Minnesota Timberwolves Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Gibson-Saric Power Duo Has Been Effective

December 28th, 2018 at 9:06pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is trying to put a damper on speculation that Dennis Smith Jr. will be dealt. Carlisle said that Smith and rookie sensation Luka Doncic form a ball-handling duo that can coexist and put steady pressure on opposing defenses, Dwain Price of Mavs.com tweets. “We have two point guards out there. Let’s quit looking at it as Dennis is getting relegated to playing off the ball,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got two point guards out there, which is a great advantage, and we’ve just got to take advantage of that and create a balance and cause problems for teams.” A report surfaced earlier this week that Dallas was gauging the market for the second-year guard.

We have more from around the Western Conference:

Chandler Parsons has been medically cleared to play and has participated in four 5-on-5 scrimmages but it’s uncertain when the Grizzlies will begin using him again, according to David Cobb of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Parsons, who has been battling knee soreness since being sidelined in late October, has yet to be activated. “He is dying to play,” Parsons’ agent, James Dunleavy, told Cobb. Parsons is making $24.1MM this season and another $25.1MM next season before his contract expires.
The duo of Taj Gibson and Dario Saric has provided a comfort level to Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. They have shared the spot since Saric was acquired from the Sixers in the Jimmy Butler deal. “Taj is playing unbelievable, and so is Dario,” Thibodeau told Hine. Gibson, who is making $14MM, will be an unrestricted free agent in July.
The backup power forward spot has been problematic for the Thunder, according to an Oklahoman report. Jerami Grant is averaging 12.4 PPG and 4.8 RPG as the starter but there’s a dropoff when he needs a rest. Patrick Patterson, the most likely candidate, has seen his minutes decline. He’s averaging just 3.9 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 15.9 MPG. Patterson holds a $5.7MM option on his contract for next season.

Northwest Notes: Rose, Nader, Schroder, Jazz

December 26th, 2018 at 1:54pm CST by marksuleymanov

If Derrick Rose continues at his current pace, he could become just the second player ever to win Sixth Man of the Year after winning the Most Valuable Player award earlier in their career. As he prepares to return to Chicago to play the Bulls, the team with which he experienced his greatest successes, he deserves praise for his renaissance season, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes.

Injuries derailed Rose’s once seemingly surefire Hall 0f Fame career, but he has rebounded to be an impactful player of the Timberwolves‘ bench. Rose is averaging 18.5 PPG and 4.6 APG in 29.2 minutes per contest in 2018/19. Not only that, his field goal percentage (48.5%) is at its highest mark since his sophomore season and his three-point shooting (46.9%) is over 12% better than at any other point.

“The way he’s getting ready for the game as far as working out, monitoring his body, taking care of himself, he’s a totally different person,” Rose’s longtime teammate Taj Gibson said. “Every game, it’s like he’s in a new form. He’s born again. And it shows.”

Check out more Northwest Division notes:

The Thunder decided to go with Abdel Nader in lieu of Patrick Patterson to fill in for Jerami Grant at power forward on Tuesday. Oklahoma City head coach Billy Donovan said he went with Nader due to the Rockets going with a smaller lineup, Erik Horne of The Oklahoman writes. “It means a lot that he has confidence to put me in at that time,” Nader said.
After he served a one-game suspension and hadn’t played since last Monday, Thunder guard Dennis Schroder was thrown into the fire against the Jazz over the weekend, Horne writes in a separate story.
One noticeable change in the Jazz’s recent play has been an uptick in assists, Ryan McDonald of the Deseret News writes.

Injuries Leaving Timberwolves Short At Point Guard

December 23rd, 2018 at 6:04pm CST by Eric Spyropoulos

Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, they will continue to be without starting point guard Jeff Teague for another 7-10 days, according to Alan Horton (via Twitter), the radio voice of the Wolves. The Timberwolves have struggled in recent games as they continue to adjust to life without Jimmy Butler.
Speaking of the Timberwolves, Chris Hine of The Star Tribune writes that Derrick Rose has struggled with an ankle injury and could miss some time, which would leave the Wolves short at point guard as they look to bounce back from recent losses.

Timberwolves Recall Keita Bates-Diop

December 22nd, 2018 at 9:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Timberwolves tweeted that small forward Keita Bates-Diop has been recalled from Iowa. He is averaging 17.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in 13 G League games.

