Wolves Plan To Target Kyle Lowry, Three Others

With Jimmy Butler now on board, the Timberwolves’ next step is an upgrade at point guard, tweets Mitch Lawrence of The Sporting News.

Toronto’s Kyle Lowry tops Minnesota’s free agent wish list, according to Lawrence, followed by New Orleans’ Jrue Holiday, Indiana’s Jeff Teague and Utah’s George Hill.

Minnesota has about $20MM in remaining cap room, so more salary would have to be unloaded to offer a max deal. One way to do that, especially if a point guard is being targeted, is to find a taker for incumbent starter Ricky Rubio, who will make $14.25MM next season and $14.8MM in 2018/19.

The Wolves had discussions involving Rubio with the Knicks at last season’s deadline and the Mavericks more recently, but both teams just picked up new point guards in the draft.

Lowry is the most likely of the four to receive maximum money. Coming off three straight All-Star appearances, the 11-year veteran made $12MM with the Raptors this season. Although limited to 60 games by injuries, he averaged a career-high 22.4 points per game.

All four teams have Bird rights on their guards, so they will have the competitive advantage of being able to offer more money and one more season than Minnesota can.

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