The Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the newest franchises in the NBA. Having played their first season in 1989-90, only four teams in the league have played less seasons since their inception than Minnesota. As a result, the Timberwolves do not have nearly as much history as most other NBA clubs.
Playing in their 34th season in franchise history in 2022-23, Minnesota is looking to make the playoffs for the 11th time in the history of the team. Looking back on the previous three decades of Timberwolves basketball, they have scarcely had as talented a roster as they do right now.
One of the factors that led to this in the current season was acquiring a rock-solid free agent in the 2022 offseason: Kyle Anderson. He has played a big role in helping the Wolves stay aloft in the midst of an injury-ridden year. Unfortunately, Anderson’s signing represented the exception more than the rule for this franchise, as the Timberwolves do not have an extensive track record of success in free agency.
Playing in a small market, it has historically been difficult for Minnesota to attract marquee players to the Twin Cities. The Wolves have not been without a few successful signings over the years, but they have unfortunately had more misses than hits. Let’s look back on 10 of the worst free agent signings in Minnesota Timberwolves history.
These 10 players represent the worst free agent signings in Minnesota Timberwolves history.
10. James Nunnally
A player who had bounced around multiple NBA clubs and international teams, James Nunnally was signed by the Timberwolves in August of 2018 on a two-year deal. He was 28 years old at the time, having already played at the pro level for six years. The problem with Nunnally was that he was the ultimate journeyman, having played for 10 teams since his pro debut in 2012 at the time of his signing in Minnesota.
As a result, the two-year deal he signed with the Wolves seemed like a shaky agreement at best. And unsurprisingly, he did not last long in the Twin Cities, with Minnesota waiving him five months later after he appeared in just 13 games for the team. His contract with the Timberwolves represented his only career NBA deal that was not a two-way, 10-day, or Summer League contract.
Minnesota’s willingness to invest in Nunnally for two full seasons proved to be a big oversight, and the subsequent lack of interest in him from other NBA teams following his Wolves stint confirmed this was the case. Nunnally has carved out a solid pro career for himself overseas since then, but he had no business on a Timberwolves team that was contending for the playoffs heading into the 2018-19 season.
9. Bryn Forbes
Bryn Forbes signed on with the Timberwolves shortly after the team traded for Rudy Gobert in July 2022. After Minnesota dealt away crucial backcourt role players in Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverley, they needed to fill the void. A sharpshooter with championship experience seemed to fit the bill rather nicely, and a team-friendly one-year, $2.2 million contract was the icing on the cake.
Unfortunately, Bryn Forbes’ time in Minnesota could not have gone much more differently than expected. Coming in, Forbes was known as a lights-out shooter. He was a 41% three-point shooter for his career, and was coming off a season where he averaged a hair under nine points per game on 41.4% from three for the Spurs and Nuggets. He was a solid offensive spark plug, despite not bringing much to the floor besides pure jump shooting.
But when he joined the Timberwolves, his shooting numbers inexplicably fell off a cliff. Perhaps it was the fact that he saw his fewest minutes since his rookie season at just 10.7 per contest, but Bryn simply failed to put together any of his usual consistency. He averaged an abysmal 3.6 points per game while shooting a career-low 30.4% from three.
After appearing in only 25 contests for Minnesota, the Wolves waived Forbes in order to free up a roster spot at the trade deadline. What was considered a solid signing just seven months before quickly turned into a disaster, and it is a shame Bryn Forbes was never able to find his footing with the Timberwolves.
8. Brandon Roy
For most NBA fans, Brandon Roy is remembered as one of the biggest “what-if” stories in league history. Drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2006, he quickly came on the scene as one of the most exciting young players in basketball, winning Rookie of the Year in 2006-07.
From there, Roy continued to elevate and earned his first All-Star selection in his second season, which was shortly followed by his first All-NBA nod the following season. He would go on to be named to All-NBA and All-Star teams in 2009-10 as well.
Unfortunately, Roy had a history of knee problems, and just as he was emerging as one of the best guards in the league, his knees began giving him trouble once again. Roy’s 2010-11 season was ended due to undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both of his knees. Before the following season began, Roy announced his retirement due to ongoing knee problems.
It was widely believed that he would never step foot on the court again, but in the summer of 2012, Roy announced he would attempt to make an NBA comeback. The Minnesota Timberwolves ended up signing him to a two-year, $10.4 million contract. Roy would appear in five regular season games for the Wolves, before once again needing knee surgery that would ultimately force him into retirement a second time.
It was a low-risk, high reward situation for the Timberwolves, which is why this signing ranks lower on our list. There is no doubt most NBA fans were rooting for Brandon Roy’s success after his unfortunate injury luck, but the Wolves’ reclamation project with him was ultimately a failure.
