After trading for Jimmy Butler, the Timberwolves certainly “Outshined” every other team on draft night. My apologies for the lame jokes, but not really. I was away from my laptop this weekend, so I was not able to write up about these moves one at a time. As a Wolves fan, it was certainly an interesting weekend. It all started with the trade of Ricky Rubio on Friday and I got very little sleep Friday night due to constantly refreshing Twitter on my phone. It has already been the most interesting offseason in years for the Timberwolves and it will continue in the coming weeks.
First off, I will start out with the trade of Rubio for a lottery protected first from Utah (via Oklahoma City). I was not surprised when he was traded to Utah. Minnesota did not want to take cap back, so they just shipped him off for a protected first in order to gain much-needed cap space. The Jazz were interested in Rubio since George Hill likely will head elsewhere this offseason. Many Wolves fans were so upset about this trade. I was not one of them. I had a feeling it was coming, especially following the trade for Butler. Since the Wolves traded their top 3-point threat to Chicago (Zach LaVine), so Minnesota needs to upgrade shooting in the worst way and Rubio does not help in that area. Looking back on it, the writing was on the wall. Rubio is a career 37 percent shooter from the floor and is coming off a career year......of just 40 percent shooting. He is also a career 32 percent 3-point shooter. Rubio is solid defensively, but I do think he is over-rated in that area. I know some dopey statistics are in his favor, but when I watch him play, he is beaten quite a bit. He also has trouble making layups and passes up open ones quite a bit. Minnesota needed to improve its shooting at point guard to fit with Butler and Andrew Wiggins.
Hours after trading Rubio to Utah, Minnesota picked up its replacement after agreeing to a deal with former Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers point guard Jeff Teague on a three-year deal. The Timberwolves downgraded defensively and passing, but they improve at shooting and scoring. While not great at shooting, he made 36 percent from deep last season and had an eFG percentage of 49 percent, much higher than Rubio’s of 45. He also gets to the free throw line more and is a much better shooter off the dribble. Overall, I am fine with it. The floor spacing will be much better with Teague than it was with Rubio. He may not be a great shooter, but I still would feel more comfortable with him taking an open jump shot than Ricky, especially with Teague playing off the ball more and Butler having the ball quite a bit. That is something the Spaniard could not do.
Minnesota still needed a backup big and I called it (granted, many predicted it) as the Wolves signed Taj Gibson. The 32-year-old signed a two-year deal yesterday, reuniting himself with Tom Thibodeau, who he played five years under in Chicago. Gibson will bring some interior defense to a team that severely lacked in that area last year. He also will bring some much-needed toughness to the team. Last season, Gibson averaged 10.8 and 6.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 52 percent from the floor. Whether him or Gorgui Dieng starts, the bench gets a big boost with this signing. The backup big men struggled last year. They still have Nemanja Bjelica who played really well the weeks before he got hurt. That quartet of big men is not too bad.
Following the trade of Rubio on Friday, I was thinking the Wolves would go all-in for Kyle Lowry. Well, he received a 3-year, $100 million deal. Minnesota did not have that kind of money. After Minnesota agreed to a deal with Teague, the Wolves looked at both J.J. Redick and Paul Millsap. Darren Wolfson said that Minnesota had the cap space to land Redick and there was a report that the Timberwolves were one of the favorites to land Millsap. I went to bed thinking that they would end up with one of them. It was perfect. Redick was interested in Minnesota and they had the money for a multi-year deal. The Wolves desperately need shooting and he shot 43 percent from deep last season. I was dreaming of ways they were going to somehow, someway get both of them. As it turns out, they didn’t land either. Surprisingly, Minnesota did not even offer a contract to Redick and he signed a one-year deal worth $23 million with the Philadelphia 76ers. Then, Millsap signed a three-year, $90 million contract with the Denver Nuggets. There was no way the Wolves were going to go that far with Millsap, so they went to Gibson. That teaches me to not get my hopes up. I am very happy with Gibson, but a Teague/Wiggins/Butler/Millsap/Towns starting five would have been an incredible lineup. Then I woke up...
Moving forward, the Wolves still are in desperate need of shooting. Unfortunately, they don’t have much cap space. However, they still do have Cole Aldrich, who has a cap friendly contract as his contract is not guaranteed after next season, so he may not be retained by a team in need of cap space for the 2018 offseason. Minnesota would have to include the draft pick received from Utah in order to move Aldrich for cap space. There are a few options still out there, such as C.J. Miles, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., Anthony Morrow and Vince Carter. In order to sign Miles, who is both a terrific 3-point shooter and a good defender, the Wolves would have to trade Aldrich and the first from the Rubio trade to clear some cap space in order to sign Miles. The others should come fairly cheap. There is still plenty of time this offseason to get some shooting help, but they need to find some snipers sooner rather than later before they’re all gone.
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