Jeff Withey
Twenty-seven-year-old center Jeff Withey was an early second-round pick (drafted by Portland and traded to New Orleans later in the summer) in the 2013 NBA Draft and has never played more 700 minutes in a season as a professional — less than he played in each of his last two seasons at the University of Kansas.
When Withey has played, however, he’s been a downright solid backup big man. He’s a limited, short minutes guy, of course; Withey has averaged 10.3 minutes per game while playing an average of just over 49 games per year in his career. But when he plays, he’s an outstanding offensive rebounder and a solid source of production in the paint.
The Timberwolves, however, have plenty of big men. Even beyond Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng, the bench is chock-full with the likes of Nemanja Bjelica, Cole Aldrich, and Jordan Hill.
Withey has some redundancies with both Aldrich and Hill, and while the latter could easily be let go by Minnesota this summer, it’s hard to see why the Wolves would feel the need to employ both Aldrich and Withey. Withey, after all, is somewhat of a poor man’s version of his fellow Kansas alum, albeit with better production than Cole had this past season.
Verdict: The Wolves could do worse when adding an end-of-the-bench big man, but as long as Aldrich (and Hill, for that matter) are still on the roster, this addition wouldn’t make any sense.