There have been a lot of recent talks about how the Minnesota Timberwolves need to fight for big free agents, or make trades for All-Star’s, but let’s try and keep everything in-house for once.
With the current Minnesota Timberwolves‘ roster, let’s assume that the team keeps their Head Coach, Tom Thibodeau, and their core young guys – Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, and Karl-Anthony Towns. What three moves would have to happen this offseason to better that core and the rest of the franchise?
Contractually, it’ll be very difficult for Minnesota to fight for any of the All-Star usual suspects that will be up for the taking this offseason, but maybe not for the near future. Names like Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and others have been in trade talks, or sign-and-trade talks, throughout the year. It’s almost impossible to contractually fit these players in a roster with the young core of Minnesota due to the highly criticized contracts Minnesota already possesses with some of their role players.
If Minnesota decides to go down another route and focus on adding more depth through reliable role players like Robert Covington, Wayne Ellington, Fred Vanvleet, or others. How else do the Wolves expect to do that by not freeing any cap? It’s a large problem for Minnesota and for the near future of their franchise. The end goal of these moves would be for the Wolves to free enough cap so they can go after some new young talent and build their depth, or even some stars.
What needs to happen to help this team move along? These three moves would give the Timberwolves $50 million in cap relief without losing much talent, why not do it?
Timberwolves power foward/center, Gorgui Dieng, was one of the more disappointing players on the Wolves this year. Dieng signed a $63 million dollar contract extension in the fall of 2016, with much of Minnesota actually excited about the deal and Dieng’s potential.
from the 2014-15 season until the 2016-17 season, the stat sheet from Dieng was relatively the same each year, pretty much a 10 PPG and 8 rebound game every night. Unfortunately, Dieng’s minutes were cut in a dramatic fashion from coach Thibs, who dropped them from 32.8 to 16.9 during this 2017-18 campaign.
Dieng will make $15-17 million over the next few seasons and won’t be a free agent until the summer of 2021 – making him a severe liability. Not just contractually, but just as a roster/scheme fit, Dieng doesn’t play as smoothly with his new surrounding cast – much different from the Ricky Rubio era. We’ve seen unmovable contracts be traded numerous times, one of the more recent ones being, Timofey Mozgov.
Timofey Mozgov being traded from the Lakers to the Nets was one of the more surprising moves last offseason. Mozgov will be making $16 million until the summer of 2020, so it’s a really comparable situation considering the lack of need for a big man like Mozgov and Dieng in the current NBA climate. In that situation, the Lakers had to move their young point guard, D’Angelo Russell, to get Mozgov’s contract out of Los Angeles, which ended up working perfectly for the Lakers – who are now heavily pursuing Paul George and LeBron James and have a plethora of young talent.
There are several ways to get Dieng out of Minnesota, one being to trade him and a first round pick to a team that has cap, like the Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic, and several others. If not a draft pick, either Tyus Jones or Nemanja Bjeclica may have to get moved with Dieng, due to the fact they are suitable and attractive role players on really cheap deals.
What’s the likelihood of Dieng getting moved? If he had any star value, it’s pretty much been washed away because of this season, but it’s better to sell now than wait for a potential bench role during the 2018-19 season – so expect trade rumors during draft night.
This move would hurt the most as a Timberwolves’ fan. Wolves power foward, Taj Gibson, has been anything but a liability for the Wolves this season, but he’s making an obscene amount of money for someone who will most likely be gone after his contract is up during the summer of 2019. For that reason, Taj and his $14 million dollar contract have to go, ASAP.
Gibson did play 82 games for the Timberwolves this year, and was arguably more effective than Andrew Wiggins. Although, the potential isn’t there with him anymore, and a contender or rebuilding team could utilize his savvy veteran leadership, just as the Timberwolves did this past season. Gibson arguably averaged his best numbers in over five seasons, therefore making him more of a commodity than Gorgui Dieng, or frankly most of the team outside of the core three.
There is definitely more to get out of a trade for Taj Gibson than Gorgui Dieng, so what would be the right offer? Let’s assume that some teams like the Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and other playoff hopeful teams call for Gibson. What can they offer? Draft picks, which are a hot commodity more than ever.
This may have to wait till trade deadline of next season. For example, we saw this with Bojan Bogdanovic, who got traded from the Brooklyn Nets for a first round pick. That is the kind of trade we can see coming from the Timberwolves front office with Taj Gibson, most likely a 2020-21 first round draft pick.
Getting rid of close to over $30 million in cap to get rid of two big men who will prove to have zero value in the coming seasons? This is an easy move, right? The Chance of this move happening are actually pretty high, Taj Gibson is one of the more respected veterans around the league, and the teams who can’t buy any All-Star free agents will need to rent some talent for playoff hopes.
Another disappointing move if you’re a Timberwolves fan. Losing point guard, Jeff Teague, would be a move too soon for this organization to make after just acquiring him. Although, he makes more money ($19 million) than Kyrie Irving, John Wall, Goran Dragic, Kemba Walker, and Eric Bledsoe – who is probably his biggest comparison as a player.
That $19 million cannot be worth it when you have guys like Paul George and Klay Thompson up in free agency over the next two summers, there is way too much talent to keep an above average point guard for a ridiculous price such as his contract.
Tyus Jones hasn’t had his opportunity to start in this league and this could be the right time to try it out, also Derrick Rose finished the Timberwolves season as their third best option on the whole team, and together both of those guards make around $4 million.
What move is there to make? There are certain teams that are very needy at the point guard position. Such as the San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, as well as others who just need depth in their backcourts. Just like the Taj Gibson move, there is enough potential in Jeff Teague for a team to just hand over some late draft picks, which would be the best case scenario in this situation.
To summarize these three options, there are a numerous amount of amazing free agents over the next few seasons that the Timberwolves could go after, mostly in the 2019 offseason due to cap restrictions. They include, Chris Paul, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, Deandre Jordan, Aaron Gordon, Julius Randle, Clint Capela, Jabari Parker, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, and so on (we could literally keep going forever). Not only that, but the amount of young role players that want contracts worth up to $8-12 million is a big enough incentive to make a few deals like these happen.
So why not take the chance of one of these players signing in Minnesota to help rebuild a team desperately lacking young talent and depth? All you need to do is trade some bad contracts, good luck, Glen Taylor/Tom Thibodeau. At the end of the day, if you can move these three players, you’d save close to $50 million in cap over the next year, with not much of a talent loss.