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Community Shootaround: Minnesota Timberwolves

August 23rd, 2022 at 8:02pm CST by Dana Gauruder

A big reason why Kevin Durant wasn’t traded and Donovan Mitchell remains on Utah’s roster is that the Timberwolves gave up multiple rotation pieces and first-round picks for a player who’s averaged 12.4 points in his career.

The haul that the Jazz received for Rudy Gobert included Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, 2022 first-round pick Walker Kessler, and four future first-rounders. All but one of those picks are unprotected.

Of course, Minnesota didn’t acquire Gobert for his offensive skills. Minnesota led the NBA last season with a 115.9 point average but ranked 24th in points allowed (113.3) and 16th in defensive field goal percentage (46.0%).

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year will provide an imposing presence it has lacked at that end of the floor. Gobert is also a prolific rebounder — he led the league in that category last season — and one of the NBA’s top shot-blockers.

By surrendering so many assets, Minnesota essentially took an “all-in” approach, viewing Gobert as the missing piece to a title contender. The Timberwolves now have their own Big Three in Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and Gobert.

Towns is one of the league’s most prolific scorers, as he displayed in his 60-point game in March. He has finished as a top-20 scorer in five of his seven NBA seasons.

There were doubts about Edwards when he was chosen with the first overall pick in 2020 but he has been an offensive force since the second half of his rookie campaign. Edwards averaged 21.3 PPG in his second season and was even more dangerous in six playoff games (25.2 PPG).

The starting lineup is rounded out by point guard D’Angelo Russell and Jaden McDaniels. Russell has been a trade candidate after some poor playoff performances (33.3% shooting, 12 PPG) but he’s averaged nearly 18 points in his career. Last season, he also averaged a career high in assists (7.1 APG) with low turnover numbers (2.5 per game).

Minnesota insisted on keeping McDaniels in trade talks with Utah. A late 2020 pick, McDaniels is viewed by the franchise as one of the top young defensive wings in the league.

The trade sapped the Timberwolves’ depth and they tried to fortify it by using a chunk of their mid-level exception on forward Kyle Anderson. They also added sharpshooter Bryn Forbes and veteran guard Austin Rivers on one-year deals. They still have Jordan McLaughlin to back up Russell and Naz Reid as the primary reserve big man.

The Timberwolves led the league in 3-pointers made (14.8 per game) last season, though percentage-wise they’re just average in that category. Towns is the only member of the lineup who’s an above-average shooter from deep.

Another concern, especially in the postseason, is whether they can keep Towns and Gobert on the floor at the same time when opponents go with small-ball units.

That brings us to our question of the day: Did the acquisition of Gobert make the Timberwolves a serious contender for the NBA championship? If not, what else do they need to reach that level?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

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Garza's Contract Is Exhibit 10

August 23rd, 2022 at 5:24pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • Luka Garza‘s contract with the Timberwolves is an Exhibit 10 deal, Darren Wolfson of KSTP tweets. Minnesota officially signed the second-year big man on Tuesday. He’ll compete for a roster spot but could become an affiliate player for the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s G League team. He’ll be eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if he is waived and then spends at least 60 days with Iowa.

The Nets wanted a better haul than the Jazz received from the Timberwolves for Rudy Gobert.

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Timberwolves Sign Luka Garza

August 23rd, 2022 at 11:28am CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have officially signed free agent forward/center Luka Garza, the team announced today in a press release. The Wolves also confirmed the previously reported signing of CJ Elleby, which was made official a couple weeks ago.

Garza, 23, was selected by the Pistons with the 52nd overall pick in the 2021 draft and spent his rookie season in Detroit, averaging 5.8 PPG and 3.1 RPG in 32 games (12.2 MPG). He was a standout for the Motor City Cruise, Detroit’s G League affiliate, putting up 20.6 PPG and 9.5 RPG in 16 games (29.8 MPG) and earning a spot on the All-NBAGL Third Team.

Garza’s contract with the Pistons was for two years, but the 2022/23 season was a team option, which Detroit declined, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The former Iowa star is now on track to attend training camp with Minnesota, though it’s unclear if there will be any room for him on the club’s 15-man roster. The Timberwolves currently have 12 players on guaranteed contracts, with Austin Rivers, Jaylen Nowell, and Nathan Knight seemingly the frontrunners to fill out the regular season squad.

If Garza doesn’t make the Timberwolves’ 15-man roster or end up on a two-way deal, he could become an affiliate player for the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s G League team. Terms of his contract aren’t known, but if it includes Exhibit 10 language, he’d be eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with Iowa.

