kept him for $6M/year.

I'm not concerned about KAT leverage hysteria for at least three years. He has no practical leverage until he has two years left on his deal.

I'm concerned about who's not here and why. KAT's good buddy Russell was gone in a blink once GS showed interest. GS is a declining, tenuous situation that is not a good on the court fit for Russell, but he grabbed it with no hesitation. (I'm not claiming Russell is the "be all." However, he has talent. I was fine not signing him if the Plan B was something better than Shabazz Napier.) There were probably half a dozen decent free agents who signed $5M-$10M/year contracts after the first wave that we were not in on. We signed guys who were going nowhere elsewhere for cheap, short deals. That's not a championship or even a playoff path.

If the plan now is to tank again and go into 2020 with a high draft pick and a lot of cap space, it's fool's gold. This is not a free agent hot spot. I don't think the next Zion will wear a wolves' cap on draft day next year. If the plan is for Wigs to blossom in his sixth year and become KAT's second star, also fool's gold.

I thought the new management team was playing 12D chess a month ago. I still think they are strong long term, but this is their "Welcome to the NBA, this is a helluva lot harder than it looks" phase.
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I guess I fail to see how the Wolves are worse. At the very least they stayed about the same. They were always very limited on what they were going to be able to accomplish with no cap space this offseason. They were able to move up in the draft and take Culver. Add him to a healthy Covington and Teague and this team still has the potential to be entertaining and win some games.

After this season Teague's contract expires, and Dieng enters his final year. They'll have a lot more flexibility next offseason.
 

Is it just me or do the wolves still feel like the Garnet days, but its KAT with an under-welming, yet over paid, supporting cast?
 

march madness said:
Is it just me or do the wolves still feel like the Garnet days, but its KAT with an under-welming, yet over paid, supporting cast?
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Well, KG was better than KAT is, and he also had several teams with better supporting casts than KAT has ever had. It's sobering to think that the best KG could ever do here is conference finals, and we are so far removed from that it's not comprehensible at this point.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Well, KG was better than KAT is, and he also had several teams with better supporting casts than KAT has ever had. It's sobering to think that the best KG could ever do here is conference finals, and we are so far removed from that it's not comprehensible at this point.
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I'd rephrase this a bit and say "it's sobering to think the best KG could ever do here is get out of the first round one time." That's a sickening stat.

Howl Wolves!!
 

per Shooter:

It would take a multi-player trade to get Russell and salary-cap flexibility, and that’s among reasons the Wolves allowed Jones to sign with Memphis. Wolves point guard Jeff Teague and his $19 million salary this year will be gone after the season, but the Wolves still will have to find a way to dump the preposterous $17.3 million Gorgui Dieng has coming for the 2020-21 season.

And who knows — maybe Andrew Wiggins ($27.5 million this season) will wake up and have a decent-enough season that new management can find a trading partner.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/07/13/charley-walters-twins-arent-interested-in-short-term-rentals/

Howl Wolves!!
 

per Shooter:

Considering their salary cap restrictions, the Timberwolves’ recent one-year, $2 million free agent signing of 6-9 Noah Vonleh is a nice addition for first-year team president Gersson Rosas.

Just 23, the former Indiana University power forward on a good team would be a decent backup, but he rebounds and plays defense enough to help. And he’s an especially hard worker, a strong character guy.

Rosas has been busy finding pieces like Vonleh to be in place next season when he can acquire a marquee talent, perhaps D’Angelo Russell.

By the way, a common thread with virtually all the players Rosas has acquired since taking over has been that they play dogged defense.

https://www.twincities.com/2019/07/13/charley-walters-twins-arent-interested-in-short-term-rentals/

Howl Wolves!!
 

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