Minnesota Timberwolves: Pros and cons of Taj Gibson

The Minnesota Timberwolves signing of Taj Gibson comes as a bag of mixed reactions.

Almost from the minute Tom Thibodeau took over as President of Basketball Operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, every ex-Chicago Bulls player was rumored to be linked to the team. Taj Gibson happened to be one that came true.

Minnesota and Gibson came to an agreement which will pay the former Bull $28 million over two years. According to Spotrac, he is set to earn $13,658,537 of that during the 2017-18 season.

After playing the first seven-plus seasons with the Bulls,  the power forward was part of a trade deadline deal which saw him moved to the Oklahoma City Thunder along with Doug McDermott and a 2018 second round pick in exchange for Joffrey Lauvergne, Anthony Morrow and Cameron Payne.

Gibson started 16 of his 23 games with the Thunder but was unable to make a big impact. He only averaged 9 points and 4.5 rebounds in 21.2 minutes per game. That was somewhat of a disappointment as his previous play in with the Bulls suggested that he had bounced back from an underwhelming 2015-16 season.

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Even though his play has slipped of late, Minnesota is hoping he can return to the peak of his career when he played under Thibodeau.

Regardless, there are pros and cons that come with every signing, especially an aging veteran whose skills appear to be declining.

Pro: Veteran presence

Taj Gibson is a winner. He’s played eight seasons in the NBA and has never finished a season on a team with a losing record.

This experience is valuable because he will surely help Minnesota break out of their losing ways. As we all know, the Timberwolves haven’t made the playoffs in 13 years.

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One of the major downfalls about not winning in so long is it creates a culture of losing. The players go into every season expecting it to be like the past, unsuccessful. In order to break that trend, you must bring in players with a winning mentality. Gibson is definitely one of those guys.

Although there are far fewer young dudes on this version of the Timberwolves, he will be a steady mentor for guys like Karl-Anthony Towns.

Gibson isn’t nearly as gifted as Towns but has made a name for himself in the NBA by working his tail off every night.

He’ll be able to help Towns, and Gorgui Dieng, understand what it takes to win in this league and help them realize you can’t take possessions off and must play hard on every play, every night.

Gibson also brings 61 games of playoff experience to the table. That’s more than all the current Timberwolves combined, not including the new acquisitions.

Con: Offensive spacing

The Timberwolves finished last season making 21 3-pointers a game which put them at 30th in the league. For those of you who don’t know, there are only 30 teams in the NBA.

For a league that is trending towards 3-point shooting, the Wolves shipped out their best outside shooter and brought in three guys who can’t make up for that production.

While Jimmy Butler and Jeff Teague are respectable shooters from downtown, Gibson will only contribute further to the outside woes.

For his career, the power forward has only attempted 35 3-point attempts, making four of them. Last season was by far his career high when he went 3-13.

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Given that Minnesota didn’t have many scoring struggles last season, I expect them to improve this year with the acquisitions of Butler and Teague and natural improvement of Andrew Wiggins and Towns.

However, clutch time, which is the most like the playoffs, is where the Timberwolves struggled mightily last season. Clutch time is defined as the last five minutes of the game or OT when the two teams are separated by five points or less.

Last season the Twolves ranked 28th in the NBA with a 97.3 offensive rating during clutch time. That’s a stark contrast to their total offensive rating of 108.1 which ranked 10th in the league.

The lack of spacing is a big reason why Minnesota had such struggles.

Pro: Familiarity

Familiarity and consistency are two underrated concepts in the NBA. When a player’s understanding of a concept or a system becomes second-nature to them, it allows them to play at a much quicker pace.

It eliminates the extra step of diagnosing the play and figuring out what it means for your role on the floor. Even though that is an extremely quick process in the human brain, it still takes precious milliseconds to occur.

I’m sure Thibodeau’s system and verbiage have changed somewhat in the past few years since Gibson was last coached by him. However, the main concepts are still in place that makes Thibodeau one of the best defensive coaches out there.

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Gibson’s seasons’ with Thibodeau as Head Coach

This should allow the power forward to slide right back into the swing of things without losing a beat. He will also be able to help mentor guys like Towns, Teague, Bjelica and other players who may not be as familiar with Thibs’ system.

Outside of defense, Gibson understands what the head coach expects overall, both on and off the court. This means it’s one less detail Thibodeau has to pay attention to as his plate is already overflowing with duties from two roles.

Even with Gibson’s lack of production in recent seasons, he is returning to the system which saw him produce the best seasons as a pro. Returning to this familiarity can do nothing but help Gibson and boost his confidence.

Con: Salary

When the two-year $28 million deal was first announced, it didn’t seem like a bad contract from the Timberwolves perspective. Especially considering last year’s cash explosion which saw Timofey Mozgov (four years, $64 million),  Evan Turner (four years, $70 million) and Joakim Noah (four years $72 million), among others, get huuuuge deals.

However, last year is proving to be an outlier with the salary cap explosion. Salary cap predictions for the next few years are coming back to life and this year’s cap even dropped a few million than first predicted.

As the 2017 market settles, this deal is looking worse and worse for Thibodeau and co.

First, they tied up the remaining cap they had left for a player who is a questionable fit at best, leaving them with no room to fill out the rest of their roster.

Secondly, the market had quickly dried up, leaving plenty of comparable players available to be had for the cheap. Even before we got to this stage, players on a similar skill level as Gibson signed for less money.

Here’s a breakdown of the average per year salary some players have signed for this offseason:

It’s hard to blame Thibodeau for the way this turned out as most teams were duped this offseason. It’s nice to see the front office being aggressive and taking a risk on Gibson based on last season’s market.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, it appears Gibson used his relationship with Thibs for better money instead of vice versa.

Pro or con: Defense?

Ahhh, defense. The apple of Thibodeau’s eye. The soul of his being. It’s what he’s built his whole career around.

Reportedly, it’s why he traded for Butler and signed Gibson.

However, I only believe one of those players will help Minnesota on the defensive side of the court next year and his name rhymes with futler.

Gibson’s defensive reputation proceeds him to the land of 10,000 lakes. He’s most remembered for his first five years in Chicago when he put up a combined 16.6 defensive wins shares (3.32 average) and 10.4 (2.08 average) defensive box plus/minus.

Since then, however, his defensive play has slipped significantly. During the past three years, he’s averaged 2.67 win shares and 1.03 defensive box plus minus. As Gibson continues to age, you can most likely expect those numbers to continue to decline.

That doesn’t mean that he won’t be a defensive upgrade over the other players on the roster. Gibson still knows how to play the game and has been around the league long enough to know the scouting reports on the majority of the players he’ll go up against.

At 32 years old, he’s also not far enough out of his prime where his athleticism has completely escaped him.

Next: Thibodeau and the Timberlwolves are zigging while others zag

Either way, Gibson will prove to be an upgrade over the likes of Nemanja Bjelica and Cole Aldrich, just not as much as we’d like.