Timberwolves Off-Season

[Klomp]

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I think most believe he'll be gone. I'm honestly not sure if he'll even be given a qualifying offer.

[thinktank]

Trade Dieng, Teague, #20 for Byombo, Ross, #35, #41. Draft Svi, Grayson Allen, Shake Milton. Bring Ameli, MGH

Raptors say no. They don't want Dieng and 20M Teague.

[minimus]

Trade Dieng, Teague, #20 for Byombo, Ross, #35, #41. Draft Svi, Grayson Allen, Shake Milton. Bring Ameli, MGH

Raptors say no. They don't want Dieng and 20M Teague.

[thinktank]

Trade Dieng, Teague, #20 for Byombo, Ross, #35, #41. Draft Svi, Grayson Allen, Shake Milton. Bring Ameli, MGH

Raptors say no. They don't want Dieng and 20M Teague.

Nor do the Magic.

[NebWolvesFan]

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I think most believe he'll be gone. I'm honestly not sure if he'll even be given a qualifying offer.

Minnesota is already over the cap, so there's no reason to withdraw his qualifying offer. Plus, Minnesota will likely resign Belly because the Wolves have several roster spots that need filled and replacing Belly would probably cost more than matching his offer.

[Klomp]

Minnesota is already over the cap, so there's no reason to withdraw his qualifying offer.

There is a reason, as qualifying offers are included when calculating if a team is over the "apron." If over, we're left with a smaller MLE and no BAE. Is Bjeli worth it? I have my doubts.

[wolfen]

Minnesota is already over the cap, so there's no reason to withdraw his qualifying offer.

There is a reason, as qualifying offers are included when calculating if a team is over the "apron." If over, we're left with a smaller MLE and no BAE. Is Bjeli worth it? I have my doubts.

I have no doubts - he's not worth it...

[AirP.]

Only 9 days away until C.Aldrich's has to be waived or his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed.

[NebWolvesFan]

Minnesota is already over the cap, so there's no reason to withdraw his qualifying offer.

There is a reason, as qualifying offers are included when calculating if a team is over the "apron." If over, we're left with a smaller MLE and no BAE. Is Bjeli worth it? I have my doubts.

Even with cap holds for Belly and MGH and adding in one first round pick and penalties for not having a full roster, Minnesota is still under the apron. Plus, Minnesota is not going to sign any big time FA this year. They will get wing help in the draft or in Dieng trade. The only need the 5.2 million exception to potentially sign Rose and their second round pick.

There is no reason to let go Belly when he's a rotation guy, tough to replace with a free agent, and has a cap hold of less than 8 million.

[Pass_the_rock]

Only 9 days away until C.Aldrich's has to be waived or his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed.

brilliant piece of GM-ing by Thibs there.

[Domejandro]

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Interesting with Phoenix, but I have been telling people for a while that Utah will be a suitor, he is basically another version of Joe Ingles. He will thrive there, and I will be agitated at Minnesota, but happy for him.

[shrink]

Only 9 days away until C.Aldrich's has to be waived or his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed.

brilliant piece of GM-ing by Thibs there.

I doubt we'l use it, but cap space will be very richly rewarded this season.

15 teams have lux problems (we're one), 6-7 teams are hunting big free agent.

[Pass_the_rock]

Only 9 days away until C.Aldrich's has to be waived or his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed.

brilliant piece of GM-ing by Thibs there.

I doubt we'l use it, but cap space will be very richly rewarded this season.

15 teams have lux problems (we're one), 6-7 teams are hunting big free agent.

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

[Klomp]

And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

Nope?

I think you're talking about the new rule that only guaranteed money will be factored into trade equation, but contracts already on the books (like Aldrich) are grandfathered in. If we traded him, the team would use the ~$7 million figure.

[shrink]

brilliant piece of GM-ing by Thibs there.

I doubt we'l use it, but cap space will be very richly rewarded this season.

15 teams have lux problems (we're one), 6-7 teams are hunting big free agent.

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

The signing was not pointless. aldrich led the NBA in DRPM with the clippers off the bench, and his contract was considered one of the best signings of an ugly 2016 free agency. Thibs doesn't like to play the bench, but that doesn't mean your starters are guaranteed to stay healthy. Remember how Brandon Rush went from barely playing to become a starter when we had a wingman get injured?

The CBA changed the rule for trading unguaranteed contracts, but Aldrich is still grandfathered in. He has $2 mil of guaranteed money on his deal anyway. He can be traded to give another team cap space. It's doubtful we can afford to give up cap space with our lux concerns, but if the offer is good enough...?

[minimus]

I doubt we'l use it, but cap space will be very richly rewarded this season.

15 teams have lux problems (we're one), 6-7 teams are hunting big free agent.

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

The signing was not pointless. aldrich led the NBA in DRPM with the clippers off the bench, and his contract was considered one of the best signings of an ugly 2016 free agency. Thibs doesn't like to play the bench, but that doesn't mean your starters are guaranteed to stay healthy.

Yeah, now it's clear that in modern NBA a slow footed banger will be exposed in defense and offense every game. Glad that Thibs realized it by drafting Patton. I hope Patton will play well and get consistently playing time to develop.

