With the Minnesota Timberwolves’ signing of former Nuggets guard Austin Rivers last week, the roster for the upcoming season is beginning to take shape. It’s no secret that this team will look significantly different when they take the floor for their first preseason game in October than they did the last time we saw them in April.
After trading for Rudy Gobert and offloading Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Jarred Vanderbilt, and newly-drafted rookie Walker Kessler, the Timberwolves were in desperate need of more role players to fill out the roster. So they subsequently signed Kyle Anderson, Bryn Forbes, and Austin Rivers through free agency, while inking Wendell Moore Jr. and Josh Minott on standard rookie deals.
This leaves the roster currently sitting at 14 players, with one final spot left to fill. In addition to the 15 regular roster spots, the Timberwolves will also sign two players to two-way deals, the first of which just became A.J. Lawson, who showed out for the Dallas Mavericks in Summer League play.
The other two-way contract is likely to end up being occupied by Nathan Knight, who Minnesota gave a two-way qualifying offer to earlier in the offseason. Unless something changes, it doesn’t look like the TWolves’ Summer League star Kevon Harris will be joining the team for the season.
The Timberwolves’ depth chart currently looks like this:
Point Guard: D’Angelo Russell, Jordan McLaughlin, Austin Rivers
Shooting Guard: Anthony Edwards, Jaylen Nowell, Bryn Forbes
Small Forward: Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Wendell Moore Jr.
Power Forward: Karl-Anthony Towns, Taurean Prince, Josh Minott
Center: Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid
It’s shaping up to be a very talented and balanced roster. With the addition of Rivers and Forbes, the Timberwolves have replaced much of the ball handling and shooting that they lost with the departures of Beasley and Beverley.
I gave Jordan McLaughlin the slight edge over Rivers for now, in large part due to his performance in the playoffs for Minnesota. Between McDaniels and Anderson, the Timberwolves are going to have plenty of defensive capability when going against talented wings.
Minott and Moore will start near the bottom of the rotation as rookies typically do, but both have the chance to earn bigger minutes in short order.
The only question now is who will occupy the final roster spot? It’s been rumored that the Timberwolves and DeMarcus Cousins might have mutual interest. If they were to pick him up, that could be an excellent way to round out the rotation and create even more depth at center.