Counting their two-way players, the Timberwolves now have 19 players under contract.

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More Than 30 NBA Players On Track To Suit Up For EuroBasket

August 18th, 2022 at 11:00am CST by Luke Adams

The first EuroBasket tournament in five years will tip off in two weeks and there are currently 34 NBA players on track to participate in the event, representing 17 different countries, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net.

EuroBasket is a 24-team international basketball competition also known as the European Basketball Championship. It historically took place every two years, but that gap was recently adjusted to four years, emulating the FIBA World Cup schedule.

The last EuroBasket tournament was played in 2017 — the next one had been scheduled for 2021, but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. As a result, after being played every two years since 1947, it has now been five years since the last EuroBasket tournament, easily the longest layoff since World War II.

It’s possible that some NBA players will be cut from their teams’ rosters or will have to drop out due to injuries or personal reasons before the event begins on September 1, but in general enthusiasm to participate in the long-awaited event appears high.

Here’s the list of NBAers currently set to play in EuroBasket, per Eurohoops:

There are also multiple NBA free agents on EuroBasket rosters, including French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and German guard Dennis Schröder.

A number of young NBA players, such as 2022 draftees Jeremy Sochan and Nikola Jovic, have dropped out to focus on getting ready for the 2022/23 season, while others, including Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Frank Ntilikina (France), were ruled out due to injuries.

Round robin play will begin on September 1, with each team facing the other five clubs in its group once. The top four teams in each group will advance to a 16-team bracket that begins on September 10. The final will take place on September 18, just over a week before NBA training camps get underway.

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NBA To Release Full 2022/23 Schedule On Wednesday

August 16th, 2022 at 9:04am CST by Luke Adams

9:04am: The NBA’s schedule announcement is set for 3:00 pm Eastern time (2:00 pm CT) on Wednesday, the league has confirmed (via Twitter).

7:50am: The NBA will announce its full schedule for the 2022/23 regular season on Wednesday, league sources tell veteran reporter Marc Stein (Twitter link).

A handful of key matchups on the coming season’s schedule have been reported in recent days, including all five Christmas Day games and a Warriors/Lakers season opener.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Celtics and Sixers will also play in Boston on opening night, which will fall on Tuesday, October 18.

Other newly reported matchups from the NBA’s opening week include the Suns hosting the Mavericks on October 19 after being blown out in Phoenix in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals by that same Dallas team (Twitter link via Charania); and the new-look Timberwolves hosting Rudy Gobert‘s old team, the Jazz, on October 21 (Twitter link via Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports). The Wolves will visit Utah for the first time on December 9, Haynes reports.

The fact that the season will officially begin on October 18 means that Monday, October 17 will be a key deadline to watch. That will be the last day for teams to set their 15-man rosters for the regular season, to convert Exhibit 10 contracts into two-way deals, to complete sign-and-trades, and to sign players to rookie scale extensions.

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Gobert Has Better Defenders Around Him In Minnesota

August 15th, 2022 at 10:11pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • How much will Gobert impact the Timberwolves? The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski picks the brain of colleague Tony Jones, who covered Gobert in Utah. Jones believes Minnesota has more defenders with length and athleticism around Gobert than the Jazz ever had. That will make the Timberwolves a very good team the next couple of years, though there’s some risk of decline near the end of his contract, which runs through the 2025/26 season.
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Patrick Beverley Isn't Upset About Being Traded By The Timberwolves

August 14th, 2022 at 10:40am CST by Arthur Hill
  • Patrick Beverley, who was shipped from the Timberwolves to the Jazz in the Rudy Gobert trade, disagrees with anyone who believes he was disrespected in Minnesota. Many observers were surprised to see the veteran guard moved after he helped to install a culture of toughness that enabled the Wolves to reach the playoffs, but Beverley is at peace with his time in Minnesota. “It took me five months to make $13MM,” said Beverley, who got that amount on a one-year extension in February. “Y’all can say they did me wrong. I say they did me right.” (video link from Pro City Hoops).
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Timberwolves To Hire Joe Connelly As Director Of Scouting

August 12th, 2022 at 1:43pm CST by Luke Adams

After Tim Connelly left Denver for Minnesota to become the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations earlier this year, his brother Joe Connelly will make the same move, according to Mike Singer of The Denver Post, who reports (via Twitter) that Joe will become the Wolves’ director of scouting.

Joe Connelly has spent the last few years with the Nuggets, working in a player development role and in the organization’s scouting department. His most recent title in Denver was director of pro personnel. According to Singer (Twitter link), Joe was a major advocate for Bones Hyland leading up to last year’s draft — the Nuggets ultimately selected Hyland with the No. 26 pick.

