Minnesota Timberwolves: Ranking the contracts
It’s almost a whole new look for the Minnesota Timberwolves, as there are so many new faces on this roster. Let’s take a look at where each player ranks on the value of their contract.
There are technically 11 players on the Minnesota Timberwolves’ roster, but because of the buy-out with Kevin Martin during the 2015-16 season, he’s still a part of the team’s salary.
However, his salary is being stretched through this and next year. Luckily it only takes up about $1 million per year.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the team’s salary.
| Salary | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | Signed Using | Guaranteed | |
| Jimmy Butler | 27 | $19,301,070 | $20,445,779 | $19,841,627 | Bird Rights | $39,746,849 | |||
| Jeff Teague | 29 | $19,000,000 | $19,000,000 | $19,000,000 | Cap space | $38,000,000 | |||
| Gorgui Dieng | 27 | $14,112,360 | $15,170,787 | $16,229,213 | $17,287,640 | 1st Round Pick | $62,800,000 | ||
| Taj Gibson | 32 | $14,000,000 | $14,000,000 | Cap space | $28,000,000 | ||||
| Andrew Wiggins | 22 | $7,574,322 | 1st Round Pick | $7,574,322 | |||||
| Cole Aldrich | 28 | $7,300,000 | $6,956,021 | Cap Space | $9,356,021 | ||||
| Karl-Anthony Towns | 21 | $6,216,840 | $7,839,435 | 1st round pick | $6,216,840 | ||||
| Nemanja Bjelica | 29 | $3,949,999 | MLE | $3,949,999 | |||||
| Justin Patton | 20 | $2,247,480 | $2,667,600 | $3,117,240 | $4,781,846 | 1st Round Pick | $4,915,080 | ||
| Tyus Jones | 21 | $1,471,382 | $2,444,053 | 1st Round pick | $1,471,382 | ||||
| Nikola Pekovic | 31 | $11,600,000 | $11,600,000 | ||||||
| Kevin Martin | 34 | $1,360,305 | $1,360,305 | $2,720,610 | |||||
| Team Totals | $108,133,758 | $89,883,980 | $58,188,080 | $22,069,486 | $216,351,103 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Nikola Pekovic contract doesn’t count towards the salary cap because of his medical retirement this offseason. So we’re going to ignore his salary towards the team totals. As well as Jamal Crawford‘s contract doesn’t appear on the table due to the site not updating his salary.
The Wolves are eventually going to be tied up with a lot of money when Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns are receiving max contracts. So this off-season was key for the team to make some moves that were good fits, but not necessarily long term deals. Hence, the two and three-year deals.
With all this in mind, let’s rank the 11 players on the roster currently solely based on their contract value.