Minnesota Timberwolves: Full roundup of Wolves free agency moves
By Ben Beecken
Minnesota Timberwolves free agency moves: Re-signing Juancho Hernangomez
The Wolves moved quickly on Beasley because of other interested teams, including the New York Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks, reportedly.
With Hernangomez, the Wolves felt it prudent to wait on the market and see how things would shake out over the first day or two.
My read on the Juancho situation: The Wolves believed Beasley had other suitors (Knicks chief among them) and moved quickly to avoid a bidding war. With Juancho, they're letting the market play out a little more to establish the parameters.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) November 21, 2020
The Wolves ultimately inked Hernangomez on Sunday afternoon, getting him back on a three-year deal with a third-year team option — a similar structure to the Beasley deal.
Third year is a team option, sources tell @TheAthleticMIN https://t.co/GSeZWqyH2N
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) November 22, 2020
The average annual value of the contract was a bit north of what some had expected. ESPN, for instance, had estimated his future deal at $2-4 million annually. Yours truly had expected something closer to the $4-5 million range.
Don’t forget, Hernangomez played only two games next to Towns upon his arrival in Minnesota last February. Towns has yet to play with an ideal stretch-4, and the Wolves think Hernangomez is that guy.
Gorgui Dieng was a 5 who didn’t quite stretch the floor to the 3-point line back when he was asked to play next to Towns. Taj Gibson didn’t stretch the floor, either, and while he was an ideal defensive fit there were offensive limitations to that Wolves attack.
Dario Saric was close, but wasn’t a consistent enough long-range shooter and was a bit more of a high-usage player than fits perfectly next to Towns.
Last year, the Wolves started the year with Robert Covington at the 4 and were mostly successful with that look. According to net rating, 5 of the Wolves’ 10 best 5-man lineups that played at least 50 minutes together last year featured both Covington and Towns.
The Wolves struggled a bit in terms of rebounding with Covington at the 4, but that was really the only drawback. After he was traded, the Wolves were at a point when the frontcourt was in flux as Towns was dealing with injury issues.
Now, Towns has his frontcourt running mate, and the Wolves will have flexibility behind Hernangomez to try a few different things depending on matchups and situation.
This brings us to our next move that the Wolves made in this truncated NBA offseason…