Minnesota Timberwolves shore up bench with James Nunnally signing

The Minnesota Timberwolves have reportedly agreed to sign Euroleague sharpshooter James Nunnally, rounding out what should be an improved bench unit.

Up until this point, the Minnesota Timberwolves were still at least one bench player short of what looked to be a complete rotation. On Tuesday, thatreportedly changed with somewhat of an outside-the-box signing.

Instead of a familiar name — last year’s 10th man, Marcus Georges-Hunt is still out there, for instance — or an NBA veteran retread, Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden reached across the pond to pick-up an international man of mystery.

Ladies and gentlemen, your newest Timberwolf, James Nunnally.

Nunnally has actually played … everywhere, pretty much. Seriously, check it out.

After going undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2012, Nunnally’s career started in the NBA Summer League. Then, to Greece, the D-League, a brief stint with the 76ers and Hawks, Puerto Rico, Spain, Israel, and then to Italy, where he was the MVP of the Italian League in 2015-16.

Then, he headed to Euroleague and played for Fenerbahce, which was former Wolf Nemanja Bjelica‘s old club. (All of the above featured nearly annual stints in the NBA summer leagues, so Nunnally has most certainly been on the radar of domestic teams this entire time.)

In two years with Fenerbahce, Nunnally averaged 7.3 points in 19.2 minutes per game and shot an astonishing 50.6 percent on 3-point attempts, including 55.4 percent last season on 2.4 attempts per game.

The Timberwolves bench now figures to include Tyus Jones, Derrick Rose, Josh Okogie, and James Nunnally as the primary backcourt and wing contributors, with Gorgui Dieng, Anthony Tolliver, and Keita Bates-Diop the main backups in the frontcourt.

The fact that the Wolves went out of their way to acquire a relatively little-known guy that other teams were apparently clamoring for tells me that they want to use him. (Of course, Jamal Crawford probably heard a similar recruiting pitch from Thibodeau last year and found himself playing the second-least minutes in his 19-year career.)

The breakdown of minutes between Rose, the rookie Okogie, and newcomer Nunnally will be intriguing to say the least. Assuming Jones continues to get all of the backup point guard minutes and Rose is playing off the ball, there will only be a handful of minutes available behind Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler.

We’ll get deeper into this conversation as we try and push ourselves through the dog days of August, but for now, put a smile on your face. Your Minnesota Timberwolves thought outside the box.