Wolves Season in Review: Kevin Garnett
By Ben Beecken
This is Part One of the Wolves Season in Review player capsules. We’ll be looking at every player that finished the season on the Wolves roster, excluding ten-day contract signees. We’re starting with the players that played the fewest minutes and working our way up the roster to those that logged the most playing time. Today’s feature player is Kevin Garnett.
We’ve spent a lot of time here at DWW talking about the Thaddeus Young-Kevin Garnett swap from mid-February. Most recently, Drew Mahowald broke down the trade in light of the end of the season and what turned into just 98 minutes that KG played for the Wolves this season.
It’s hard to dissect Garnett’s second stint with the Wolves, as he played those aforementioned 98 minutes over the course of just five starts in Minnesota. The return was everything that we’d hoped for: a chilling tribute/welcome-back video, a sold-out arena, a solid performance from Garnett, and a Wolves win.
After that, Garnett’s knee began to balk and the Wolves shut down Ricky Rubio for much of the rest of the season. The losing spiraled into complete hopelessness, and the sheen of Garnett’s return wore off as quickly as the trade had materialized just prior to the NBA trade deadline.
The Wolves were 2-3 in the five games (all at Target Center) that Garnett saw the floor in Minnesota. The win over the Wizards was impressive, but they also beat the Portland Trail Blazers for the second time on the season in the final game that Garnett played on the season. The wins were sandwiched around three home losses: two close games against good teams (Memphis and the Clippers) and one disappointing blowout loss to the Denver Nuggets.
Minnesota’s opponents’ offensive rating (an estimate of points scored per 100 possessions) plummeted to 97 with KG on the court as opposed to a horrendous 112.6 without Garnett in the game. While the sample size is comically low, an opponent’s ORTG of 97 in a vacuum is very good. There’s no denying that the 38-year old big man had a big impact on the Wolves’ team defense.
The Wolves’ offense was only marginally better with Garnett on the floor than without him (105 on vs. 102.6 off), but the defensive impact appeared to be significant enough to be worth something over the course of 50-60 games or whatever he may be able to play if he indeed returns for the 2015-16 season.
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The alleged leadership/locker room impact that Garnett had on the painfully young Wolves squad is, of course, immeasurable. It’s impossible to quantify if the whole thing was more warm and fuzzy than substance, but Wolves players from Andrew Wiggins to Zach LaVine to Ricky Rubio all had glowing quotes goaded out of them by the Twin Cities media, so that’s something. In reality, we’ll have to see what impact his presence might (or might not) have next season, as it obviously didn’t correlate to wins with a depleted Wolves team down the stretch in March and April of 2015.
Garnett will almost surely be back. If he returns at his actual value (somewhere in the $2-4 million range), it make sense. He can mentor, play 15-20 minutes per game in a center/power forward rotation, and sit out back-to-backs. If he plays any less than that he won’t be worth the roster spot, but a return seems almost inevitable at this point.
If the Wolves inexplicably pay Garnett a premium to stick around for another year (or, God forbid, two more years), it will be a big mistake. Roster spots and cap space are valuable and shouldn’t be squandered on banged-up 39-year olds.
At any rate, Garnett contributed positively in the five games he played for the Wolves this season. He should be back next year, and whether or not that’s a good thing depends heavily on the contract that he ultimately receives.
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