The Timberwolves are in an enviable position. With the rookie contracts for Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns not set to expire until 2018 and 2019 respectively, the team has at least a couple more years to complement its young stars with higher-priced veterans, before Wiggins and Towns get expensive themselves. If Minnesota keeps its No. 5 overall pick and adds another talented rookie to its core, the Wolves would have committed about $65MM to 12 players for 2016/17. That leaves the club plenty of room to go out and make a splash – or two – in free agency, but also creates no pressure to do so.
Depending on how close the Wolves feel they are to contention and how many chips they want to shove into the pot in the short term, there are a handful of ways Minnesota could approach the offseason, and as long as Wiggins and Towns stay healthy and continue to develop, the franchise should have some margin for error.
See how Minnesota’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed Salary
- Ricky Rubio ($13,400,000)
- Nikola Pekovic ($12,100,000)
- Kevin Garnett ($8,000,000)
- Andrew Wiggins ($6,006,600)
- Karl-Anthony Towns ($5,960,160)
- Nemanja Bjelica ($3,800,000)
- Shabazz Muhammad ($3,046,299)
- Gorgui Dieng ($2,348,783)
- Zach LaVine ($2,240,880)
- Adreian Payne ($2,022,240)
- (Kevin Martin $1,380,305) — Salary remaining from release via stretch provision
- Tyus Jones ($1,339,680)
- Total: $61,644,947
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- Damjan Rudez ($1,199,000)
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Greg Smith ($1,139,123)
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Tayshaun Prince ($980,431)
Other Cap Holds
- No. 5 pick ($3,227,100)
- Justin Hamilton ($980,431)
- Robbie Hummel ($980,431)
- Othyus Jeffers ($980,431)
- Arinze Onuaku ($980,431)
- Total: $7,148,824
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Would love to see the wolves grab Durant. That’s far from likely, though
I would like to see the Wolves try and trade LaVine and Rubio to Phoenix for Bledsoe and Booker. Then draft Dunn if he is available at 5, if not one of the shooters or Bender.
That is an awful trade for the Suns. Bledsoe alone has more value than the two of them
Bledsoe is constantly hurt, yes he is the best player in the deal when healthy. The problem is he can’t make it through a full season. LaVine has a ton of potential and could be a superstar with some work on is shooting. Rubio needs a change of scenery and Booker is the shooter that the Wolves need to spread the floor.
That would be a terrible trade for the Wolves. They don’t need to make any splashy moves; just put the right vets around the young stars, be ready if there’s a youngish vet comes available for trade, and give Thibs two years to mold these guys. The chemistry is good; don’t start moving lots of pieces around and mess it up.
The Timberwolves are ready to roll. Now a lot of fans want to mess with the chemisty. Why do they want to trade Lavine who has awesome talent They want to draft and put a inexperience rookie in one of the difficult position to master point guard. They can draft a shooting guard and get themselves a free agent big and the wolves will be ready to roll!
I think the wolves should leave the roster be.. We have a ton of young talent, Rubio, Wiggins, Towns, LaVine, Dieng and Shabazz.. Plus the fifth pick.. This is the most talent this team has had ever.. ! And they are all drafted by us.. Let Tom do his thing, let the team grow and gel together, and we could have ourself a real contender for years to come. Except for KG, we blew it with a lot of draft picks, dumb trades, and the whole Joe Smith thing screwed us for years..
I thought Greg Smith was an UFA this offseason. He was signed for the rest of the season after 2 ten dayers. Or am I wrong?