The Timberwolves enter the offseason with a sense of an identity. Despite finishing with a 23-49 record, Minnesota played .500 basketball the last 26 games of the season.
While they do not have a lottery pick this season, the Timberwolves do have a franchise player in Karl-Anthony Towns and last year's No. 1 pick, Anthony Edwards.
The focus this offseason is on player development (Minnesota was the youngest team last year) and exploring trade options.
Head coach Chris Finch
Once you get past the flawed job search after Ryan Saunders was let go, the hiring of Chris Finch in late February made sense.
Instead of waiting until the end of the season to let Saunders go and getting lumped in with the likes of Boston, Indiana, New Orleans, Orlando, Portland and Washington all looking for a new coach, the Timberwolves jumped to the head of the line by hiring Finch mid-season.
That allowed the lifelong assistant coach to put his fingerprints on this roster over the remaining 41 games of the season. If the Timberwolves had waited until the offseason, Finch would have had a condensed three-week training camp to install his philosophy on how he wants this roster to play.
In the 41 games under Finch, the Timberwolves went 16-25, including 9-7 to finish the season. They ranked eighth in offensive efficiency over the last 16 games of the season. Before he took over, Minnesota was 7-24 and in the middle of a nine-game losing streak.
Was the turnaround fool's gold or a product of a team that got healthy at the right time and bought in? With a roster that returns 12 players, that question will get answered in the early part of next season.
The blueprint of the roster
Gersson Rosas, the Timberwolves head of basketball operations, has made 10 trades and turned over the roster, with only Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Okogie remaining from the 2018-19 team.
"We want to be a winning program. We want to be a successful program," Rosas told the team's website after the season. "That's not going to be an on-off switch that you're going to touch here this summer or during an offseason. It's building our identity, building our culture, building our habits."
The identity of this roster starts with their two franchise players, Towns and Edwards.
As Rosas told the Star Tribune at the end of the season, in order to be successful, a team has to have seven, eight players you feel really good about to form a foundation.
"Right now we are at five," Rosas said.
Those five likely consist of Towns, Edwards, D'Angelo Russell, Jaden McDaniels and Malik Beasley. The question then comes down to how the Timberwolves build the roster outside of those five players. Or does Minnesota explore trades with Russell, a former All-Star, as the centerpiece?
Russell has played in only 54 games since the 2020 trade. He is set to collect $30.0 million in salary in 2021-22, but he projects to be worth just 14.5 million, according to ProFitX.
Minnesota is pressed up against the luxury tax and is limited to the $5.9 million taxpayer midlevel exception if it wants to add in free agency.
The Timberwolves do have $35 million in expiring contracts (Ricky Rubio, Juancho Hernangomez, Jake Layman and former first-round pick Okogie). Hernangomez does have a non-guaranteed year in 2022-23.
Jarrett Culver is set to enter his third season, but the former No. 6 pick recently had left ankle surgery, resulting in him missing the final nine games of the season. In his 34 games this season, Culver averaged 14.7 minutes (down from 23.9 last year), 5.3 points and shot 24.5% from three.
The Timberwolves' sixth foundation player could be last year's first-round pick Leandro Bolmaro, who played this past year with FC Barcelona and was named Spanish ACB KIA Most Spectacular player.
Career game for draft-and-stash Leandro Bolmaro: 26 PTS and 4 AST in 26 MIN on 9-of-11 FGs in a win over Andorra. Shot it with confidence, attacked the rim aggressively, heady pick-and-pop feeds to Pau Gasol. Great future piece for the Timberwolves alongside Edwards + McDaniels. pic.twitter.com/JhiAWijv4i
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) April 25, 2021
Karl-Anthony Towns
Towns has not been shy about his desire to stay with the Timberwolves for the foreseeable future.
"I hope to have a career like Kobe ... with one team," Towns said. "Like Tim [Duncan] and Kobe, where it's one team and try to bring as many championships as possible."
Although he has three seasons remaining, Towns is set to reach the three-year anniversary of when he signed a $158 million max contract, making the center eligible to add two more seasons starting on Sept. 23.
Here is what the two-year $79.7 million extension would look like:
2021-22 $31.7M (current contract)
2022-23 $33.8M (current contract)
2023-24 $36.0M (current contract)
2024-25 $38.3M (extension)
2025-26 $41.4M (extension)
The extension could be for more money if the projected $127.5 million salary cap in 2024-25 increases. By signing the extension, Towns would forfeit any supermax eligibility he might get by making an All-NBA team next season. If he holds out for that, a four-year supermax extension would be worth a projected $204 million and would start in 2024-25.
Offseason cap breakdown
The Timberwolves are in a position that a lottery team should not be in: right at the luxury tax. Because of the $100M owed to Towns, Russell, Rubio and Beasley, Minnesota is only $5.4 million below the luxury tax threshold.
Team needs
A healthy Russell and Towns
Power forward to complement Towns
Edwards to take a big step in his development
Resources to build the roster
The rights to former first-round pick Bolmaro
Exceptions: $5.9M taxpayer midlevel
Cash: $5.8 million to send or receive in a trade
Dates to watch
• The Timberwolves have until Aug. 1 to tender Jarred Vanderbilt a one-year $2.1 million qualifying offer, which will make him an unrestricted free agent. Since sitting out his rookie season recovering from a foot injury, Vanderbilt has not missed a game as a result of an injury. In the 24 games in which he played at least 20 minutes or more, the 22-year-old averaged 9.2 points, 8 rebounds (7 games of 10-plus) and shot 70.5% from the field.
• Naz Reid and Jaylen Nowell both have $1.8 million non-guaranteed contracts. Reid's contract becomes guaranteed on Aug. 18 and Nowell on Jan. 7.
Restrictions
• Towns has a 5% trade bonus. The bonus is voided because it would exceed the maximum allowed salary.
• Reid and Nowell have no outgoing salary value in a trade because their salaries are non-guaranteed.
• The Timberwolves cannot trade their 2022 first-round pick until after the draft.
Extension eligible
• Russell is eligible for an extension of an additional three seasons and up to $118 million in new money. The deadline to extend Russell is October 18. Since being acquired by the Timberwolves in February 2020, Russell has played in 54 games, a result of the 2020 season shutting down for COVID-19 and the guard missing 26 games this past season with a left knee injury.
• Minnesota can extend Reid and Nowell for an additional four seasons (if the team option in 2022-23 is extinguished) and up to $55 million in new money. Reid outplayed his $1.5 million contract last season by $8.6 million, according to ProFitX. In 70 games this past year, Reid averaged 11.2 points and 4.6 rebounds in 19.2 minutes. If he is not extended, the Timberwolves will likely decline his team option for 2022-23 and make him a restricted free agent next offseason.
• Minnesota has until October 18 to extend Okogie. The former first-round pick is coming off a season where he averaged a career low in minutes (20.3), points (5.4) and rebounds (2.6).
• Rubio is extension eligible and unlikely to receive a new contract.
The draft
Minnesota traded their first and second-round picks to Golden State in the Russell trade.
Since taking over in 2019, Rosas has made three draft-related trades. Last season Minnesota acquired Rubio and the No. 23 (rights to Bolmaro) and No. 28 (rights to McDaniels) picks in a three-team trade with New York and Oklahoma City.