- Nathan Knight‘s two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Timberwolves includes a $350K partial guarantee in year one and a $380,718 partial guarantee and team option in year two, Hoops Rumors has learned. Knight, who was on a two-way deal with Minnesota last season, signed a standard contract over the weekend. The 6’10” forward appeared in 37 NBA games last season.
JULY 26: The Timberwolves have officially signed Lawson to his two-way deal, per NBA.com’s transactions log.
JULY 19: The Timberwolves are signing free agent wing A.J. Lawson to a two-way contract, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Lawson excelled during the Las Vegas Summer League for the Mavericks, averaging 15.6 PPG and 6.0 RPG in five games.
Lawson, a 6’6” guard, was waived by the Hawks during training camp last fall. He then averaged 11.8 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 1.8 APG in 31.8 MPG for the College Park Skyhawks, Atlanta’s G League affiliate, while appearing in 33 games.
Lawson went undrafted in 2021 despite putting up 16.6 PPG and 4.1 RPG with a .351 3PT% in 21 games (31.3 MPG) as a junior for South Carolina in 2020/21.
Both of Minnesota’s two-way slots are empty, though the team has a two-way qualifying offer out to Nathan Knight.
10:30am: Knight’s contract carries a partial guarantee for the upcoming season, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).
9:52am: Power forward Nathan Knight has re-signed with the Timberwolves, according to the NBA’s transactions log.
Knight received a two-year contract with a team option on the second season, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Knight, 24, was a restricted free agent after playing on a two-way contract with Minnesota last August. He appeared in 37 games, making two starts, and averaged 3.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in 7.2 minutes per night.
Knight signed a two-way deal with the Hawks after going undrafted out of William & Mary in 2020. He played 33 games for Atlanta as a rookie.
Karl-Anthony Towns‘ super-max extension will keep him with the Timberwolves through the end of the 2027/28 season, and the star center has plans to stay even longer. At a press conference Friday formally announcing the extension, Towns indicated that he wants to spend the rest of his career in the Twin Cities, tweets basketball writer Christos Tsaltas.
“My dream is to retire here (in Minnesota),” Towns said. “I’m very comfortable spending my time here. This place has a special energy.”
If that happens, Towns will be among a select group of modern elite players to spend their entire career with one team. He has been a cornerstone of the franchise since being taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft, and the Wolves appear to be on the rise after reaching the playoffs last season and completing a huge offseason trade to acquire Rudy Gobert.
“I expect a lot of winning here,” Towns told reporters. “I want to win.”
There’s more from Minnesota:
- Appearing on ESPN’s NBA Today (video link), Towns said he was in London when the trade with Utah happened. When his girlfriend told him, “You guys got Rudy,” he thought the team signed Rudy Gay. When she explained that it was actually Gobert, Towns started thinking about the possibilities of having two big men on the court together. “I just saw the vision of us both twin towers out there,” Towns said. “What he can do defensively, what I can do offensively, and we all putting that together for one organization, I think it’s going to be very different. The NBA hasn’t seen something like this (for years). It’s going to be unique and it’s going to be scary.”
- In the same interview, Towns expressed supreme confidence in teammate Anthony Edwards and said the two of them need to “go out there and play at a level that hasn’t been seen since Shaq and Kobe, if possible” (Twitter link).
- The Wolves have confirmed that second-round pick Matteo Spagnolo will play overseas next season, according to Cody Taylor of USA Today’s Rookie Wire. Spagnolo, the 50th overall selection, spent last season with Vanoli Cremona of Lega A, Italy’s top professional league. He played for Minnesota in the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 3.2 points, 1.8 assists and 1.4 rebounds in five games.
Kenrich Williams‘ new four-year extension with the Thunder came in at a total value of $27,170,000, Hoops Rumors has learned. Williams will earn $6,175,000 in 2023/24 when the extension goes into effect, then $6,669,000 in ’24/25. His final two years are each worth $7,163,000, with a team option on the ’26/27 season.
