Drew Timme is in Timberwolves camp with no promises attached, and that alone says plenty about where Minnesota stands now.
There was a time when a player of Timme’s profile might have arrived in Minneapolis with a clearer path to regular-season minutes. Instead, the former Gonzaga forward is fighting for a roster spot at Mayo Clinic Square, and he’s doing it in an organization that no longer looks like the one that used to lean on whatever it could find to fill out a lineup.
Timme’s recent NBA stops have come in situations where playing time was far easier to come by. He was a minute-eater for teams in tank mode, Brooklyn included, and last season he served as a stopgap starter for an injury-ravaged Los Angeles Lakers team. In those settings, getting on the floor was closer to a given than a debate.
That is not the case in Minnesota.
The Wolves have spent the last several years turning over the kind of roster-building reputation that used to define them. Not all that long ago, during the 2019-20 season, Treveon Graham, Shabazz Napier, Jordan Bell and Jake Layman were among the names showing up in starting lineups. Go back a little further and the list gets even more familiar in a different way: Alexey Shved, Lou Amundson and Chase Budinger all got their turns too.
Now the calculation is different. Minnesota can offer something that looks far more appealing to veterans trying to prove they still belong: a real basketball environment, a functioning structure, and a chance to be around better players while competing for a spot.
That matters for Timme, even if a roster berth remains unlikely right away.
His style fits what Chris Finch tends to want from his bench groups. Minnesota’s offense gives a player with Timme’s feel for the game a place to operate, and his ability to move the ball and make decisions can play in a freer-flowing setup.
He’s a slower-moving wing-forward combo, but in the right sets he can make himself useful. The Wolves even used him as a hub in the preseason in his limited minutes, deploying him as a dribble handoff initiator alongside some of the other bench pieces.
He also provides a way to space the floor next to Joan Beringer with that group.
His opening look was brief - six minutes in Game 1 - but it left a mark. Against the Milwaukee Bucks, Timme posted a 135 offensive rating, the best on the team, and finished as part of the unit that helped Minnesota’s end-of-bench group pull away late.
None of that turns him into a headline addition. Timme is a decorated college player who has already had a back-and-forth professional career, and this is still a camp battle first and foremost.
But his presence, along with KJ Martin’s, points to something bigger about the Wolves. Players with options are choosing Minnesota because of the environment around them and the kind of teammates they’ll be around while they try to earn their way in.
That quiet pull is part of the story now, and it’s one the league has noticed. Minnesota’s ability to repurpose and redevelop veteran players in the middle stages of their careers has become a selling point, and it’s not hard to see why that reputation had a role in the much-covered Jonathan Kuminga sweepstakes this summer.
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