Timberwolves Notes: Greg Smith remains with team, new scoreboard

The Timberwolves announced on Wednesday that center Greg Smith would be remaining with the team for the remainder of the season, and some additional news regarding the Target Center renovations was also passed down by the organization.

Smith has played well for the Wolves over what is now 10 games, including Wednesday night’s win over the Sacramento Kings. While his per-game averages are a modest 2.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in just under 11 minutes per contest, his value lies in defending the pick-and-roll and being the screen-and-roll man on offense.

It’s what made him a rotation player on a 45-win Houston Rockets squad back in 2013, and the Wolves were savvy enough to see his value and add him to the fold during the final weeks of the season.

Smith won’t turn 26 until next January, so depending on how the Timberwolves’ off-season unfolds, he could easily be back as a fourth big or something of that nature. Beyond Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng, the Wolves don’t have much.

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Nemanja Bjelica should factor into plans for 2016-17, but he’s a very different type of power forward. And Adreian Payne isn’t extremely likely to be back, and at least not in any legitimate, minutes-earning capacity.

Here’s hoping that Smith continues to see decent minutes throughout the rest of March and April, as he’s a net-positive player that can provide a solid 10-12 minutes per game on a consistent basis.

Elsewhere, the Timberwolves announced some additional details regarding the upcoming renovations to Target Center. This round of announcements centered around the massive new scoreboard and video board that will hang over the court as soon as the second half of the WNBA season this summer.

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

"The Timberwolves and Lynx lifted the curtain Wednesday on what might be the only thing at Target Center bigger than Nikola Pekovic: a set of massive new video boards.The four above-court displays, which will be installed this summer as part of the arena’s renovation, measure 18 feet high by 33 feet wide. They’ll be supplemented by a series of smaller screens above the court and around the arena."

The team went into a bit more detail on Timberwolves.com, stating that the scoreboard will be installed during the Summer Olympics break.

"The scoreboard, which will be the largest center-hung arena scoreboard in the Upper Midwest, will be installed this summer during the WNBA Olympic Break. In addition, fans will be treated to four additional high-definition boards located in each corner of the arena, ensuring every fan with access to multiple high-definition screens with stunning live action and replay."

It’s an exciting time for Wolves fans, and it’s great to see one of the older buildings in the league be updated to coincide with what should be an on-court resurgence as the organization has seen what will surely be back-to-back Rookie of the Year award-winners in Andrew Wiggins and Towns.

Next: On Ricky Rubio's Improved Shooting

We’ll have some additional thoughts in the next day or so on the controversial ESPN Insider piece that more or less called Towns a stat-stuffer not worthy of the ROY award. Let’s just say that piece was…iffy, at best. Stay tuned.