As soon as the Memphis Grizzlies sent the Minnesota Timberwolves packing, the season ended and the off-season began. Not just any ole off-season, but one that could be the tipping point for the team to build upon their run of success, or stumble and slip back to the NBA teams who are hoping for a favorable lottery pick.
The Minnesota Timberwolves, for all intents and purposes, have a solid core of players returning to the team for the 2022-23 season. But core players are far more important in the playoffs than the grind of the 82-game regular season. I say that because teams that compete in the playoffs tend to play tighter rotations. That is, the team often relies upon eight or nine players to compete in the win-or-go-home scenario of the post-season.
Teams expand their roster to 20 before the season starts, and must prune the rosters to 15 active players for the season. Teams are further allowed two additional two-way players who are primarily assigned to their G-league team, but who can be called up to play in up to 50 games for their NBA team. The only true impediment is that two-way players are ineligible for postseason rosters.
NBA Free Agency: Minnesota Timberwolves
To get a handle on what the Minnesota Timberwolves are facing this offseason, we turned to the experts at Basketball.RealGM.com to list out the current Minnesota Timberwolves who are about to test the NBA Free Agent market. The list of players hitting the market is shown below:
- Player Posn Yrs Vet FA Status G PPG RPG APG
- Greg Monroe C/PF 10 Non-Bird 14 5.43 4.57 1.57
- Taurean Prince SF/PF 6 Bird 69 7.28 2.52 0.99
- Jake Layman SF 6 Bird 34 2.39 1.06 0.26
- Josh Okogie SG 4 Bird 49 2.71 1.43 0.51
- Naz Reid * C 3 Bird 77 8.27 3.91 0.92
- Jaylen Nowell * SG 3 Bird 62 8.50 1.98 2.10
- Nathan Knight PF 2 Non-Bird 37 3.73 2.30 0.59
- McKinley Wright PG 1 Non-Bird 5 1.00 0.00 0.60
* denotes that the Minnesota Timberwolves have a team option to extend the player for the 2022-23 season
The Timberwolves roster all free agents eliminated still holds nine players. If the team picks up the options on Reid and Nowell, the team’s roster jumps to 11 active players. With three draft picks, the team will fall just one player shy of the 15-player roster limit.
Not all is simply a sign and pay matter though. The Timberwolves will have some financial navigation ahead in order to make the appropriate roster moves. Per Spotrac.com, the Timberwolves are over $75 million in excess of the 2022-23 salary cap.
We’ll take a look at what moves are likely and even have some recommendations of our own in the weeks ahead. For now, a raw look at what the Minnesota Timberwolves face in NBA Free Agency this year shows what you might expect. No surprises, but no reason to be alarmed.