Are the Timberwolves primed for the playoffs?
The Minnesota Timberwolves entered the offseason with a huge weakness on the wing. New GM Flip Saunders added talented players to the position that should give the Wolves their best roster in quite some time. The pressure will definitely be on third year coach Rick Adelman to get Minnesota back in the playoffs for the first time since the 1996-1997 season.
Trades
The only significant trade the Timberwolves made in the offseason was shipping out Luke Ridnour and acquired Kevin Martin from Oklahoma City in a sign-and-trade that also involved the Bucks. Martin agreed to a four year deal worth $28 million with the Timberwolves and he will provide a much needed scoring threat on the wing. The addition of Martin should elevate Ricky Rubio’s game and provide some needed veteran leadership.
At 30 Martin is still playing pretty good ball and averaged 14.0 PPG in Oklahoma City last season. This season in Minnesota in a more increased role expect him to get back up around 17-18 PPG. This was a good trade because they gave up little to fill a huge weakness. The only way this move could come back to bite them is if in two or three years they don’t have quite enough to give Kevin Love the max deal he deserves and will want. It’s only $7,000,000 per year so it shouldn’t be too detrimental, but they definitely need to play things safely.
Grade: B+
Free Agency
The Wolves were active in the free agency market. They kicked things off by signing another wing player in Corey Brewer for a three year deal worth around $14.1 million. One of the biggest question marks Minnesota has entering the season is their defense and Brewer is a very good defender. He’ll probably be Minnesota’s best perimeter defender immediately.
Just days later Minnesota resigned SF Chase Budinger to a three year deal worth $15 million. Budinger and Brewer should give the Timberwolves a solid rotation at the three. Budinger is a decent shooter but isn’t as strong defensively. Budinger’s and Brewer’s strengths and weaknesses complement each other nicely so the SF position should be in decent hands in Minnesota this year.
The biggest contract Minnesota gave out was to incumbent big man Nikola Pekovic. This saga took a while to conclude, but it ended with Minnesota caving and giving Pekovic the five year $60 million dollar contract he desired. There’s no denying Pekovic is one of the best centers in the NBA. He scores and gets rebounds, but $12 million a year could be a stretch. Even if you don’t think Pek is worth this type of money this signing gives Minnesota one of the most dangerous front courts in the NBA with Pek paired with Kevin Love.
Grade: B+
Draft
Minnesota made a big-time draft-day trade. They sent the ninth overall pick (Trey Burke) to Utah in exchange for the 14th and 21st overall selections. With the 14th pick the Timberwolves selected SG/SF Shabazz Muhammad who was a huge disappoint in his only year at UCLA. Leading up to the draft it was discovered Muhammad lied about his age so he’s certainly not off to a good start. He followed that up with a dreadful Summer League performance.
The pick made sense for Minnesota because they needed wing players and Muhammad was once considered an elite prospect. He’s still young with time to grow and he showed some potential as a scorer at UCLA but he definitely should be taken as a project. At 14th you can make the argument he’s worth the risk, but I’m still not much of a fan of this pick. I just don’t think Muhammad has the work ethic he’s going to need to become a good NBA player.
I am, however, a huge fan of Minnesota’s 21st pick. I earlier wrote that Minnesota’s biggest weakness heading into this season was going to be defense. With this pick they selected a defensive specialist in Louisville big man Gorgui Dieng. I think 21st is absolute robbery for Dieng. He’ll make an impact on the defensive end right off the bat and he’s still getting better offensively. Either way, it’s not like Minnesota has a need for post scoring anyway with Love and Pekovic. Dieng should be a great player off the bench and could turn into a good starter a few years down the road.
With the 52nd pick Minnesota added NC State PG Lorenzo Brown. Due to the departure of Luke Ridnour Brown will probably be asked to be the top backup to Ricky Rubio, so this has the makings to be a good late pick. Brown was clearly the best PG on the board at this point.
With the 59th selection Minnesota selected Bojan Dubljevic who will be sent overseas.
Draft Grade: B-
Summary
Overall Minnesota had a solid offseason. Kevin Martin is a nice addition to play SG and the Timberwolves have locked up a decent pair of SF’s. The Wolves did pay a lot for Pekovic, but it really would have hurt to lose him and he’s a proven player. All things considered it was still vital they resign Pekovic if they want to be in the playoffs this season. I’m not a fan of the Muhammad pick but I like their other two selections and Shabazz could always prove me wrong.
Overall Grade: B
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