Timberwolves Notes: Robert Sacre, FiveThirtyEight projections

Free agency rolls on as the Timberwolves continue to look to fill out their roster with end-of-the-rotation players, plus FiveThirtyEight releases 2016-17 NBA player projections.

After Wednesday’s signing of Brandon Rush, the Timberwolves technically have a roster of 15 players, although the futures of Adreian Payne, Kevin Garnett, and to a lesser extent, Nikola Pekovic, are still somewhat up in the air.

Minnesota’s roster remains fairly unbalanced, with Shabazz Muhammad and the newly-signed Brandon Rush as the only true, backup wings on the roster. With the signing of Cole Aldrich over the weekend, the Wolves seem to be a bit heavy on centers as well.

One might expect the Wolves to add at least one more wing to backup Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, and it will likely be a wing that is, at the very least, a solid outside shooter.

The Wolves, however, reportedly remain interested in big men such as Portland’s Meyers Leonard, a restricted free agent, and former Lakers center Robert Sacre.

Sacre is purely a center, and a limited one at that. He’s best known for being a four-year bench cheerleader for the Lakers, and is a solid 11th or 12th man, but is not the type of player that should be playing rotation minutes for any decent team.

The former Gonzaga Bulldog is a decent pick-and-roll player on offense and a hold-your-own type of player on defense as a legit seven-footer, but doesn’t rebound particularly well for his size or position. His mid-range jumper isn’t very good, either, and is limited to being effective on the glass and as the roll-man.

It’s tough to see what this fit is, unless Garnett and Pekovic are confirmed internally as non-returners and Sacre is going to be given what is essentially a veteran’s minimum deal to round out the bench. But even still, having extra depth at the five-spot doesn’t really fit today’s NBA.

In other news, FiveThirtyEight released their player projections for the 2016-17 season. The team win projections will come later, of course, but we can indulge ourselves in the lofty expectations for the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Ricky Rubio, can’t we?

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Towns is rated by Nate Silver and Allison McCann as playing at an All-Star level next season, with his highest player similarity scores aligning with 2014 Anthony Davis, 1997 Joe Smith, and 2010 Kevin Love. Number-eight on the list? A young, 1998 Kevin Garnett.

The profile also says that Towns’ five-year market value is an insane $298.8 million. Towns is on a rookie-scale contract — quite the bargain, no?

Ricky Rubio is classified as a “Borderline All-Star” for next year, with a five-year market value of $121.5 million. Of course, that makes the four-year, $55 million deal that Rubio signed nearly two years ago look like quite the bargain in it’s own right.

Rubio’s similarity scores include 1988 Doc Rivers, 1993 Rod Strickland, 1999 Jason Kidd, and 2014 Mike Conley. Seems about right.

Head on over to FiveThirtyEight and search each player by name. Some Wolves aren’t thought of nearly as highly (say hello, Adreian Payne and your negative market value over the next five years), while others may surprise you — Andrew Wiggins as an “up-and-comer”, for instance, or Zach LaVine as a “project”.

At any rate, it’s a fun tool to play around with as we’re about to head into the 10 weeks or so that can fairly be classified as the “dog days” of the NBA off-season.

Next: Timberwolves Sign Brandon Rush

Keep an eye out for episode #29 of the No Frills Wolves Podcast first thing on Friday morning, and enjoy the rest of your work week, Wolves fans.