Timberwolves Roundup: Staff additions, Dante Cunningham news

As the Timberwolves wait to find out which of the league’s free agents will accept their minimum contract offers, they’ve gone about making additions to their front office and coaching staff.

After the news broke earlier this week that the Timberwolves hired Scott Roth as the head coach of the Iowa Wolves of the G-League, Minnesota is making an addition each to the big club’s coaching staff and the front office.

According to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, John Lucas III will be hired as a player development coach and Tim Buckley as a college scout.

Lucas, as you’ll recall, was on the Wolves’ opening night roster just last season as a fourth point guard and stuck with the team for a few weeks before being waived. He played a couple of seasons for Tom Thibodeau in Chicago as one stop in a journeyman’s professional career. Buckley, as Zgoda notes, was Tom Crean’s top assistant at Indiana University prior to joining the Wolves staff.

Elsewhere, the Timberwolves continue to wait on free agency decisions. As noted in the above-linked notes from Tuesday’s roundup, Thibodeau is confident that they’ll be rounding out the roster in short order. It’s been a weird summer, as the Wolves only have 11 players on guaranteed contracts, and it just so happens to be the season that roster limits expanded once again.

Very few teams have cap space remaining, and there are plenty of players on the market that planned on receiving more than a one-year contract on minimum salary. Think about last year: Jordan Hill was signed around this time and made north of $4 million to sit on the bench for the Wolves all season. That won’t be happening this time around.

As Zgoda notes in the above-linked article, Shabazz Muhammad is one of the players remaining on the market that had designs on a much more substantial payday. Along with another former Wolf, Dante Cunningham, the two seem to be choosing between the Wolves’ minimum offer and similar offers from the New Orleans Pelicans, which is where Cunningham has spent the last three seasons.

Until, that is, New Orleans traded Quincy Pondexter and a second-round draft pick to Chicago in order to free up more cap space. Zgoda surmises that it is to sign Cunningham, but they could be after any number of free agents — Muhammad included.

Here’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s update from earlier this week on Cunningham:

My guess (and it’s just a guess) is that Muhammad takes the Pelicans money (and a change of scenery) and Cunningham heads back to Minnesota on a minimum deal. The Pelicans could very well be on a treadmill of mediocrity, and Dante may prefer to play for a hard-nosed coach in Thibodeau and have a real shot a playoff spot come spring.

Next: Wolves Film Festival: Butler-Towns Pick-and-Roll

We’ll have any breaking news on the free agency front along with commentary throughout your holiday weekend.