The Minnesota Timberwolves have a very different look now that LaMelo Ball and Josh Green have been officially introduced at Target Center, and the move that brought them in solved one problem while creating another.
Ball gives Minnesota the point guard answer it has been chasing for multiple seasons, and he joins Anthony Edwards in the backcourt. But the cost was steep: Naz Reid and Julius Randle are gone, along with a chunk of draft capital. That trade patched one hole and exposed another, leaving the Wolves thin in the frontcourt and short on flexibility to fix it right away.
Minnesota is sitting less than $4 million below the second apron with 13 players on the roster. Because the team aggregated salaries in the Reid-Randle-for-Ball-and-Green deal, that second apron number is the hard ceiling for what it can spend by rule.
The first order of business is simple enough: the Wolves need at least one more player before the season starts to get to the NBA minimum of 14. The easiest path would be a $2.4 million veteran’s minimum signing.
Beyond that, the options get tricky fast. Minnesota could try to clear room with a cost-cutting trade, including the possibility of moving Josh Green’s $14.7 million salary.
The problem is the Wolves are out of draft capital to sweeten the deal, and even if they managed to wipe Green’s money off the books, their spending power would only rise to the $6 million taxpayer mid-level exception. That’s not the kind of number that usually lands a starting-caliber player.
There are other possibilities, but they come with baggage. The Wolves could move Donte DiVincenzo’s expiring contract to a team interested in re-signing him later, or include Terrence Shannon Jr. as a trade sweetener. Minnesota has made it clear, publicly and privately, that it does not intend to trade either player.
Another route would be to take back future money or a player another team has already soured on in exchange for an expiring contract. That would mean Minnesota accepting a deal another club views as a negative asset, which is never the cleanest way to operate.
That kind of move may be more realistic at next February’s trade deadline, when more teams have fallen out of the race and start thinking about the future instead of the present. If the Wolves can hang around with this group, they might find a better market later than the one available right now.
There is also the possibility of a two-for-one trade that brings back two rotation players for one outgoing piece, but that path looks the least likely. It would likely require moving Rudy Gobert, and Gobert appears to be in a strong spot to benefit from Ball’s arrival.
Tim Connelly has already shown he is willing to get creative when Minnesota’s finances seem to box him in. On the power forward situation, he said, "It's certainly an area we're going to have to try to be creative," Connelly said about the power forward position.
"There's a couple free agents still available. We're working with one or two of them right now.
We'll see if that comes to fruition."
Whether that means a major swing or a much smaller addition, the message is clear: the Timberwolves are not done. The front office still sees a roster that needs work, and the next move will tell the story of whether Minnesota can finish the summer with a more balanced team or has to open the season with some unfinished business.
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Timberwolves May Be Running Out Of Time With This Core
The Timberwolves have spent the last few seasons building around a young core that looks good on paper and, at least for now, is locked in through 2029. Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Jaden McDaniels give Minnesota the kind of talent base most teams would love to protect, but the problem is the price tag that comes with keeping a contender intact in the NBAs new financial climate.
The second tax apron has a way of turning long-term optimism into immediate roster math, and Minnesota is headed toward those same decisions. Edwards is likely to wait until next summer for his supermax, Balls next deal should land well north of $40 million a year, and McDaniels is also in line for a major payday, which means the Wolves may have only a narrow window to keep this group together before the pressure starts forcing harder choices about who stays and how much flexibility remains. [Read more 🡒]
Wolves Fans Are Split On What Ayo Dosunmu Will Be Worth
Ayo Dosunmus place in Minnesota has become one of those roster questions that says as much about team-building as it does about one player. Once the Timberwolves added LaMelo Ball, Dosunmus value shifted from standalone scorer to complementary piece, the kind of versatile guard who can slot next to Ball and Anthony Edwards without needing the ball to define his night.
That is why the reaction around his contract has been so divided. Some fans see a player whose all-around game fits the profile of the useful pieces that tend to show up on championship teams, while others focus on the price tag and wonder whether Minnesota is paying for a ceiling that still needs proving. The broader market view is more forgiving, with Dosunmu expected to land well below the leagues highest-paid names, which only sharpens the debate over whether the Wolves found a bargain or simply committed early to a role player whose value will be judged by what happens around him. [Read more 🡒]