Timberwolves Rumor: Is signing Tony Allen a good idea?

The Timberwolves are reportedly interested in former Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen. Would his all-defense, no-offense skill set be a good addition to the Wolves’ rotation?

As the off-season began, Timberwolves boss Tom Thibodeau had identified the (obvious) need to add the following characteristics to his roster: defense, toughness, and perimeter shooting. To this point, they’ve added something like one-and-a-half of those things.

The Wolves traded for Jimmy Butler and signed Taj Gibson. Both former Chicago Bulls (and Thibodeau pupils) improve the Wolves dramatically in terms of defense and toughness, but add little (Butler) to nothing (Gibson) in terms of shooting, and it will take more than two players to lift what was a bottom-five defense last year into the top-10 in the league.

Earlier this week, Thibodeau surmised on WCCO 830 in the Twin Cities that the Wolves are still looking for a couple of wing players and a point guard to round out the roster, citing the need for perimeter defense and shooting as the qualities that they are still seeking.

Enter the Tony Allen rumor from Wednesday evening.

Yep, that’s Tony Allen, the 28 percent career three-point shooter who has never attempted more than 54 threes in a season in his 13-year NBA career.

Of course, Allen has been a top-five perimeter defender for much of his career, even finishing second in ESPN’s defensive Real Plus-Minus rating in his age-35 season last year. He’s still a solid rotation player and averaged the most minutes per game in his career last year at 27 per contest. Allen started 66 of 71 games in Memphis in 2016-17 and started more than 77 percent of games in which he played over his seven years with the Grizzlies.

So, would Allen be a fit in Minnesota, given his defense-only skill set and the limited role that he’d surely be agreeing to fill?

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He would probably end up playing more small forward than ever before in his career, and it would create what would be a relatively diminutive bench trio of Tyus Jones (a generous 6′-2″), Jamal Crawford (6′-5″), and Allen (6′-4″). It remains unlikely that Thibodeau would play an only bench unit like previous Wolves coaches would too-often deploy, but a Jones-Crawford-Allen-Nemanja Bjelica–Gorgui Dieng unit would be rough on the eyes all the way around if that lineup did find it’s way onto the floor for whatever reason.

While it’s impossible to have too much perimeter defense, the Wolves must add an above-league-average outside shooter at some point this off-season. As has been covered at length here at Dunking With Wolves, nearly every player on the roster is an average three-point shooter, but there’s nobody that would even dream of threatening the high-30’s, much less 40 percent from deep on the year.

There’s also the issue of salary. Allen has been in the $4-5 million range annually with the Grizzlies, and the Wolves can really only offer the veteran minimum at this point without creating more space.

Overall, Allen would be a good add, but only if he’s on the floor along with Wiggins or Butler, allowing him to play at the two and leave somewhat of a deep threat on the floor. That would limit Crawford’s minutes as well, so it’s tough to see how the two would co-exist on this squad. A better play would have been to sign Allen to Crawford’s contract and bring in a pair of floor-spacers that could play the three alongside Allen on the second unit.

As it stands today, the four-man wing rotation won’t include a single above-average three-point shooter if Allen is added to the fold. That’s likely going to be an issue in the 2017-18 season, although it may not fully rear it’s ugly head until postseason play.

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And let’s be honest, adding more quality players simply to get to that point is the first step for the Timberwolves. Beyond that, roster tweaking will be needed and expected.