Free agency doesn’t start until Friday afternoon and things are already getting spicy around the NBA. Coming on the heels of a productive NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves already re-signed Naz Reid to be their backup big of the future and Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that they wouldn’t be picking up Taurean Prince’s team option before TP found out himself. It’s been a pretty good week for Tim Connelly. But if he wants to keep the good vibes going, he’ll need to make good use of Minnesota’s precious few cap resources to bolster the bench and take the two-time play-in champs to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004 (and second time in franchise history).
There are a few avenues Connelly can go down in free agency. He still needs a backup point guard and will have to make any offer knowing he’ll be paying Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert more than $96 million combined in 2024-25 in the back of his mind. With sharpshooter Taurean Prince now officially a free agent, Connelly and the Wolves decision makers must make signing a knock-down shooter to come off the bench a priority this summer.
When you look at Minnesota’s roster, shooting might not be the most glaring issue. The Timberwolves shot 36.5 percent from beyond the arc last season, the 13th-best percentage in the league on the 15th-most three-point attempts. Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Mike Conley, and Towns were all above-average three-point shooters last season. But that shouldn’t stop the Wolves brass from loading up even more on outside shooters. The starters shot with aplomb. Once the second unit checked in, though, the perimeter threat was all but gone.
Prince was the only good three-point shooter coming off the bench last year, converting at 38 percent from deep. Reid is solid for a center at just under 35 percent. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Austin Rivers were sufficient, but Jaylen Nowell, Jordan McLaughlin, and Bryn Forbes could not score from deep. Minnesota’s bench shot 32 percent from three last season as a unit, 28th in the NBA. While the rest of the NBA descends into chaos to make the most noise in free agency and Mat Ishbia uses monopoly money to try to sign Kyrie Irving, the Timberwolves have a clear agenda to stick to keep pace with the rearmament going on in the Western Conference.
It’s no coincidence that the players already linked to Minnesota before free agency even begins are all good to great bench shooters. Bruce Brown, Donte DiVincenzo, and Eric Gordon have been linked with the Timberwolves in the pre-free agency rumor mill. How accurate any of these slop season reports are is anyone’s guess. Still, Brown, DiVincenzo, and Gordon all fit the mold of a big, strong guard who can hit two threes per game off the bench (among other things) that the Wolves desperately need to add to the rotation. Forbes was supposed to be the cheap version of this last summer. However, the career 41 percent three-point shooter decided to fire up my outside shooting training tapes I thought were hidden away in a warehouse surrounded by top men, and he lost his touch in Minnesota.
Brown just won a championship in Denver and is looking for a payday after his a career year. DiVincenzo had a nice bounce-back season after a huge injury, and Gordon is still going strong at age-34. There are other free agents out there who could fit the bill. Seth Curry is the best career three-point shooter in his family. Grant Williams pokes bears and has a qualifying offer from the Boston Celtics. And Caris LeVert is going to get more money than the Wolves can offer. There’s a possibility that the Timberwolves bring back Prince and or NAW on cheaper deals and truly run it back. However, that scenario seems less likely as they wade into free agency.
NBA free agency is a total crapshoot. The Wolves could easily end up with two 3-and-D players to bolster the bench. They could reset things with a huge Towns trade just after the Fourth of July holiday. Or who knows? Maybe James Harden and Kyrie Irving find their way to the Target Center. The Wolves have a sordid history of swinging and missing in free agency. Fans and pundits (and occasionally me) often call for huge changes in the near future to maximize Anthony Edwards’ timeline. However, it might be the right move to calm things down a bit, pick a safer lane and go down it.
The draft was Step 1, re-signing Naz was Step 2, and not optioning Prince and NAW was Step 3. Connelly is already starting to get back in the good graces of Wolves sickos after the Gobert overpay. Adding a quality shooter or two in free agency is the next step in building out the best Wolves roster possible.
