The Minnesota Timberwolves perfect summer

The Minnesota Timberwolves face an important offseason as they have the seventh pick and plenty of cap space.

As we get closer and closer to the active portion of the offseason, Minnesota Timberwolves’ fans get more and more excited about the potential moves the Wolves might make.

Minnesota’s options this summer are endless as they hold the seventh overall pick, hopefully, a big trade chip in Ricky Rubio, as well as around $30 million in cap space if they so choose.

Even though Minnesota has all that money, they are faced with a precarious decision. Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and potentially Zach LaVine have max contract extensions on the horizon. The Timberwolves don’t want to sign players now that will affect their ability to re-sign those players in the next year or so.

If everything goes right for the Minnesota Timberwolves they will use this summer as a building block for future playoff runs.

Winning is a culture that is created over time instead of overnight. I would hate to see Wiggins and Towns get into a groove where they see losing as acceptable.

Let’s dive into what that perfect offseason for the Timberwolves will look like.

To start, we determine exactly how much money the Timberwolves have to work with.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA salary cap will be set at $101 million dollars next season.

Now that we know how high the cap will be, we need to figure out how much money the Wolves have tied up.

According to Spotrac, Minnesota currently has $92,224,083 attributed to contracts. That initially gives them $8,775,917 of cap space. However, by releasing their holds on Shabazz Muhammad, Brandon Rush, Adreian Payne and Omri Casspi, it gives them additional $13,008,878 to play with. That now brings their total up to $21,784,795.

According to Albert Nahmad, an NBA salary cap specialist, the Timberwolves can clear Nikola Pekovic‘s cap hit off their books:

If the Minnesota Timberwolves are so lucky, their salary cap space will boom to $33,384,795.

They aren’t done yet. Jordan Hill‘s contract of $4,180,000 is non-guaranteed for next season and if he is released that will create a maximum space of $37, 564,795 for the Minnesota Timberwolves to work with.

Given all of that space, the Timberwolves have a plethora of options at their fingertips.

The first step the Timberwolves will take this season is determining that they want to keep their first round pick. They will surely shop this pick but they likely won’t find anything worthwhile in return.

As a result, they select Jonathan Isaac, the freshman out of Florida State. As the seventh overall pick, he requires a salary of $3,184,700. That brings the Timberwolves down to $34,380,095 to play with in free agency.

When free agency begins, the first step the Timberwolves take is releasing those holds on Muhammad, Payne, Rush, and Casspi and freeing up that $13 million.

They also release the little-used Jordan Hill, freeing up another $4 million.

From there, the Timberwolves kill two birds with one stone. It is widely known that they are looking to add shooting and veteran leadership to their roster and they do both by signing Patty Mills to a contract.

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Mills signs a four-year $54 million deal with Tom Thibodeau to come play for the Wolves. He is set to earn $15 million his first year and that will decrease by $1 million every year.

Mills shot 41.3 percent from the 3-point line last year and will provide desperately needed shooting to Minnesota. At 28 years old he is in the prime of his career and is battle-tested, having played in 78 playoff games already in his career.

Mills has come off the bench most of his career and that won’t change in Minnesota. After Kris Dunn‘s disappointing first season, he will replace Dunn as Ricky Rubio’s main backup. Mills can also play alongside Rubio, with Rubio moving to the two on defense. Mills excels without the ball in his hands on offense and can hunt for open shots on the perimeter.

Signing Mills brings the Minnesota Timberwolves to $19,380,095 in remaining cap space.

The Wolves are then able to lure in Serge Ibaka from the free agent market on an identical, four-year $54 million deal that descends in value as well.

Signing both Ibaka and Mills to contracts that descend in value allow the Timberwolves to sign two of their big three to max contract extensions in the future. This ensures that Minnesota isn’t giving up long-term flexibility for short-term gains.

Ibaka will slide into the starting lineup next to Towns, moving Gorgui Dieng to the bench. Even though Ibaka had a down year last year with Orlando and Toronto, he is very valuable as a big man who can stretch the floor and protect the rim.

Ibaka will give the Timberwolves that interior defensive presence that they have been lacking.

Both Ibaka and Mills can thrive without the ball in their hands and don’t demand a lot of shots. This is important because the Timberwolves already have enough shooters on their roster in Towns, Wiggins and LaVine.

After signing Mills, the Timberwolves are stuck with a log jam at the point guard position. The odd man out is Tyus Jones, who is traded to the Atlanta Hawks for swingman Mike Dunleavy.

The Hawks only have one point guard on their roster and are unhappy with Dunleavy, who initially refused to play for Atlanta after he was traded in the middle of the season.

By signing Mills and Ibaka, and trading Jones for Dunleavy, it leaves Minnesota with 12 roster spots accounted for.

Given the new rule of adding two roster spots for next season, that leaves the Timberwolves with five spots to fill out with minimum salary contracts and players who can play for their D-League team.

Going into next season, Tom Thibodeau finds himself with a roster that can be played in many different ways. He will roll out a starting lineup of Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Ibaka and Towns. The main players off the bench will be Mills, Isaac, Bjelica, and Dieng. Dunleavy and Dunn will also provide Thibodeau with some options as they can each play multiple positions.

Next: Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading the 2013 NBA Draft

At the end of August, if the Minnesota Timberwovles’ roster looks like this, fans should be extremely excited for what’s to come.