As soon as the Minnesota Timberwolves selected UCLA shooting guard Jaylen Clark with the 53rd overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, the question formed in our mind. Now what? Clark was the right choice for the Timberwolves draft, a Round 1 player whose Achilles Tendon injury created a medical flag that warned off everyone.
Despite all of the advances in medical technology, the challenge for any professional athlete who suffers an Achilles Tender rupture is not the healing process. Rather, it is the prolonged re-training of an athlete who must re-learn how to trust that ankle once more. The sudden start, stops, and pivots on the human ankle are taken for granted, until that horrifying moment when a player hears that sickening pop and they find their ankle is… gone.
It takes time to recover from an Achilles Tendon injury
Even after the ankle is medically cleared, the ability to not deliberately think about or focus on that once-injured ankle takes time, and the time required is different for everyone. While that is all recognizable and understood, it did create a decision point for the Minnesota Timberwolves contract decision.
After all, should the team offer one of three Two-Way contracts to Jaylen Clark, or sign him to the last roster slot on the team with a standard contract? Each option has both merits and drawbacks. Well, as we suspected in an earlier article, it appears that the Timberwolves will be signing Jaylen Clark to one of three Two-Way contracts.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and No. 53 overall pick Jaylen Clark have agreed to a two-way contract, league sources told @hoopshype. Clark was named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year last season at UCLA.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) July 7, 2023
The Timberwolves have signed SG Jaylen Clark to their second of three Two-Way contracts for the 2023-24 NBA season.
Now, let’s break it down and describe why this is such a wise move for both the team and the player: