Let’s play Project or Reject

[winforlose]

So this season has been full of surprises. First we saw the deconstruction of Ricky, Juancho, Layman, and JO to start the season. We saw the emergence of MCD, Nowell, and Ant. We have been all over the place with Vando, JMAC, and Reid. But, as we approach the end of the season we turn our attention to next year. With 15 spots we are going to need to let go of at least a few of our borderline players. Feel free to add names if you feel I missed any, but here are my picks for Projects or Rejects.

Projects
Juancho, Vando, JO,

Rejects
Layman and Culver. Davis would be here, but he is an expiring afterthought.

[shrink]

I think there are always more gone than most expect. I think the current players on our roster at the start of next season are

Russell, Nowell
Edwards,
McDaniels, Okogie, Culver
Juancho
Towns, Naz

Gone: Rubio, JMac, Beasley, Layman, Vanderbilt, Ed Davis

Towns, Russell and Edwards will stay. MIN will work hard to avoid going over the lux, particularly trying to look profitable for new ownership. This means holding onto cheaper players like Naz, Nowell, and obviously McDaniels. Ed Davis is gone as an expiring, and I suspect the Wolves struggle to get Vanderbilt to sign a reasonable number. He will want to get paid closer to $7-8 mil since he’s played as a starter, but it’s hard to see paying him now as anything more than a back up. Juancho is already on the books for a significant salary in that role, though I suspect the Wolves try to trade him later as well, but gather little interest. I’d like to see McLaughlin back as our third PG, but I think he will be gone, to find minutes for Nowell.

Many current players are on two year deals, but I think by this summer, we will have seen enough. I like Russell as the off-guard, but I suspect next year he’ll be playing PG, and Rubio will be traded to a team that can use him more. Beasley will bring back more trade value this summer when he’s farther away from his legal troubles and GM’s pay more attention to his numbers. I think MIN would keep him if they weren’t clearing minutes to develop Ant at his natural position. I think they will keep the final season of Josh Okogie to maintain his Bird rights, and they will try to trade Culver but not get an offer that allows Rosas to save face. He stays, but MIN refuses his $8.1 mil team option for 2022-23. Layman gets moved as matching salary in a trade.

There is some trade value in the players we are moving, particularly Beasley. I will be curious to see if they use him to address the starting PF position. It’d be great to keep him, since the Wolves need more underpriced talent on the team, but I think the focus will be on Edwards.

[wolfen]

I think there are always more gone than most expect. I think the current players on our roster at the start of next season are

Russell, Nowell
Edwards,
McDaniels, Okogie, Culver
Juancho
Towns, Naz

Gone: Rubio, JMac, Beasley, Layman, Vanderbilt, Ed Davis

Towns, Russell and Edwards will stay. MIN will work hard to avoid going over the lux, particularly trying to look profitable for new ownership. This means holding onto cheaper players like Naz, Nowell, and obviously McDaniels. Ed Davis is gone as an expiring, and I suspect the Wolves struggle to get Vanderbilt to sign a reasonable number. He will want to get paid closer to $7-8 mil since he’s played as a starter, but it’s hard to see paying him now as anything more than a back up. Juancho is already on the books for a significant salary in that role, though I suspect the Wolves try to trade him later as well, but gather little interest. I’d like to see McLaughlin back as our third PG, but I think he will be gone, to find minutes for Nowell.

Many current players are on two year deals, but I think by this summer, we will have seen enough. I like Russell as the off-guard, but I suspect next year he’ll be playing PG, and Rubio will be traded to a team that can use him more. Beasley will bring back more trade value this summer when he’s farther away from his legal troubles and GM’s pay more attention to his numbers. I think MIN would keep him if they weren’t clearing minutes to develop Ant at his natural position. I think they will keep the final season of Josh Okogie to maintain his Bird rights, and they will try to trade Culver but not get an offer that allows Rosas to save face. He stays, but MIN refuses his $8.1 mil team option for 2022-23. Layman gets moved as matching salary in a trade.

There is some trade value in the players we are moving, particularly Beasley. I will be curious to see if they use him to address the starting PF position. It’d be great to keep him, since the Wolves need more underpriced talent on the team, but I think the focus will be on Edwards.

Good post. I'll add a couple cents... I think Finch likes him some jMac more than he should, he keeps saying he loves the chemistry between he and DLo, so I think they'll make a strong attempt to keep him. I think it's pretty likely that Rubio and Beas do get dealt. Hopefully, we get good value, a solid starting PF would be great and getting off of Rubio's contract so we can afford to offer the MLE to either TJ McConnel (perfect hard-nosed PG) or Daniel Theis (perfect hard-nosed 4-5) I'd be thrilled. They are both unrestricted FA's, I'd actually love both of them on my squad. Let's say we get Finney-Smith in a Beas trade, get lucky and get pick 1, and sign my 2 free agents.

DLo / McConnell / jMac
Ant / Okogie / Nowell
Cunningham / McDaniels
Finney-Smith / Theis
KAT / Naz

That could be fun...