Timberwolves’ Jeff Teague To Miss At Least One More Week

December 22nd, 2018 at 2:23pm CST by marksuleymanov

The Timberwolves will be without point guard Jeff Teague for at least another 7 to 10 days as he deals with a left ankle injury, according to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. Minnesota has been without Teague since last Saturday when the pain of the injured ankle became too significant, Hine writes.

“It was tough, just trying to fight through it,” Teague said. “That last game in Phoenix, I just couldn’t move. The pain was just too bad. Just trying to do some things to get right.”

Teague said he originally injured the ankle on Nov. 12, the same game he came back from a six-game absence dealing with a left knee contusion. In 23 games this season, Teague has averaged 11.6 PPG and a career-high 8.3 APG for the Timberwolves.

In his absence, Minnesota has been more reliant on Derrick Rose, who’s in the midst of a renaissance year. Rose is averaging 18.6 PPG, his highest total since the 2012-13 season, and shooting a career-best 46.9% from three-point range.

Wolves Only NBA Team To Rate Hoiberg Highly?

December 14th, 2018 at 6:13pm CST by Luke Adams

While Fred Hoiberg would prefer to continue coaching at the NBA level, Marc Stein of The New York Times believes league-wide interest in the former Chicago head coach will be limited. Stein suggests that the Timberwolves – and owner Glen Taylor – are fond of Hoiberg, but they’re “the only known team to rate Hoiberg so highly.” It’s possible that Minnesota could move on from Tom Thibodeau at season’s end and consider Hoiberg at that point, but speculation about Thibodeau’s job security has quieted down since the Jimmy Butler trade.

Jimmy Butler Talks Infamous Timberwolves Practice

December 11th, 2018 at 10:32pm CST by Luke Adams

We’re nearly a full month removed from the blockbuster trade that sent Jimmy Butler from Minnesota to Philadelphia in a package that included Dario Saric and Robert Covington. With both the Sixers and Timberwolves playing well since completing that deal, Butler sat down with teammate J.J. Redick for an appearance on Redick’s podcast for The Ringer, revisiting the trade request that ultimately ended his time as a Timberwolf.

In addition to discussing his trade request and his initial thoughts on heading to Philadelphia, Butler also provided some new details on the year’s most-discussed scrimmage. Here are a few highlights from the All-NBA swingman:

On whether Philadelphia was on his radar as a possible destination after he requested a trade:

“It was. When they were talking, Minnesota and Philly, they liked the deal that they were starting to get and then put together. So that’s when I became kinda aware that I could end up in Philly. Did I think this was gonna be where I ended up? I didn’t think so. And the only reason I didn’t think so was because it’s like, Philly is already a really, really good team. If you put me on there, I would like to think I’m a good enough player to add a little something and maybe get us to the hump of Eastern Conference finals, maybe even Finals.”

On whether scheduling a one-on-one sitdown with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols on the same day as his infamous performance in practice was premeditated:

“Look, I did go to Marquette University, so I know you think I’m really that smart, but that’s not what happened. What happened was: This interview was planned three weeks ahead of time to talk about what was going on. So I would keep going into the office talking with management, talking with Thibs, and they would be like, ‘Hey, you need to come in and practice.’ I was like, ‘Thibs, what I need to come in and practice for? Y’all gonna trade me.’ What’s the point of practicing — going in there, getting up and down — and then I’m gonna be gone in a day. ‘Cause it was always like: ‘We almost got a deal, we almost got a deal, we almost got a deal.'”

More on that scrimmage, in which Butler teamed up with the Wolves’ third-stringers to beat the starters:

“We go into the practice, and I’m telling Thibs, ‘I just wanna hoop,’ like I just wanna get up and down. See if I can go. And we start doing some drills, and at the end we start hooping. Now that’s when all of the stuff goes on. We play, we win, and I’m yapping. I’m yapping, I’m yapping. I always talk, anyways. If you can’t tell, I’m always talking, talking about how somebody can’t guard me, or nobody can beat me. I do that. That’s what I do. This time it was just a little bit different ’cause of whose team I was on and I ain’t been around, so it was just taken up a notch and it didn’t help who was watching—ownership, management, all of that good stuff.”

On “the most interesting detail of that whole scrimmage that nobody knows”:

“I only shot the ball one time. I only shot the ball once. … I was dominating, but I only shot the ball once. Dimes, boom, boom, boom. Steals, blocks. I only shot the ball one time.”

