Timberwolves fans get worst possible Kyle Anderson free agency update

The NBA free agency period officially opened up on Sunday afternoon, and plenty of intriguing moves have already been made around the league. For the Minnesota Timberwolves, the name of the game during this time will simply be consistency. The Wolves want to retain as much roster consistency from last season to next, with a belief that this core can get them over the hump.

To do that, Minnesota will of course want to re-sign as many of their free agents as possible without completely handicapping themselves financially. On Sunday, one major roadblock toward achieving that goal was revealed when Yahoo Sports reported that Kyle Anderson, the team's top free agent, will likely command a new deal larger than what the Wolves can offer.

Anderson is hitting unrestricted free agency, and he is expected to seek "up to the full mid-level exception" in contract talks. According to Yahoo, the Timberwolves are preparing for life without Kyle due to that circumstance.

The Timberwolves are preparing to lose Kyle Anderson

This is terrible news for Wolves fans given all that Anderson means to this team. Yes, he had a down year this past season, but we must remember that much of his lacking performance was due to a lingering eye injury. After suffering an ailment during Minnesota's 2023 playoff series with Denver, Slo-Mo got treatment, but his symptoms dragged out for longer than expected.

As a result, he sometimes had a hard time with proper depth perception this past season. Frankly, it is amazing that he even played as well as he did. But regardless of what numbers he put up with a bad eye, there is no denying Kyle's contributions are incredibly meaningful when he is fully healthy.

In the first season of his two-year contract with the Timberwolves, Anderson helped guide the team through a four-month stretch where they were forced to play without the injured Karl-Anthony Towns, while also leading the team in three-point field goal percentage. He is an extremely valuable role player at his best. We saw that on display in the Wolves' final playoff round against Dallas this past year, where he showed off his defensive skills against Luka Doncic.

In theory, Minnesota could retain Slo-Mo for the MLE, but it would likely require dumping several of their other free agents. In any event, losing Kyle would be a major letdown headed into next season.