The Timberwolves boast tremendous upside following the Love trade.
What a roller coaster ride it’s been for Wolves fans over the last few months. One day, we’re hearing rumors about the Warriors’ reluctance to depart with Klay Thompson in a deal for Kevin Love – causing laughter at both teams [a*]. Weeks later, a trade idea that appeared to have been quickly squashed – Love for Andrew Wiggins – resurfaced and was finally able to be announced officially on Saturday.
As discussed here, the Wolves arguably made out better than any team trading an All-Star in NBA history. While Minnesota acquired Al Jefferson in exchange for Kevin Garnett back in 2007, the Nuggets did well for themselves in the Carmelo Anthony trade, and the Orlando Magic netted a nice package featuring young center Nikola Vucevic when they dealt Dwight Howard, no team in NBA history can make the claim that it was able to trade a disgruntled superstar for a player possessing the potential Wiggins has.
Coaching – 16/25
The coaching situation is still up in the air. Flip Saunders is currently operating as the president-coach of the team, and though he’s always been known as a guy who loves veterans, if he does stick around with the team it’s unlikely he will refuse to adapt to the situation at hand and develop the team’s younger players. Saunders has legitimate NBA experience, and while his glory days of coaching are well behind him, it’s not like he doesn’t still know his stuff. It’s doubtful he’ll be the coach for the foreseeable future, but it does make sense for Saunders to step in as the interim voice until the front office is able to figure out who its coach of the future will be.
Free Agency & Trades – 25/25
Even before it was announced that they’d also be acquiring Thaddeus Young from the 76ers (in exchange for Miami’s 2015 top-10 protected first-round pick and the expiring contracts of Alexey Shved and Luc Mbah A Moute), snagging Wiggins and Anthony Bennett was a win of epic proportions for Saunders. Some people, including ESPN’s Chad Ford, are questioning why the Wolves elected to trade for Thad Young, who’s 26 and has a player option for $10 million in 2015-16. Well, Young will bring a much-needed veteran presence that will go a long way toward helping develop guys like Bennett, Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Gorgui Dieng.
Young is an extremely gifted athlete, and though he is a bit undersized to play the four, he makes up for this with hardcore hustle and heart. Adding another veteran who can contribute right away and get up and down the floor with Rubio and the young guns will be extremely beneficial for a team that already has a limited ceiling in the West – and thus are all but assured a top-10 pick. Given that it seemed as though the Cavs were unwilling to deal Wiggins for a brief period of time, it’s beyond shocking how well the Wolves made out. The common hope that this could one day be called “the Andrew Wiggins trade” makes plainly obvious how jubilant and jolly Wolves’ fans and management must be right now.
In free agency, Minnesota added Mo Williams on a one-year, $3.75 million deal; he figures to back up Rubio along with J.J. Barea.
Draft – 20/25
Last year, the Wolves selected an apparently slept-on-but-proven collegiate player and champion center in Gorgui Dieng, and the former Louisville Cardinal may turn out to be quite a steal. This summer, they opted to go for potential, drafting UCLA guard Zach LaVine. LaVine is a freak athlete, who will almost certainly be a participant in the 2015 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. He is very raw offensively, but should still see decent burn this year for the Wolves. It’s possible they view him as a point guard in the making, but with Rubio, Williams and Barea currently on the roster he’ll certainly have plenty of competition for minutes at that spot. Furthermore, in an effort to build Kevin Martin’s trade value, it’s beyond doubtful he’ll start over Martin at shooting guard, so we can expect to see LaVine coming off the bench in 2014-15.
They also drafted Glenn Robinson III with the No. 40 pick. He’s yet to be signed, but the son of the “Big Dog” has undeniable NBA potential, and it’s possible more moves are coming in order to make room for him on the roster.
Current Player Core – 20/25
Though the Wolves currently have plenty of cheap, young prospects in Wiggins, LaVine, Dieng, Bennett and Shabazz Muhammad, the team’s cap situation does not lack a few potential hiccups.
Nikola Pekovic (under contract for four years, $47.9 million) and Kevin Martin (three years, $21.3 million) represent two guys the Wolves would love to get rid of, but for whom finding takers figures to be extremely difficult. Whether you believe Dieng is a power forward or a center, Pekovic is simply too overpaid and injury-prone to rely on long-term. He turns 29 in January, and it seems very questionable to believe that he’ll become more consistently healthy as he continues to age.
Martin had a stellar start alongside Kevin Love last season as the Wolves raced out to a strong start, but eventually suffered injuries (thumb, foot) and tailed off while Minnesota fell out of the playoff. Chase Budinger (two years, $10 million, second-year player option) and Corey Brewer (two years, $9.6 million, second-year player option) will both surely pick up their player options for 2015-16.
Though it seems Young has been deemed a player of value, he’s also a candidate to be flipped by Saunders by the trade deadline. However, the biggest question entering the 2014-15 NBA season is Rubio, who reportedly asked for a max extension this summer – HA. It’s not that Rubio is horrible – he’s one of the better defensive point guards in the league, and we all know he’s an excellent and willing passer – but his shot has just not progressed into a reliable one, a development that has kept him from breaking into the upper echelon of point guards, arguably the deepest position in basketball. With Rubio playing with such an athletic group of guys, it should be a blast watching the Wolves push the tempo. But if the soon-to-be 24-year-old is going to prove himself to be worth even close to half the max, he’ll need to drastically raise his shooting percentage (38.1 percent in 2013-14, 36.8 percent for his career) and prove that he’s a good fit with the incoming prospects going forward.
Meanwhile, Barea (who could be bought out to make room for GRIII), Williams, Ronny Turiaf and Robbie Hummel are not likely to be part of the long-term plans and will probably not be re-signed next summer…that is, if they’re still on the roster by then.
Franchise Outlook – 81/100
We’d all be hard-pressed to name too many teams who seem better suited long-term than the Wolves. Sure, they have just about zero chance of escaping the lottery in the immediate future, but Wiggins has been given a place to shine. It’s not that young players have never thrived alongside MVP-caliber players like LeBron early in their career, but Wiggins goes from being a potential sixth man with the Cavs to being the unquestioned starting small forward and Minnesota’s immediate face of the franchise.
Regardless of what Wiggins, Bennett, Dieng and LaVine ultimately become in the NBA, the Wolves went from being stuck in what appeared to be a no-win situation to having one of the most enviable setups in the league going forward. After David Kahn’s epic whiff in the 2009 NBA Draft (and general inability to add talent alongside Love), the Wolves have been given yet another chance to build around a potential superstar. What more could they ask for?
[a*] The Warriors are crazy if they wouldn’t deal David Lee and Thompson for Love. Meanwhile, the Wolves would have been foolish to trade Love for Thompson and Lee, as they’d be a team with a relatively low ceiling that would have Thompson and Ricky Rubio entering restricted free agency next year, all thewhile already overpaying Lee ($15.5 million), Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin. The Warriors have won only one series in the Steph Curry-Klay Thompson-David Lee-Andrew Bogut Era, and instead of swinging for a superstar to pair with Curry, they opted to stand pat.
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