Timberwolves Player Preview: Adreian Payne

This is the second part in our series previewing the entire Minnesota Timberwolves roster, player-by-player from the least to the most minutes played last season.

As the player on the Timberwolves roster who played the least minutes a year ago, Nikola Pekovic‘s lack of playing time was entirely due to injury. However, the second-least minutes played were by Adreian Payne, and health had nothing to do with it.

Indeed, the big man who was acquired for a protected first-round pick by the late Flip Saunders at the 2015 trade deadline had a poor 2015-16 season, and has yet to show much of the promise that no doubt led to Saunders consummating the trade with the Atlanta Hawks.

As a 23 year-old rookie, Payne played in just 17 D-League games and three games in the NBA with the Hawks before heading to Minnesota. He played in 29 games with the Wolves as a rookie, starting 22.

He struggled, turning the ball over at an extremely high rate of 15.9 percent and only notching a true shooting percentage of .448 with the Wolves as a rookie.

Last season, interim head coach Sam Mitchell played Payne even less than Saunders had towards the end of the 2014-15 season. Payne appeared in 52 games, starting just two and averaging just 9.3 minutes per contest.

Payne’s struggles continued, with a true shooting percentage of just .422 and an even higher turnover rate of 18.7 percent. He shot only 28.1 percent from beyond the arc and only rebounded at a 13.3 percent clip.

The biggest issue with Adreian Payne is his lack of awareness on both ends of the floor. He’s supposedly a stretch-four, but hasn’t been able to extend his shooting range out to the NBA three-point arc.

More from Free Agency

For a power forward, he does not rebound the ball well enough, and without true three-point range, hustle and athleticism are the only things that Payne has going for him.

He’s certainly athletic, and can provide eye-popping blocks as a help-side defender, to be sure. But the lack of understanding of where to be and when, and which shots are good shots versus bad shots have been too much for Payne thus far.

Add in the fact that he’s already 25 years old, and the former Michigan State Spartan is simply a non-prospect. It’s a tough pill to swallow that the Timberwolves gave up what will likely amount to a first-round pick for Payne, but that’s nearly two years in the past at this point.

There’s probably an equal chance that Payne won’t even make the squad in 2016-17 as there is that he’ll warm the bench or potentially head to the D-League.

There won’t be anything available on the trade market for him, so that means it will come down to if his decent performance in the NBA Summer League this past July is enough for new boss Tom Thibodeau to decide he’s worth keeping on the roster.

Otherwise, Payne could be waived before the end of the preseason in late October. And if I were a betting man, I’d hitch my wagon to that possibility above any other.

Next: Karl-Anthony Towns Channels Garnett On SLAM Cover

That said, anything could happen, and hustle-plus-athleticism is a positive combination when it comes to NBA big men. We’ll just have to wait and see, but a roster spot seems iffy at best.