The Timberwolves are teetering on the edge of being eliminated from the Western Conference playoff race, so why did they sign a seven-year veteran for the final 12 games of the season?
Wolves fans should be accustomed to the final weeks of March and all of April being irrelevant from a win-loss perspective. It has been 13 years, after all, since the team qualified for postseason play.
And that’s why it may be a bit jarring to some to see the Timberwolves acquiring a 28-year-old for the “stretch run”. They aren’t dipping into the D-League for a potential up-and-comer or fringe prospect, or giving minutes to a player previously buried at the end of the bench to see what he has to offer.
No, they signed a Omri Casspi to a contract for the remainder of the season, and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in just a few months.
So, why?
Well, it makes sense on a couple of different levels. First, the Wolves have not been officially eliminated from the playoffs, so why not try to win a few more games and see what happens? It has been 13 years, after all. The young talent needs to see some light at the end of the tunnel, and the fans are parched.
That’s the obvious reason, of course. But there’s also Nemanja Bjelica‘s season-ending surgery on his foot, and the dearth of offensive punch off the bench. Shabazz Muhammad is the only scorer to speak of at the moment, and while Casspi has only averaged double-digit points per game twice in his career, he can do damage quickly in limited minutes.
Lastly, and perhaps the most important reason (after all, the Wolves could have signed any warm body or fringe prospect to accomplish filling Bjelica’s spot), is the “experiment” of putting floor-spacers around Ricky Rubio, Kris Dunn, and Tyus Jones. Calling it an experiment is at least partly in jest, of course; it’s an obvious solution to some of the Wolves’ on-and-off issues on offense. But the Timberwolves organization has virtually never had dangerous shooters dotting the perimeter.
And Casspi isn’t exactly a marksman, sporting a 36.9 percent career success rate from beyond the arc, but he’s hit at 40.9 percent since the start of the 2015-16 season, and he ranks as the most accomplished three-point shooter outside of the limited Brandon Rush on the Zach LaVine-less roster.
The acquisition allows Tom Thibodeau to always have one of Rush and Casspi on the floor, along with average three-point shooters Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad, who are dangerous enough to keep teams from collapsing on the post entirely.
Casspi is still just 28, and is probably feeling out the situation with the Wolves heading into free agency. He knows the Wolves has cap space and has no doubt heard positive things about Thibodeau’s coaching style. It makes some sense for him, with the opportunity to shine versus be buried in a deep rotation on team like the Boston Celtics, even if that team does make a deep playoff run.
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But for the Wolves, it’s more about putting legitimate (albeit extremely average) NBA talent and long-range shooting around it’s stars and future stars in Karl-Anthony Towns, Wiggins, and Rubio. Thibs wants to see what he has, and the final dozen games of the season isn’t a bad time to do just that.