Minnesota Timberwolves: Full roundup of Wolves free agency moves

Minnesota Timberwolves free agency moves: Trading for Ed Davis

The Wolves re-signed Malik Beasley on Friday and Juancho Hernangomez on Sunday.

At that point, Minnesota still had a bit of a logjam on the wings, given the additions of Ricky Rubio and Anthony Edwards earlier in the week and the qualifying offers still extended to both Kelan Martin and Jordan McLaughlin.

But the frontcourt still lacked depth, at least in terms of big bodies. This side of Towns and Hernangomez, the Wolves still only had second-year center Naz Reid, Jarred Vanderbilt, who has played in all of 28 NBA games over three seasons, and Jaden McDaniels, who was drafted No. 28 in the NBA Draft on Wednesday.

Sure, the Wolves are likely to play Jake Layman at the 4, and there’s even a chance they try to go with a genuinely small-ball lineup at times with D’Angelo Russell, Rubio, Beasley, and Edwards on the court with Towns.

After trading James Johnson in the deal to acquire Rubio, however, the Wolves lacked both true frontcourt depth and a traveled, proven veteran presence to help in the development of that painfully young position group.

On Sunday afternoon, the Wolves acquired Ed Davis from the New York Knicks to solve both of those problems.

While Davis only appeared in 21 games for the Utah Jazz last year, he’s spent the better part of the last 10 seasons being one of the league’s best rotational defensive bigs, capable of playing either the 4 or 5 and rebounding his position exceptionally well.

He’s never been an impactful offensive player and doesn’t stretch the floor at all — 76 percent of his field goal attempts over the past three years have come from inside the paint. But Davis will provide the defensive edge and know-how that this team would have otherwise been sorely lacking following the trade of Johnson.

Now, head coach Ryan Saunders will have the option to pair Davis with Towns in a big lineup that will dominate the boards or play Davis as the backup 5 to a reserve unit that otherwise would have to rely on Reid to defend the paint.

As for the trade, we already knew that Omari Spellman wasn’t long for the organization. Jacob Evans has some defensive upside but wasn’t likely to get any run on a team that suddenly has a glut of high-upside wings.

Chalk this up as a savvy move that effectively only cost the Timberwolves a second-round pick.

The Wolves also made a few moves on the margins over the course of the past few days…