Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 reasons they don’t want the first pick

3. Expensive rookie contract

It’s no secret that the Minnesota Timberwolves will be looking to add depth, outside shooting, defense, and a veteran presence this offseason.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the salary cap is projected to go up by about $7 million this summer to $101 million total.

Using the $101 million as the salary cap and this Timberwolves’ payroll table from basketball-reference.com, it appears the Timberwolves will have about $22 million to spend this offseason.

If everything falls right for Minnesota, meaning Nikola Pekovic‘s contract comes off their books due to a medical retirement, they release Jordan Hill and his non-guaranteed contract, and they don’t bring back Shabazz Muhammad, they could have about $32-30 million to spend.

If Minnesota is smart in their negotiations they should be able to get at least two role players and a veteran or two to fill out their bench.

However, if they land the top pick they will use a good portion of money to sign the top overall draft pick.

According to realgm.com the rookie scale for the first overall pick is $4,919,300 for the first year of the deal.

Given the rules of the CBA the Wolves could sign the pick for as little as $31935,440 or as much as $5,903,160.

For argument’s sake, let’s say the top pick signs for the max amount they can, which is double the amount for the sixth pick. That means the Wolves would have $14 million to spend worst case and $26 million to spend best case.

That would be enough to affect Minnesota’s ability to sign a mid-tier free agent and they will go into next year with little depth.