The Minnesota Timberwolves have an interesting offseason ahead of them, and Gersson Rosas is going to have to find a way to upgrade a roster with limited assets available to him.
The team is expected to finish among the worst three teams in the NBA this season, and for Minnesota to not get their draft pick this year despite the season they had would be undoubtedly a setback.
Again, though, things should automatically be better next season – just with more games from all of Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, and Malik Beasley, with continued development from Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels.
Last offseason, I did this exercise (the General Manager Game), and we came away with the following roster (I firmly believe I did better than the actual Wolves team did, but alas). We will be following the same rules established in that article, which goes as follows:
Minnesota Timberwolves: Rules to the General Manager Game
1. The premise of this is to simulate what the Timberwolves’s roster could look like following this coming offseason.
2. The two main points in the offseason that will be included are the NBA Draft and Free Agency.
3. Only one trade is allowed. That particular trade cannot be overly unrealistic.
4. The salary cap line of $112 million will be instituted since that is the last available projection. The luxury tax line will be set at $136.6 million.
5. Rookie salaries will be included in salary cap projections.
6. Only 15 players can be on the final roster, plus two additional two-way players.