Minnesota Timberwolves Update: The sky is not falling

On the Monday after free agency kicked off late on Friday, a faction of Timberwolves fans seem to be convinced that the sky is falling. Put simply…it’s not.

Let’s get this out of the way: swapping Ricky Rubio for a lottery-protected first-round draft pick and signing Jeff Teague at $5 million more per year to replace him was not ideal.

But, let’s also get this out of the way: the Timberwolves roster is better as of Monday morning than it was at the same time last Friday. In fact, it very well could be the best starting five, one through five, in franchise history.

Now, those two items certainly don’t mean that there wasn’t disappointment at times throughout the weekend — not by a long shot. There was the hour or so on Friday after the Rubio news broke during which some corners of the internet convinced Wolves fans that Kyle Lowry could be in a Wolves uni this fall. Then, the nearly 24-hour-long period during which the Paul Millsap Dream was allowed to take root and blossom, before it wilted on Saturday evening when reports of a meeting with the Nuggets in Denver surfaced. Plus, local scribes simply could not confirm that the Timberwolves were ever able to meet with Millsap at all.

Lusting for Lowry and Millsap was brought about by Jimmy Butler‘s comments at Thursday introductory press conference, as well as some folks in the Twin Cities media suggesting (and in some cases, outright stating) that the Wolves were going “big game hunting” in free agency. Adding one of the two was always doable, but as soon as Teague was inked for $19 million per year, it became tricky. Any hope of adding both had simply evaporated.

Then, after J.J. Redick had signed in Philadelphia and P.J. Tucker in Houston, news broke on Sunday morning that the Wolves would be signing Taj Gibson, a 32-year-old non-shooter and former Thibs grinder from the rugged Bulls. And that meant that Shabazz Muhammad would become an unrestricted free agent as Minnesota was forced to withdraw his qualifying offer in order to create the requisite cap space.

So, yeah, I’ll buy that this weekend was a bit of a letdown for Wolves fans dreaming of a legitimate Super Team at 600 First Avenue. That’s not happening.

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But look me in the virtual eyes and tell me that a lineup of Teague, Andrew Wiggins, Butler, Gibson, and Karl-Anthony Towns with Gorgui Dieng as the backup center is not better than Rubio, Wiggins, Butler, Dieng (miscast as a starting power forward) and Towns. And while adding cheap shooting in the form of Anthony Morrow and/or Brandon Rush and/or Luke Babbitt and/or insert-any-other-bargain-bin-shooter-here won’t vault this team from the #6 seed to the #4 slot, it’ll help with an otherwise pedestrian outside shooting squad.

Heading into the off-season, this team needed three things: outside shooting, defensive help, and this abstract thing called toughness. One and a half of those things have been addressed, simply by adding Gibson. No, Teague’s addition does little other than cause the Wolves previously bad three-point shooting to tick a half-notch closer to league-average, but it shores it up just a bit. (And no, the $5 million additional per year and the downgrade defensively from Rubio to Teague wouldn’t have been worth it for me if I were in Thibodeau’s position, but it’s certainly defensible.)

Perimeter defense and shooting are still needs. But there isn’t a bad shooter in that starting five — no, Gibson cannot stretch the floor, but he’s very good at the rim and in the paint. The other four players all shot above league-average from beyond the arc last season. Add in a shooter or two of the bench (if Tyus Jones is the backup point guard, he can shoot the three as well) and the Wolves won’t be last in the league anymore in that category.

All things considered, this off-season is still far from complete. And yeah, it’s disappointing that Rubio is gone and neither Lowry nor Millsap ended up in Minnesota. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this team is better than it was 72 hours ago, and that cap flexibility remains in just two years: Gibson and Butler each have two years remaining on their deals, and with the rising cap, Thibodeau will have options as he continues to build around Towns and Wiggins.

Let’s see what the Timberwolves do with their remaining roster spots. They’re still trying to trade Cole Aldrich to create a bit more cap space (hopefully to add someone like C.J. Miles, who would shore up both defense and shooting on the wing), and there’s always the possibility that more trades are on the horizon.

Next: Dunking With Wolves Podcast: On Opening of Free Agency

In the meantime, focus on the improved roster with future cap flexibility and a starting lineup that will be one of the league’s best. This team is a playoff team — even in a loaded Western Conference — and the questions should surround potential bench additions and in turn, what seed the Timberwolves will land come next April.