The Minnesota Timberwolves achieved a lot during the 2023-24 season, but they are ideally still not close to reaching their ceiling. With as much potential as they have to keep improving, there is still a lot more they can achieve. This summer will of course be crucial to upgrading the team as Minnesota's front office seeks out strong free agents that can help them next season.
The biggest caveat to this circumstance is the Timberwolves' financial situation. Their spending is already significant, and they will not have the ability to sign any big contracts this offseason without executing a sign-and-trade. As such, they will mostly be limited to minimum or low-cost contracts when bringing in new names.
Looking at the available pool of free agents, the Wolves will have plenty of affordable options, but some would be far better fits for this team than others. As Minnesota evaluates players and carefully weighs the prospect of adding them to this roster, these are five players they should be avoiding at all costs.
1. Mason Plumlee
We should preface this list by pointing out that all these players would be available for a hypothetically affordable deal. Each player on this list should be avoided purely from a basketball perspective. That is as true for Mason Plumlee as it is for anyone else listed here. A very solid backup, Plumlee has carved out a solid NBA career that perhaps not many saw coming.
One of a trio of brothers to play in the league, Mason entered the association as a first-round pick in 2013, but he ran into a problem relatively quickly. The NBA had begun to shift toward favoring shooters, with the classic, old-school big man beginning to fade into obscurity. This of course threatened Plumlee's viability in this league. He ended up making some adjustments, and now he remains a relaible center despite being a non-shooter.
However, on this roster Mason would be something of a liability. The Wolves already employ one big man with no outside shooting threat in Rudy Gobert, and adding a second one as a backup would create too much overlap. Minnesota is best to avoid Plumlee for any backup-big needs.