7. Jordan Hill
Signing on with Minnesota in the 2016 offseason, Jordan Hill agreed to a two-year, $8 million deal with the team heading into the 2016-17 season. Coming off a solid campaign with the Pacers and just one year removed from a career year with the Lakers where he averaged 12.0 points and 7.9 rebounds, the signing appeared to be an excellent addition heading into Tom Thibodeau’s first year as Wolves Head Coach.
However, fit-wise, this move was probably a mistake from the start. Hill was added to a Timberwolves roster that was already jam-packed with talent in the frontcourt. Karl-Anthony Towns, Nikola Pekovic, Gorgui Dieng, and Nemanja Bjelica all played at least 18 minutes per game for the Wolves that season.
It was unclear whether Thibodeau desired to see him in more of a locker room mentor role or if he simply could not crack the rotation, but the 29-year old Jordan Hill played in just seven games for Minnesota in 2016-17, averaging 1.7 points per outing. After being released by the team in June 2017, Hill was not picked up by any other NBA teams for the following season, ending his time in the league.
The impact of Hill’s dud of a season and subsequent departure from Minnesota were softened by the fact that he was playing on a relatively cheap contract. But all things considered, his signing was still a rather large disappointment given how he was expected to contribute.
6. JJ Barea
Several of the players on this list can be categorized as bad signings simply because they were an overpay for an average role player, and JJ Barea fits this niche perfectly. Having just won the 2011 NBA Finals with the Dallas Mavericks, Barea became an unrestricted free agent heading into his sixth year as a pro.
During the NBA lockout and just before the 2011-12 season began, he signed with the Timberwolves on a four-year, $19 million dollar contract. This was an odd move by Minnesota for a few reasons. The first was that the undersized 5’10” Barea had just come off a postseason where he shot an underwhelming 41.9% from the floor and just 32% from three. He may have been on a championship roster, but he was not putting up gaudy individual numbers.
The second reason Barea’s signing was a bit of a head-scratcher was that the Timberwolves had just decided to bring their 2009 draft selection, Ricky Rubio, to Minnesota from overseas in the summer of 2011. Rubio and Barea had their moments of success together, but it never seemed like a pairing that could work together long-term.
While JJ Barea’s on-court production was not terrible, the kicker was that he was just never the greatest fit with the players around him. At the end of his third season with the team, the Wolves waived him and he returned to Dallas. Overall, signing Barea was a classic sidestep that was ultimately never going to move the needle for Minnesota.
5. Cole Aldrich
Like Jordan Hill, Cole Aldrich also signed on with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2016 offseason. Aldrich was coming off a 2015-16 season with the Clippers where he played sparingly, logging just 13 minutes per game. Still, there was enough there to make Minnesota interested.
Aldrich’s traditional stats were nothing to really write home about, at just 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest. But his per 36 minute numbers were much more impressive: 14.8 points and 13 rebounds per game. Combine that with his 59.6% shooting percentage the previous season and the Wolves were ready to take a chance on him, to the tune of a three-year, $22 million contract.
It was clear that Minnesota saw Cole Aldrich as the kind of player that could seriously thrive as a backup big given a greater opportunity. But unfortunately, he ended up buried on the depth chart and that opportunity was never afforded to him, with Thibodeau playing him just 8.6 minutes per game in 2016-17.
After his first season with the Wolves, Aldrich fell even further out of the rotation and ended up as the last player on the bench in 2017-18, scoring less than one point per game in 2.3 minutes per contest. In the 2018 offseason, Minnesota waived him with one year still remaining on his contract.
Aldrich is one of four players on this list to play their final NBA game in a Timberwolves uniform. The fact that Minnesota gave a player on their way out of the league a decently big payday only to release him two years later is enough to land this signing in our top five.
4. Michael Olowokandi
Our next free agent signing comes from the Kevin Garnett Timberwolves era. In the summer of 2003, Minnesota was coming off the best season in franchise history at the time. Having won a franchise-record 51 games and having taken Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers to six games in the first round of the playoffs, the front office knew they were trending upward in a big way.
Of course, one of the major priorities of that offseason had to be reinforcing the roster with solid players to help them get over the hump of beating challengers like the Lakers and Spurs in the Western Conference. They did so in acquiring important pieces like Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell.
So it seemed like an excellent move when they also signed free agent seven-footer Michael Olowokandi from the Los Angeles Clippers. Inking a deal with Minnesota for three years and $16.2 million, the Kandi Man looked to serve as a solid second option in the frontcourt and make life easier for Kevin Garnett.
However, due to knee issues and surgery, he only ended up playing in around half the Timberwolves’ games during the 2003-04 season. In the following season, he missed time due to various off-court issues, including when he was suspended by the team after a nightclub incident.
Olowokandi’s saw a significant drop in his scoring and rebounding numbers from his final season in Los Angeles to his first two seasons in Minnesota, and the Wolves ended up deciding to trade him prior to the 2006 trade deadline. In all, the big man was never able to be the Robin to KG’s Batman like the organization had hoped.
3. Rod Strickland
As we enter the three worst free agent signings in Timberwolves history, we should remember that the most detrimental player contracts are ones that financially handicap the team or waste the prime years of a franchise player. Unfortunately, the latter is exactly what happened when Minnesota signed Rod Strickland in 2002.
To be clear, Strickland was not a bad player, he was just an old one. Turning 36 years old heading into the 2002-03 season, Strickland was far past his prime and would be out of the league three years later. Playing in 47 games with eight starts in his lone season with the Wolves, he simply was no longer able to contribute at a meaningful enough level for a team competing for a championship.
That is the chief reason why his contract with the Timberwolves was a disaster. Even though he was playing on a veteran minimum, $1.03 million deal, he was not the type of player Minnesota should have been pursuing in the summer of 2002. The front office would have given the team a far better chance that season had they been willing to break the bank for a true co-star for Kevin Garnett.
We have already established that the Wolves had their best season as a franchise to date in 2002-03, but they ultimately still ended up as a first-round exit in the playoffs. Had the organization swung for the fences in free agency rather than playing it safe, things could have turned out differently.
2. Jeff Teague
Number two on our list unfortunately represents the most egregious example in Timberwolves history of overpaying for an average player. After shipping Ricky Rubio to Utah in June 2017, Minnesota brought in their new starting point guard by inking Jeff Teague to a three-year, $57 million contract.
Entering his ninth year as a pro, Teague had shown a certain level of consistency by averaging at least 14 points and 5.9 assists in each of his previous five seasons, all while playing in 73 or more games per season. Minnesota saw his durability and ability as a serviceable distributor as their best option during that offseason.
Coming to Minnesota on the heels of Rubio’s departure, it is fair to say that Teague did not receive the warmest of welcomes from the Timberwolves’ fanbase, given how fond they had become of Rubio at the time. In this way, he probably faced a bit of unreasonable expectations.
But the flip side to this is that Teague was simply not that great a player in Minnesota. He was never the level of player that could be a co-star with Karl-Anthony Towns, and he certainly had his share of head-scratching moments. Many Timberwolves fans remember his frustrating post entry passes and his struggles in meshing with Towns on the court.
Put bluntly, Teague was just an okay point guard most nights for Minnesota, and he was rarely ever a game-changer. Signing a player like him is fine if you already have other pieces in place to be a contender. But handing him a payday as hefty as the Timberwolves did in 2017 was never an acceptable option, and a move like that can be what keeps your team in the miserable middle.
1. Joe Smith
Leading up to the start of the 1999 NBA season, a lockout was in place. To give themselves a greater chance in the upcoming shortened season, the Minnesota Timberwolves signed a relatively coveted free agent from the Philadelphia 76ers: Joe Smith.
A high-scoring fourth-year forward from the University of Maryland, Smith’s expected market value for a new contract was around $80 million at the time. So it seemed very bizarre that he agreed to a one-year, $1.75 million deal with the Timberwolves in 1999.
As it turns out, Smith had arranged a private (and very illegal) deal with Minnesota where he would accept one-year deals from them in three consecutive offseasons, which would then allow them to ink him to an extension north of $80 million afterward.
Of course, these transactions did not go unnoticed by the NBA, and as soon as the illegal dealings between the Wolves and Smith were discovered, the league made sure the two parties regretted their decision. The Timberwolves would ultimately lose four first-round draft picks between 2001 and 2005, as well as receive a fine of $3.5 million. As for Smith, all three of his contracts with Minnesota and all his earnings from them were voided.
Overpaying a player or underutilizing resources in your offseason dealings is one thing, but making an illegal agreement of this caliber absolutely takes the cake in terms of sabotaging your franchise. In forfeiting four first-round picks, the Timberwolves lost an unbelievable amount of assets that could have been used to enhance Kevin Garnett’s supporting cast while he was at the top of his game.
To add insult to injury, Joe Smith’s career did not even pan out like one of a superstar worthy of taking this kind of risk for. He became a journeyman, playing for nine different NBA teams after his departure from the Timberwolves.
While we will never know for sure, it is certainly possible that Minnesota threw away their only chance at a championship with Garnett in making their ill-advised deal with Joe Smith. With all these factors considered, there is zero doubt this was the worst free agent signing in Minnesota Timberwolves history.