The Minnesota Timberwolves have already committed a lot of money with a free agency, and are expected to be too expensive for one player to re-sign, prompting concerns about who will replace him.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have already been busy this offseason, signing a five-year, $125 million contract to the sixth Man of the Year Naz Reed.
On top of that, Julius Randle, who had player options for next season, instead signed a three-year, $100 million contract to stay in Twin City.
With the exception of trade, the wolves run things back together with the cores of Reed, Randle, Donte Divinsenzo, Rudy Goat, Mike Conley, Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards.
The group has already proven that they can compete in the finals of the conference in each of the last two seasons.
In a two and a half season with the Timberwolves, Alexander Walker appeared as a solid shooter and secondary facilitator from the bench, but his real calling card was his defense. He was able to hold himself against some of the best guards in the Western Conference, and he spiked the value of his free agency.
He is expected to have no shortage of suitors this summer, and the wolves will simply be upward after committing a big buck to Randle and Reed.
Luckily for the wolves, second-year security guards Terence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham were sometimes poised to take the next step.
“They hope that they will get a glimpse from Terrence Shannon Jr. at Conference Finals when Chris Finch decides to give him legitimate minutes as a sign of what’s coming for them.
Shannon Jr. played only garbage time in the conference finals, but he scored 37.5% from the deep season and 35.5% from the Deep, with limited sample sizes in the regular season.
But as a wing body guard, the oversized Shannon can step into a bigger role and envision the mantle of Alexander Walker, and Dillingham, whom the wolves traded up in last year’s draft, must prove himself.
Anthony Edwards is the present and future of winning basketball on 10,000 lake lands, but Shannon Jr. and Dillingham have in theory become at least long-term contributors.
However, Dillingham only played in three postseason contests, in trash time only. He averaged 4.5 points and two assists in the regular season, but only shot 33.8% from deep from college.
“At some point, Dillingham needs to play. He needs to take the baton from Mike Conley and he needs to get some of the time he’s going to Conley now,” McMahon insisted.
“But Alexander Walker was a massive, versatile wing, often the guy who defends the first or second-best wing score on the floor, for other teams. Terrence Shannon Jr. is a big, athletic wing. He has juice.”
While ESPN experts have more faith in Shannon than Dillingham, Brian Windhorst says that last season’s eighth overall pick was “not too noticeable”, but the Wolves need to take pages from the OKC Thunder playbook, and instead of simply getting on the bench to the players, they need to maximize their cheap rookie contracts.
The title window is so open, the wolves don’t have time to concentrate on development and throw the youngsters into the fire early in the next season.