Details On Wolves' Halftime Locker Room Argument

December 6th, 2018 at 10:42pm CST by JD Shaw

The Timberwolves had a shouting match during halftime of the game against Houston on Monday, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes. As a result, the team then worked together in the second half to pull off an impressive victory. “We screamed at each other about how we wanted to fix our mistakes on defense and how we were as a group going to do it before Thibs talked to us,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “And we went out there and did it.”

NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Northwest Division

December 5th, 2018 at 3:12pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the course of the 2018/19 NBA season, up until February’s trade deadline, we’re keeping an eye on potential trade candidates from around the NBA, monitoring their value and exploring the likelihood that they’ll be moved. Each of these looks at possible trade candidates focuses on a specific division, as we zero in on three players from that division.

When we last checked in on the Northwest, the Timberwolves held the NBA’s top trade candidate in Jimmy Butler. Now that Butler has been moved, there are far fewer obvious trade chips in the division, where teams like the Jazz, Trail Blazers, and Nuggets have doubled down on their current cores within the last year or two.

Here’s our latest look at a few possible trade candidates from the Northwest…

Jerryd Bayless, G
Minnesota Timberwolves
$8.58MM cap hit; unrestricted free agent in 2019

Bayless was traded by the Sixers before we could profile him as an Atlantic division trade candidate, but the same traits that made him a useful trade chip for Philadelphia will give him some value for the Timberwolves.

Whether or not Bayless will be able to contribute anything on the court in 2018/19 is somewhat irrelevant — it’s his $8.58MM salary and his expiring contract that make him useful in trade talks. That cap hit makes him ideal for matching mid-level type contracts, or packaging him with other pieces (after January 12), as the Sixers did. And the fact that he’ll be a free agent at season’s end could appeal more to a team looking to create 2019 cap space than it will to the Wolves, who will likely remain over the cap even after clearing Bayless from their books.

It’s possible that Minnesota is done dealing for now, in which case Bayless could become a buyout candidate, rather than a trade candidate, assuming he gets healthy later in the season.

Jusuf Nurkic, C
Portland Trail Blazers
$11.11MM cap hit; under contract through 2021/22

Nurkic just re-signed with the Trail Blazers over the summer, securing a lucrative new four-year deal from the club, so he’s not likely to be traded anytime soon — he’s not even eligible to be moved until January 15.

Still, in past years, big men like Blake Griffin and Nene Hilario have been traded just months after signing even longer-term contracts than Nurkic’s. And it’s worth noting that Zach Collins‘ ongoing development has made the idea of a Nurkic trade more viable for Portland, as ESPN’s Zach Lowe observed last month.

The Blazers have been reluctant to break up their core in recent years, and if they decide to do anything drastic, it will probably happen during the offseason rather than at the trade deadline. However, I suspect that if they do take a big swing, they’re more likely to move their veteran center than one of their star guards, given Collins’ potential to fill a similar role at a fraction of the price. If that happens, Nurkic could be the key to helping Portland acquire a much-needed impact player on the wing.

Patrick Patterson, F
Oklahoma City Thunder
$5.45MM cap hit; $5.71MM player option for 2019/20

Like Bayless, Patterson is a trade chip by virtue of his cap hit, which the Thunder might need for salary-matching purposes if they make a deal.

Patterson’s salary is more modest than Bayless’, but of the eight Oklahoma City players earning more than $2.2MM, seven are starters or important rotation players who may not be expendable. The eighth is Patterson, who has struggled mightily since arriving in OKC, making him the club’s most logical chip, even if his contract extends beyond this season and won’t be appealing to trade partners.

If Patterson’s value is too limited to make a deal work, Alex Abrines could be the Thunder trade candidate to watch — he’s earning almost exactly the same salary as Patterson and is on an expiring contract.

Previously:

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

D'Antoni Praises Rose For Making Changes

December 3rd, 2018 at 10:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

D’Antoni has high praise for the Timberwolves’ Derrick Rose, who has reinvented himself as a shooting guard, Feigen writes in a separate story. Rose is averaging 19.3 PPG despite starting just five of 21 games. “Accepting new roles is tough. Some guys can do it. Some guys just can’t do it,” D’Antoni said. “They can try to shoot threes all they want. When they can do it, for the team, obviously, it’s beneficial. The league has changed. If you want to be effective, you have to change sometimes.”