In other Thunder cap news, JaMychal Green gave up $2,628,597 in his buyout agreement with the team. As our chart of minimum salaries shows, that’s the exact amount an eight-year veteran like Green would earn on a minimum contract, which is what he’ll reportedly sign with Golden State.
Here are a few more salary notes from around the NBA:
- The Pacers took advantage of their cap room by giving second-round pick Andrew Nembhard a contract with a declining structure. His four-year deal begins at $2,244,111 this season, then dips to $2,131,905 in 2023/24 and $2,019,699 in ’24/25 before increasing to the ’25/26 minimum of $2,187,451. The first three years are guaranteed, while the fourth is a team option.
- The Timberwolves used a portion of their mid-level exception to sign second-rounder Josh Minott to a four-year, minimum-salary contract. It’s fully guaranteed for the first two years and non-guaranteed for the last two. Minott’s third-year salary would become guaranteed if he’s not waived by June 28, 2024, and the fourth year is a team option. Minnesota now only has about $692K left on its mid-level exception, which could potentially be used very late in the season to sign a player to a three- or four-year minimum-salary deal.
- The Timberwolves‘ minimum-salary contract with Austin Rivers is only partially guaranteed for $650K. It would become fully guaranteed if he remains on the roster through the league-wide salary guarantee date in January.
At a press conference to announce his super-max extension on Friday, Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns said he is fully aware of the expectations the team has going forward after trading an enormous amount of assets for three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.
“Championship or bust,” Towns said.
He elaborated further once the press conference was over.
“When you make the trade that we made, that’s the reality. I’m not trying to sugarcoat,” Towns told Michael Rand of The Star Tribune. “You’ve got to think that. That’s really what’s on the table. I don’t think the fans would be accepting of [a goal of] a third-round elimination. … Let’s be real. The standards are high. The pressure is high. And that’s when we should all love to play basketball even more.”
As Rand writes, the idea that Minnesota would have such lofty goals even last summer, after a disappointing season saw the team finish 23-49, 13th in the West, might have seemed preposterous.
But things change quickly in the NBA, Rand notes. The Wolves won 46 games last season and made the playoffs for just the second time in the past 18 years, and now after acquiring a four-time All-NBA center, the bar for success has risen dramatically.
New president of basketball Tim Connelly said he was grateful that Towns was so eager to recommit to the only franchise he’s ever known.
“For Karl, he’s seen a lot of tough days,” Connelly said, per Rand. “It was so exciting to hear how excited he was about Finchy (head coach Chris Finch) and his teammates and how quickly he was willing to get this done.”
JULY 22: Minnott’s deal with the Wolves is now official, per NBA.com’s transactions log.
JULY 16: The Timberwolves are signing forward Josh Minott to a four-year contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Minott was originally selected No. 45 overall by the Hornets last month, then was traded to Minnesota on the night of the draft.
Before declaring for the draft, Minott played one season at Memphis, averaging 6.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. The 19-year-old also shot 52% from the field, playing an average of 14.6 minutes per contest.
At 6’8″ and notably athletic, Minott has the potential to be a combo forward and excel on both ends. He can still improve his shooting — he only made two 3-pointers in 33 games last season — but that typically isn’t more pressing than work ethic, athleticism and size for young, developing players.
The Timberwolves also recently signed veteran guard Austin Rivers and still have an open roster spot to use. The team expects to compete for a title in the coming years, especially after adding Rudy Gobert to a core that already includes D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. Minott will be able to learn from a blend of young players and veterans during his rookie season.
Although Charania pegs the value of Minott’s new deal at $6.8MM, a four-year minimum-salary contract would be worth $6.94MM, so that’s likely what the former Memphis Tiger is receiving. The Wolves still had a portion of their mid-level exception remaining after signing Kyle Anderson, and will use some of that MLE to complete Minott’s deal.
