Report: Timberwolves to re-sign Shabazz Muhammad

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Timberwolves will re-sign forward Shabazz Muhammad to a veteran’s minimum contract.

The buzz surrounding a potential return to Minnesota by free agent Shabazz Muhammad was loud enough that it would have been a mild surprise if he ended up elsewhere. Indeed, he is returning to the Timberwolves for the 2017-18 season.

Muhammad was acquired on draft night in 2013 along with Gorgui Dieng, but did not receive the large extension coming off of his rookie contract that Dieng did last offseason. Instead, Muhammad entered the summer of 2017 as a restricted free agent — a terrible market to be in, as it turned out.

The Wolves rescinded Muhammad’s rights early in free agency in order to sign Jeff Teague and Taj Gibson, and a true market never materialized for the former 13th overall pick. Ultimately, he was forced to sign a veteran minimum deal worth $1.6 million, and the familiarity (and, surely, likely-to-be contender status) ended up pushing the Wolves over the top. Shabazz likely chose Minnesota over New Orleans and the Los Angeles Lakers.

We discussed the crescendo of Muhammad-related rumors over the past few days at Dunking With Wolves, here and here, and felt as far back as mid-August that Muhammad would ultimately come “home” to Target Center, given how his free agency period shook out.

Here’s the report, from Woj:

The fit with the Wolves’ current roster is somewhat awkward, as Tom Thibodeau is no doubt looking to fill out his rotation with dead-eye shooters; Muhammad shot just 33.8 percent from beyond the arc last season and is a 32.3 percent career 3-point shooter. He is, however, a useful player, albeit one prone to scorching hot and frigidly cold stretches.

With a starting lineup that will feature Jeff Teague, Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, and either Gibson or Dieng, the top players off the bench appear to be Tyus Jones, Jamal Crawford, and whichever power forward does not start. Once Nemanja Bjelica is fully healthy from offseason foot surgery, he will factor prominently in the rotation as well.

There isn’t a true small forward in the bunch, which is where Bazz comes in. But a defensive unit with Jones, Crawford, and Muhammad manning the backcourt would be a disaster, not to mention an interesting grouping when it comes to sharing exactly one basketball.

Muhammad will have to be used as a small-ball power forward in certain situations, and sparingly alongside Crawford. One would think that he’ll play many minutes next to either Butler or Wiggins (hopefully, it’s mostly Butler) to mitigate some of the defensive issues on the perimeter.

At any rate, Shabazz Muhammad is much better than a vet minimum player. It makes sense to bring him back as a crash-the-glass, run-the-floor, wreak havoc bench player, and this writer is glad that Thibs did just that.

Next: Timberwolves Roundtable: It's Rankings Time...

The next order of business remains the same as it has been for quite some time, however: Find. Some. Shooting.