Minnesota Timberwolves: Full roundup of Wolves free agency moves

Despite not having much cap space, the Minnesota Timberwolves had an active weekend in NBA free agency.

The Minnesota Timberwolves entered free agency on Friday with no cap space and a mostly-full roster.

They came out of the weekend having made two signings, a trade, rescinding a qualifying offer, and signing an undrafted free agent to an Exhibit 10 contract.

Let’s take a look at the Wolves weekend, from start to finish. It was a busy one, so let’s lay it out move by move.

Minnesota Timberwolves free agency moves: Re-signing Beasley

The Wolves kicked off free agency by re-signing guard Malik Beasley to a four-year, $60 million deal mere hours after the negotiating window opened on Friday.

The move itself was not unexpected, although the suddenness of it was perhaps a bit surprising.

While Wolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas has been saying publicly that retaining both Beasley and fellow restricted free agent Juan Hernangomez was a priority this offseason, it was fair to assume that the signing wouldn’t come immediately.

Between Beasley’s recent legal troubles and the way that the restricted free agent market typically plays out, the fact that the deal was announced on Friday showed just how serious Rosas and the Wolves front office were about retaining Beasley.

The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski detailed the Wolves’ recruitment process (subscription required), which included the rental of a lavish, lakeside house, Beasley’s personal chef, customized Twins and Vikings jerseys, a message from Twins star Nelson Cruz, and more. Beasley agreed to his deal at the meeting, and as noted by his agent in Krawczynski’s article, the Wolves’ consistent and public support of Beasley through the legal battle made a difference.

As noted by Zone Coverage’s Dane Moore, the Wolves received something of a give-back from Beasley in exchange for the show of faith and the higher-than-expected average annual value of the deal. The fourth year being a team option makes a big difference.

For the Wolves, they retained their best 3-point shooter not named Karl-Anthony Towns. Beasley averaged 20.7 points per game and shot 42.6 percent on a whopping 8.2 3-point attempts per game in his 14 contests in a Timberwolves uniform following his deadline trade to Minnesota.

For his career, Beasley is a rock-solid 38.8 percent long-range marksman, so his stint with the Wolves isn’t too far off what he’s done over four years as a pro.

Of course, the Timberwolves are now expecting him to improve defensively, continue to play hard and with an edge on both ends of the floor, and stay out of trouble off the court.

If he can do those things, then this kind of money for a special offensive talent like Beasley is well worth it.

But re-signing Beasley was far from the only move the Wolves made this weekend…