Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading the 2018 offseason

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ 2018 offseason was significantly quieter than the year prior. But how does this summer grade out, move by move?

The Minnesota Timberwolves made a huge splash in the summer of 2017, acquiring multiple-time All-Star Jimmy Butler via trade and adding veterans Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, and Jamal Crawford via free agency. The team improved from 31 wins in 2016-17 to 47 wins last year.

But those 47 wins were only good enough for the No. 8 seed in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference, and it took all the way until Regular Season Game No. 82 in order to lock themselves in for postseason play.

That said, it was always going to be tough for the Timberwolves to be ultra-active this offseason. Andrew Wiggins was locked in on a maximum contract that kicks in this year. Jimmy Butler and Gorgui Dieng already have hefty prices attached to them. And Karl-Anthony Towns is next up.

The Wolves may have tried to dump some salary, whether in the form of Wiggins or Dieng, but at the end of the day they simply didn’t have much to work with — outside of the No. 20 and No. 48 picks in this year’s draft, that is. It was up to Tom Thibodeau (the front office exec, not the coach) to work with general manager Scott Layden and his scouts to fill out the rest of his roster with legitimate NBA talent, and he did just that while remaining surprisingly creative.

Let’s go through the summer line by line and come back with a verdict in each area of player acquisition.