The Minnesota Timberwolves will have limited assets this coming offseason to make any moves. That said, acquiring veteran free agents is going to be made even tougher given the market that the Timberwolves are in – especially getting very close to the luxury tax line.
If the Timberwolves do not have their draft pick this year, their only methods to improving the roster will be via trade and in the free agency market.
Should the Timberwolves have their draft pick, they will only be afforded the tax-payer mid-level exception (unless they find a way to shed more money). If they don’t, they will have the full, nearly-$10 million mid-level exception to use on any player that agrees to sign.
As of right now, there are only nine teams projected to have more than $10 million in available salary cap space – four of which will have money to add a maximum salary contract – the best of which include Kawhi Leonard, Mike Conley, Kyle Lowry, and DeMar DeRozan. The Timberwolves almost certainly will not be in the market for any of those players – but there are some lower level, high quality role players that Minnesota could look at to solidify their roster for a playoff run in 2021-22.
Even if they decide not to sign anyone, the Timberwolves should be a significantly better team than in 2020-21 – simply due to natural progression by young players in addition to (hopefully) yielding a full healthy roster for the season – something Minnesota has not had in quite some time.
There are many teams in the Western Conference playoffs that will be losing free agents that the Timberwolves could utilize. Here is one from each team: