Dear Thibs,
As the Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations, (I know) you have a delicate task of balancing salaries:
You’re already over the salary cap, and close to the luxury tax threshold.
You also have a $4,328,000 Room Exception, which is pretty good.
I know you’re looking for shooters, and the shooting market has been ridiculous this offseason. A lot of players are overpaid.
Here’s one player who won’t be overpaid, considering what has happened to him:
The Phoenix Suns are waiving guard Leandro Barbosa, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2017
That’s right, Leandro Barbosa!
46.6 2P%, 35.7% 3P%, 88.9% FT% last season for the Suns in 67 games—the numbers aren’t pretty, especially the 6.3 PPG, but he’ll give you a solid effort.
That’s pretty good, considering the way you utilized Brandon Rush last year (which seemed like hardly).
With the players you got this offseason—Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson—it’s clear you prioritize bigs over shooters (except for Jeff Teague at PG).
Like anything, of course, you need balance so you need to balance your bench with shooters.
Here’s another shooter you could look at:
https://twitter.com/howlintwolf/status/881898626779406337
Yes, Vince Carter!
He’s not scheduled to visit us, but again, why not reach out to him?
You have nothing to lose.
If you meet with Vince, you know he is versatile—he could play SG and SF—played in 73 games last year (15 of them as a starter), and had 8.0 PPG … at 40 years old!
The guy can still play, and:
https://twitter.com/howlintwolf/status/881899648054681600
Thibs, you already know it. Vince Carter would be ideal coming off the bench for the Timberwolves.
Plus, he still wants to play (assuming for a contender like us):
“I said to myself ‘I want to play 15 years’. I don’t know where I got that from. And the I got to 15 years and I kept going. I never capped it, but at the same time I’ve had a lot of players remind me of things I’ve said,” said Carter about how he kept telling fellow players he would retire after two more years.
“I’m still saying ‘two more years and I’m done.’ (RealGM)
In the end, you can’t go wrong bringing either of these shooters to our bench. You could sign Mr. Carter and Mr. Barbosa to veteran minimums.
If Barbosa doesn’t take the minimum, there’s always this option:
https://twitter.com/howlintwolf/status/881943131540815874
You have wiggle room, Thibs, you have flexibility.
Sign Vince Carter or Leandro Barbosa.
Better yet, sign both!
—DP
Go Timberwolves! Get your howl on.
Follow us on Twitter @howlintwolf & @Twolvesblog.
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