Minnesota Timberwolves: Cap ramifications from trade deadline

Once the dust settled from the trade deadline, the new-look Minnesota Timberwolves (minus D’Angelo Russell) routed the Clippers thanks in large part to two-way point guard Jordan McLaughlin. He’s shown the Wolves enough to earn the backup point guard role, and you’d expect him to be signed by now, right? Well, there may be a big hurdle to jump in order for that to happen…

At the trade deadline the Minnesota Timberwolves made a flurry of moves including sending Robert Covington to Houston in a multi-team deal for a slew of Denver Nuggets youngsters and swapping Andrew Wiggins and a 2021 1st for D’Angelo Russell and a couple of other Warriors.

A major side effect of these trades is that the Wolves are now sitting about $500,000 in the luxury tax.

What does this means? The luxury tax would charge the Wolves (or any team that’s over the luxury tax by $1-$4,999,999) $1.50 for every $1 they are over the tax. So this $500,000 surplus the Wolves are paying now becomes a $750,000 bill.

It also starts the clock for something called the repeater tax. If the Wolves are in the tax for three out of the past four seasons, the next year they’d be subject to the repeater tax. Using the $1-$4,999,999 bracket from above, the Wolves would now be charged $2.50 for every $1 if they entered the repeater tax.

In the grand scheme of things, this may not mean much considering that Evan Turner and Allen Crabbe‘s massive deals are coming off the books this offseason. However, Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez are set to hit free agency. Between them, the mid-level exception, and the bi-annual exception, the Wolves will likely be at or above the tax line to start the next year. Therefore, they could be looking at the repeater tax in the near future.

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Turner is a likely buyout candidate and was even reported to be working out with the Los Angeles Clippers. If Turner gives up the amount of money that a minimum salary would be (what he likely makes on his new team after a buyout), the Wolves could not only duck the luxury tax, they could sign their standout two-way point guard Jordan McLaughlin without going back over the tax line.

Newly signed contracts are prorated for how many games are left in the season while Turner’s buyout would not be prorated against the cap. Hence, McLaughlin’s minimum deal would only count for roughly $400,000 against the cap while Evan Turner’s buyout number would be around $1,500,000 giving the Wolves some breathing room after the two transactions. More importantly, it would push the repeater tax down the line for another year.

So now you may be asking, why on earth would Evan Turner give up that kind of money to help the Wolves? Taking a buyout would allow Turner to sign wherever he’d like and allow him to showcase himself on a contender for his next contract.

If Turner doesn’t take a buyout and the Wolves are both set on signing McLaughlin and getting under the tax, they could waive Turner under what’s called the stretch provision. This is what they did with Cole Aldrich a few seasons back and the Wolves are just finishing paying it off. The stretch provision would take Turner’s salary and spread it evenly over three years paying him roughly $6,200,000 this year, next year, and the following year all counting against the salary cap.

Evan Turner has until March 1st to be eligible to sign with a playoff team. That gives the Wolves a little over a week-and-a-half to figure things out with him and assess what their options are. If Turner is bought out, don’t be surprised if Jordan McLaughlin is signed immediately following that move.