[Killboard]

Minnesota is already over the cap, so there's no reason to withdraw his qualifying offer.

There is a reason, as qualifying offers are included when calculating if a team is over the "apron." If over, we're left with a smaller MLE and no BAE. Is Bjeli worth it? I have my doubts.

I have no doubts - he's not worth it...

I think that depends on how you use him. If you arent looking for him actively to shoot and the team will be in the last 4 spots in 3pt attempts Im sure he isnt worth it.

[Killboard]

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

The signing was not pointless. aldrich led the NBA in DRPM with the clippers off the bench, and his contract was considered one of the best signings of an ugly 2016 free agency. Thibs doesn't like to play the bench, but that doesn't mean your starters are guaranteed to stay healthy.

IMO that become irrelevant when they give Dieng an early extension and bring in Taj the next season. It made the roster totally unbalanced from a cap standpoint with almost 40M dollars in players who are redundant on offense. I mean, maybe Cole contract wasnt bad, but he never fit well in the offseason plans and we got extremely low producion from him which makes it a bad signing IMO.

[AirP.]

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

The signing was not pointless. aldrich led the NBA in DRPM with the clippers off the bench, and his contract was considered one of the best signings of an ugly 2016 free agency. Thibs doesn't like to play the bench, but that doesn't mean your starters are guaranteed to stay healthy.

IMO that become irrelevant when they give Dieng an early extension and bring in Taj the next season. It made the roster totally unbalanced from a cap standpoint with almost 40M dollars in players who are redundant on offense. I mean, maybe Cole contract wasnt bad, but he never fit well in the offseason plans and we got extremely low producion from him which makes it a bad signing IMO.

It's because the situation/franchise direction changed with the Butler trade.

Aldrich and Dieng both got their contracts while this team's core players were young with more youth with potential(high draft picks). Dieng was a good solid big and actually Aldrich was also, they were ok/good players that probably had no problem with Towns, Wiggins, LaVine getting the bulk of possessions in hopes of them developing.

Now, when Butler was traded for(although Thibs tried to get him the year before) it was no longer just let the young players get minutes and hopefully develop, it was about building a winning franchise, players having to sacrifice for the greater good and with that some vets were brought in to try to get this franchise winning. Defense was needed badly and the decision to bring Gibson in to help the team win was decided even though Minnesota already had Towns, Dieng, Aldrich, Bjelica and newly drafted Patton already were under contract.

Although I'm not a fan of Wiggins, he's shown great endurance and doesn't seem to get hurt much, that coupled with Butler already an NBA Ironman(although he does get injured) meant that you could go thin on the wings for a season instead of sending out assets to move on of the extra bigs.

It's extremely hard to go from just letting young players have long leashes, not putting a premium on winning one year to a playoff team the next, even with the additions of Butler, Teague, Gibson the younger players have to change their mindset, I think of the 2 young high potential players, Towns embraced the change a little too much and sometimes wasn't aggressive enough and Wiggins had a hard time with it and as a scorer had to scratch that shooting itch and shot a lot of low percentage shots.

This roster could come back nearly intact and it should be a better team but there's still issues that need to be addressed and that's why I believe that the roster is still in transition which I've been mentioning for a year now, there's parts that aren't needed(especially with the bigs) and some other needs that have to be addressed(defense and 3pt shooting).

The worst thing from this offseason for the franchise has been people attacking Thibs in the hopes of getting him fired. I think Butler is tied in with Thibs and now may not extend if he thinks there's a chance Thibs is gone 2019. If this is true and Glenn Taylor is considering moving on from Thibs you have to trade Butler this offseason to get anything really decent for him, Minnesota goes back to being a non playoff team while Wiggins and Towns have another coach. That's a really bad situation for the franchise and possibly enough to make the young guys demand trades out. As an owner you need to create stability, without that players can't feel good about the future since the owner doesn't seem to keep people around he hires.

[shrink]

I was ridiculing a pointless signing, not making any compliments, BTW. And BTW doesn't CBA prohibit trading un-guaranteed contract, unless you guarantee it ?

The signing was not pointless. Aldrich led the NBA in DRPM with the clippers off the bench, and his contract was considered one of the best signings of an ugly 2016 free agency. Thibs doesn't like to play the bench, but that doesn't mean your starters are guaranteed to stay healthy.

IMO that become irrelevant when they give Dieng an early extension and bring in Taj the next season. It made the roster totally unbalanced from a cap standpoint with almost 40M dollars in players who are redundant on offense. I mean, maybe Cole contract wasnt bad, but he never fit well in the offseason plans and we got extremely low producion from him which makes it a bad signing IMO.

I don’t disagree that the events that followed the signing made Aldrich superfluous, but we have to rate the signing based on what Thibs new at the time. When Aldrich was signed, he was considered one of the best signings of 2016, because so many GMs overpaid on so many long contracts.

At that time, Thibs could not have known:

1. Both Towns and Dieng would play 82 games, and both be in the Top 20 in minutes.

2. That he could sign Jimmy the next year, and be able to bring in Taj

3. That the center market would so dramatically change both in the desired skill-set, and the price and over-abundance of other options.