Timberwolves Offseason Start

The Wolves have made some fairly big moves recently. Of course any time you have the first overall pick in the draft I would hope it involves a big move. They made some good trades and picked up solid depth where they needed it. The NBA is such a deep league that I don't think we are anywhere close to a competitive season, but who knows. Hopefully there's a reason to be excited about Minnesota basketball again.

With the first pick in the draft the Wolves selected guard Anthony Edwards from Georgia. Analysts kept switching between Edwards and LeMelo Ball, but to be honest I'm happier with Edwards. There was no true superstar in this draft as a prospect, no Zion Williamson or Lebron James, but I think Edwards was the safest choice. In a league that is run by two guards I think he and D'Angelo Russell will make a great tandem. Combine that with Karl Anthony Towns and we have a possible future. The concern about Edwards with me is that he isn't a franchise changing player, or at least isn't expected to be. He could be the next superstar or he could be the next Andrew Wiggins. Time will tell, but I'm excited to see what he can do. We also signed him to a pretty big contract so hopefully he's worth the $11 million a season.

Later on in the draft the Wolves made a trade to bring Ricky Rubio back home. They also used the trade to move draft picks around, and ended up with Leandro Bolmaro and Jaden McDaniels. Rubio will make a great veteran backup behind Russell and will hopefully give the bench some spark. A true vet like him could also provide leadership to the young guys coming in. From what I've heard about Bolmaro I'm confused why we took him. We won't see him in America for another year, and I don't know anything about European basketball, but it seems we reached trying to find the next Luka Doncic. Jaden McDaniels should be a good bench big man, as we don't have a lot of size behind KAT. He seems like he should be able to drive the paint a lot, and may develop into a solid bench asset.

Once free agency started there was a lot of buzz with the Wolves going after some big names such as Jae Crowder or Paul Millsap but a lot of the deals fell through because who wants to play in Minnesota. We were able to re-sign Malik Beasley who is a great shooter from the perimeter. He has had a lot of off the court issues with drugs and weapons and was charged with a felony. The hope is that $15 million a season will shore up those issues and he can focus on the game. The Wolves also issued a qualifying offer to Juan Hernangomez, so it seems our other starting forward will return to the lineup.

One other trade the Wolves ended up making yesterday was the acquisition of Ed Davis from the Knicks. I don't know a lot about him but it seems the Wolves are going after more size for the bench. Last season an issue was we couldn't stop teams for scoring inside the paint, so hopefully Davis can help with that issue.

The Wolves have had some disappointing seasons recently since Jimmy Butler left. It was a really exciting time when he was able to bring us back to the playoffs, and I hope we can reach that level again soon. However, I don't think we are quite there yet. It's possible we over perform our expectation and make a run at the 8 seed, but I think we are another year out. One off season is not enough time to shore up all the issues this team has, unless some big move is made. I predict another average to mediocre season, followed by hopefully another constructive offseason, and then a push towards the playoffs.

Hopefully this team can prove me wrong and we can just go 82-0. But as always, with cautious optimism, go Wolves.