- Former NBA forward Wilson Chandler, who played 12 seasons in the league, has had “exploratory” discussions with the Timberwolves about joining their front office, according to Scotto, who notes that Chandler had four seasons of overlap under new Wolves president Tim Connelly while the two were with the Nuggets. Chandler had a productive career, averaging 12.5 PPG and 4.3 RPG on .443/.341/.770 shooting in 676 games (483 starts, 30.0 MPG).
JULY 21: Minnesota has officially announced the signing of Rivers, confirming the move in a press release.
JULY 14: The Timberwolves have made a move to bolster their bench as they continue to reshape their roster this summer. Minnesota is signing veteran combo guard Austin Rivers to a one-year contract, agents Dave Spahn and Aaron Mintz inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The 6’4″ vet will be signing on for the veteran’s minimum, per Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link).
Rivers will be reuniting with a familiar face in the Timberwolves front office — Minnesota team president Tim Connelly, who signed a lucrative deal of his own with the club this summer after a successful extended tenure with the Nuggets. Rivers spent parts of the last two NBA seasons as a key reserve in Denver under Connelly.
After signing a 10-day deal with the Nuggets in April 2021, Rivers quickly proved himself worthy of a roster spot on a postseason contender, and was promptly brought back on a rest-of-season deal. He further solidified his role with the club by stepping up as a scorer during the 2021 playoffs. In Denver’s first-round matchup against the Trail Blazers, Rivers averaged 11.5 PPG (while shooting 48.3% from deep), 2.3 APG and 2.2 RPG.
The 29-year-old journeyman re-signed with Denver during the 2021 offseason. He would go on to play a crucial role, largely off the bench, for a guard-deprived Denver club. Across 67 contests, including 18 starts, Rivers averaged 6.0 PPG on .417/.342/.727 shooting splits during 22.1 MPG of game action. He also pulled down 1.7 RPG, dished out 1.3 APG, and snagged 0.8 SPG.
Rivers joins a revamped Minnesota team that offloaded much of its veteran depth to add three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. He’ll serve as a helpful ball-handler off the bench behind projected backcourt starters D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards. Another new free agent signee, Kyle Anderson, will likely start at small forward, while Gobert will join All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns to form a jumbo-sized frontcourt tandem.
Two-way player Johnny Juzang could be another developmental success story for the Jazz, Sarah Todd of the Deseret News writes.
Juzang, one of UCLA’s stars during the Final Four run in 2021, should get more of an opportunity than most undrafted rookies with Utah apparently shifting to rebuild mode. There are questions about Juzang’s defensive ability, but he proved to be a steady offensive threat in college. He struggled in Summer League action, shooting 26.1% from the field.
“I feel like I see the floor pretty well right now but I want to continue to become even more of a playmaker,” Juzang said. “I’m also focused on playing on and off the ball. It will all come with time.”
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- Forward Jarred Vanderbilt, one of the players acquired from the Timberwolves in the Rudy Gobert deal, should be a defensive asset for the Jazz. He recognizes that he can be even more of a force if he develops his offensive game, according to Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune. Vanderbilt started 67 regular season games for Minnesota last season but only averaged 6.9 PPG in 25.4 MPG. “Finishing around the rim, touch; working on my shooting, trying to expand my range; working on ball-handling and counter-moves,” Vanderbilt said of what he needs to work on the most. “I’m still young in my career, where I have a lot of opportunity to still grow and expand my game as well. I’m sticking to the foundation that got me here, but building off that.”
- What did the Thunder learn about No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren and the rest of their squad at the Vegas Summer League? Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman breaks down their performances.
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope‘s two-year extension with the Nuggets is worth $14.7MM in 2023/24, with a $15.44MM player option for ’24/25, Hoops Rumors has learned. The deal comes in at approximately $30.15MM in total.
- In case you missed it, Kenrich Williams agreed to a four-year extension with the Thunder. Get all the details here.