The Timberwolves have spent the offseason trying to patch together their roster, but one issue still hangs over everything: power forward. Julius Randle and Naz Reid are gone, and Minnesota’s options got thinner on Monday morning when Shams Charania reported that Rui Hachimura agreed to a two-year, $28 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.
That matters because Jake Fischer and Marc Stein reported last weekend that Minnesota had “serious interest” in Hachimura and may have even treated him as the top target in the second wave of free agency. The fit made sense on paper, too.
Hachimura averaged 11.5 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting 44.3 percent from 3 and 51.4 percent overall. Now the Wolves have to look elsewhere.
And that’s where LeBron James enters the picture in a way that no one would have expected to sound this real.
What once looked like a long shot has started to feel like Minnesota’s last clean path to solving the position before the season. James has been floated as a possibility, and the Wolves got a boost late last week when his agent, Rich Paul, spoke about his client’s thinking on the Game Over with Max Kellerman and Rich Paul podcast.
With Minnesota among the destinations under consideration, Paul pointed to the appeal of James landing with the Wolves and left the door open for his 23rd season to happen there.
“You remember when [Anthony Edwards] said, ‘It’s OK, we’ve got Jaden McDaniels?’” Paul said.
“It’s OK. We’ve got Jaden McDaniels.
Then you have [Rudy Gobert.] Plus Tim Connelly and that ownership group.”
The buzz only grew from there. The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski reported over the weekend that the Timberwolves “have ramped up” their pursuit of James, and he framed Minnesota as a destination with a selling point the others can’t match.
“Unlike several of the other options on the table for him, including the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, and James’s hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, the Timberwolves have never won a championship,” Krawczynski wrote. “...The Wolves think if James picks them over all the other suitors - cold weather and spending power be damned - it would be the biggest possible statement he could make in the long-running greatest player of all time debate between him and Michael Jordan.”
For Minnesota, that makes the James chase more than a headline-grabber. It’s a real roster conversation now, especially after the Hachimura news forced another pivot.
The current plan is to lean on Jaden McDaniels at power forward, but that comes with a cost: it could pull him away from the elite perimeter defense that makes him so valuable. The Wolves also reached a deal with Trey Lyles over the weekend, though he looks more like depth than a player who changes their direction.
There are other routes, but they’re complicated. Minnesota could explore the trade market, though that seems unlikely unless the team adds another piece to the trade that brought in LaMelo Ball from the Charlotte Hornets. Josh Green may not be in Minnesota for long after arriving in that deal, but the Wolves can’t trade him with another player in a separate move for 60 days after the trade is completed, which makes any additional power forward pursuit harder to pull off.
So the Wolves may have to live with what they have and circle back at the trade deadline. But with the market drying up and limited assets available, James may be the most realistic swing left. Hachimura’s decision to go elsewhere may have done more than close one door - it may have nudged Minnesota closer to the biggest one still standing.
In Other News...
Jaden McDaniels Buzz Suddenly Feels Bigger For The Timberwolves
Jaden McDaniels spent last season showing more of the offensive game Minnesota has long hoped would arrive, and it came at a time when the Timberwolves were still sorting out what his ceiling might look like. He put together a career-best year at the scoring end, with better efficiency across the board, and that has only added to the sense inside the organization that his next step could be a meaningful one.
The bigger question now is how that growth fits into a reshaped rotation. McDaniels had briefly looked like a possible second scoring option after Julius Randle was traded, but the addition of LaMelo Ball changes the picture again and gives Minnesota a different kind of lead guard to work with. James White and Tim Connelly have both sounded encouraged about where McDaniels is headed, and the Timberwolves seem to believe the real test is no longer whether he can handle more, but how much more they can ask of him. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Are Testing A Frontcourt Look Fans Havent Forgotten
The Timberwolves are giving a familiar-looking frontcourt experiment a summer showcase, planning to run Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky together as a double-big look in summer league. Both are second-year players from the 2025 draft class, with Beringer going 17th overall and Zikarsky coming off the board at 45th, and the team wants a closer read on how their size can work in tandem rather than just in theory.
There is a reason this pairing has caught attention beyond July games. Zikarsky brings enough offensive range to at least open the door to a frontcourt fit that echoes the kind of spacing-and-size balance Minnesota has chased before, while Beringers comfort shifting to the four gives the Wolves another way to test the idea. Even so, this is still more of an evaluation than a preview of the regular season, where the club is unlikely to lean on the look heavily. [Read more 🡒]
One Quote Just Raised A Painful Question About The Wolves' Gamble
Micah Noris move from the Timberwolves to the Portland Trail Blazers already made him an interesting link between two franchises, but a recent comment from Jrue Holiday gave that connection a sharper edge. Holidays view of what Minnesota has been building only adds to the sense that the Wolves are operating with real expectations now, especially after making a major swing to install LaMelo Ball as their starting point guard.
The gamble is obvious from a roster-construction standpoint: Ball brings offense and a different kind of playmaking, but the fit next to Anthony Edwards has to work on both ends for Minnesotas ceiling to stay where it wants it. For a team that has leaned on its defensive identity, the concern is whether adding Ball helps push the Wolves forward or asks them to give up too much of what made them dangerous in the first place. [Read more 🡒]