Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading the 2018 offseason

Overall Offseason Grade

After an incredibly busy offseason in 2017, the Timberwolves were admittedly much quieter in 2018. But in this case, quieter also means more efficient.

Instead of forking over cash like they did last summer ($19 million per year for Jeff Teague…), the Wolves made use of the resources that they had, and didn’t do anything too drastic on the trade market or try and do too much on draft night. Or, for that matter, overpay to keep Derrick Rose or Nemanja Bjelica.

While they largely stood pat, resisting temptation to overspend — anything north of the minimum for Rose would have been a disaster — matters. As does showing the type of creativity that it takes to sign a player directly out of the Euroleague like Nunnally, which is not something that fans had seen from Thibodeau as of yet.

Overall Offseason Grade: A-

Crawford, Bjelica, Georges-Hunt, and Cole Aldrich are out, replaced by Okogie, Tolliver, Nunnally, and Bates-Diop. The two-way contract talent increased, too.

The only way the offseason could be going any better is if they would have been able to shed salary in the form of Gorgui Dieng or Andrew Wiggins. But that’s an extremely small nit to pick when it comes to the job that Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden have done in trying to bring their squad back to the playoffs in 2019.

Clearly, the Timberwolves have improved this summer. And that’s the barometer for offseason success.