Tim Connelly is continuing to reshape Minnesota’s front office after changing teams within the Northwest Division this spring, and this isn’t the first of his recent moves that involves an executive heading from the Nuggets to the Timberwolves. Singer reported on Thursday that former Nuggets scouting coordinator Jon Wallace is becoming the Wolves’ director of player personnel and G League general manager.

Dell Demps, Matt Lloyd, and Steve Senior are among the other veteran executives who have joined the Timberwolves’ front office this offseason, while assistant GM Joe Branch is moving on from the team.

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And-Ones: Offseason, Tampering Rules, FA Signings

August 12th, 2022 at 9:15am CST by Luke Adams

In a roundtable discussion, Howard Beck, Chris Mannix, Robin Lundberg, and Rohan Nadkarni discussed the best, worst, most surprising, and most intriguing moves of the 2022 NBA offseason, agreeing on some issues and sharing opposing views on others.

For instance, while Beck and Mannix both view the Rudy Gobert blockbuster as the best roster move of the summer, Beck makes the case that the Jazz‘s side of the deal was the offseason’s top move, while Mannix argues for the Timberwolves‘ side.

Beck, Lundberg, and Nadkarni, meanwhile, all named the Hawks‘ acquisition of Dejounte Murray as the summer’s most intriguing roster move, while Beck and Lundberg agree that Kevin Durant‘s trade request with four years left on his contract was the offseason’s worst move. From a basketball perspective, Durant would be best off staying in Brooklyn and playing for a Nets team that looks capable of contending for a title, Beck writes.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

  • The NBA’s tampering rules aren’t exactly working as intended, but it’s unclear if there’s any obvious way to fix them, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News. “The threat of harsher penalties and random audits doesn’t even make teams flinch,” one source told Todd. “And at this point, if we investigated every possible instance of tampering, the whole league would come to a screeching halt and nothing would ever get done.” According to Todd, multiple front office executives that she spoke to expressed support for moving free agency ahead of the draft, among other changes to the current system.
  • David Aldridge of The Athletic wrapped up his series on which teams improved the most and least this offseason by listing his picks from 20 to 11 and from 10 to one. The Sixers were Aldridge’s choice for the team that made the best roster upgrades, followed by the Hawks, Nuggets, Celtics, and Timberwolves.
  • Dan Devine of The Ringer shines a light on seven under-the-radar free agent agreements that he’s intrigued by, including the Heat‘s three-year deal with Caleb Martin, the Timberwolves‘ acquisition of Kyle Anderson, and the Pistons‘ investment in Marvin Bagley III.
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Northwest Notes: Green, Jazz, Wallace

August 11th, 2022 at 7:10pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Nuggets forward Jeff Green put together a voluntary minicamp for himself and some of his Denver teammates this week in Miami, per Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports (Twitter link). Davon Reed, Zeke Nnaji, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Jack White joined Green for the workouts. Wind adds that additional players hoped to join them but were unable to carve out the time in their schedules.

The Nuggets are preparing for an exciting 2022/23 NBA season, with reigning two-time MVP Nikola Jokic set to be rejoined by point guard Jamal Murray, who missed all of 2021/22 due to a left ACL tear, and small forward Michael Porter Jr., who appeared in just nine games before back surgery waylaid him for the rest of the year. The team’s starting lineup will be rounded out by power forward Aaron Gordon and newly-acquired 3-and-D specialist Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

Nuggets role players like Green, Reed, and Nanji, plus the three rookies joining them in Miami this week, could prove to be important contributors during what Denver hopes will be an extended postseason run.

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

  • After the Jazz appeared to signal the beginning of a rebuild with their trade of All-Star center Rudy Gobert for a package comprising young players, movable veterans and draft compensation, they seem set for a lackluster 2022/23 season. Brandon Judd of the Deseret News notes that Kendra Andrews, Andrew Lopez and Kevin Pelton of ESPN (Insider link) projects the club to finish with a 26-56 record next season.
  • Former Nuggets scouting coordinator Jon Wallace is departing his post in Denver to join the Timberwolves as both Minnesota’s director of player personnel and the general manager of the club’s NBAGL affiliate, the Iowa Wolves, reports Mike Singer of the Denver Post (Twitter link). Wallace tweets that Wallace was especially valued with the Nuggets for his impact on their guards. Wallace is joining a revamped Minnesota front office led by Tim Connelly, himself the former Denver team president.
  • In case you missed it, Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor recently sat for a long-ranging discussion about the new-look team’s personnel and expectations.
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