All we can do is wait til after the deadline ends to see how things shake out.
I don't hate the trade. That said, 2 empty roster spots and even if they converted Garza's spot to a standard deal, it wouldn't make sense.
Connelly (and Finch to a degree) have to do something they haven't shown the competency to do yet: find someone off the scrap heap who may be useful not just now but potentially down the road as well.
Monte Morris is a Wolf
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
A couple of things that flew under the radar here:
1) The Wolves had been 2.36 mil under the luxury tax. But Conley gets a 750K bonus if the Wolves reach the NBA finals, and another 750K if the Wolves win it (Jmac has a 100K bonus as well, deemed unlikely). This means the Wolves could add a buyout player (< 800K) and remain under the luxury tax, even if they win a Championship.
But now, after acquiring Morris, they are only 1.56 mil under the luxury tax. This means if they sign a guy from the buyout market, they no longer control whether the team avoids the luxury tax. This is a reason I expect the Wolves to make another trade that at least creates a bit more room under the tax.
2) With the Wolves facing financial difficulty next offseason, they will be limited on how much they can spend to fill the roster. But even though Morris is expiring, the Wolves own his Bird Rights and can spend more $s than they would on the open market. I had not considered that angle before now, and makes the Morris even more impactful for their future.
1) The Wolves had been 2.36 mil under the luxury tax. But Conley gets a 750K bonus if the Wolves reach the NBA finals, and another 750K if the Wolves win it (Jmac has a 100K bonus as well, deemed unlikely). This means the Wolves could add a buyout player (< 800K) and remain under the luxury tax, even if they win a Championship.
But now, after acquiring Morris, they are only 1.56 mil under the luxury tax. This means if they sign a guy from the buyout market, they no longer control whether the team avoids the luxury tax. This is a reason I expect the Wolves to make another trade that at least creates a bit more room under the tax.
2) With the Wolves facing financial difficulty next offseason, they will be limited on how much they can spend to fill the roster. But even though Morris is expiring, the Wolves own his Bird Rights and can spend more $s than they would on the open market. I had not considered that angle before now, and makes the Morris even more impactful for their future.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
Great info, Tim! But what impact would exceeding the luxury tax have if the Wolves end up exceeding the second apron anyway? I don’t think our ownership cares a lot about paying the luxury tax. The real concern in my view has always been the transactional constraints that go along with exceeding the luxury tax and more so exceeding the second apron. Going above the second apron effectively hard-caps the Wolves after this season. That has to be the real concern, although being a repeat luxury tax team has transactional consequences as well. So it will be interesting. Your reasoning makes sense. I can see the Wolves making another move by tomorrow’s deadline to avoid the luxury tax. But my sense is that the Wolves are done making moves.60WinTim wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 9:01 pm A couple of things that flew under the radar here:
1) The Wolves had been 2.36 mil under the luxury tax. But Conley gets a 750K bonus if the Wolves reach the NBA finals, and another 750K if the Wolves win it (Jmac has a 100K bonus as well, deemed unlikely). This means the Wolves could add a buyout player (< 800K) and remain under the luxury tax, even if they win a Championship.
But now, after acquiring Morris, they are only 1.56 mil under the luxury tax. This means if they sign a guy from the buyout market, they no longer control whether the team avoids the luxury tax. This is a reason I expect the Wolves to make another trade that at least creates a bit more room under the tax.
2) With the Wolves facing financial difficulty next offseason, they will be limited on how much they can spend to fill the roster. But even though Morris is expiring, the Wolves own his Bird Rights and can spend more $s than they would on the open market. I had not considered that angle before now, and makes the Morris even more impactful for their future.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
If the Wolves win a championship and therefore go into the luxury tax this year nobody will give a fuck. You just won a championship. That’s why you go into the luxury tax.
As for this trade it’s a no-brainer although there is a chance Morris doesn’t get his game back this year but if he does you added a guy that’s been a starter on a really good team. Conley Morris and McLaughlin can play with a one including each other. That could mean NAW could play more as a SF at times which help with the loss of Brown who was a solid depth piece if McDaniels or Anderson aren’t available at SF.
The Milton signing didn’t work out but last offseason if you told most here that the Wolves would sign a couple FAs and those salaries would help the wolves acquire Morris for a 2nd rounder well I think we would have been thrilled. To me that was part of what I liked about signing those guys was possible salary matching contracts. I think signing brown was solid and I would have liked to keep him beyond this year but honestly maybe not for 4 million. That means he might not have stuck around.
The question about this trade beyond whether Morris will round back into shape is depth at SF. Brown wasn’t doing much offensively lately when he was in there. I guess if you just need a mistake free defender that doesn’t do much maybe even Moore could give you some minutes if needed. Want a bigger energy guy that can rebound maybe throw Minott out there. Depending on how much size you need you might even play Nix as a defender. Brown provided a young vet with a little playoff experience but losing him for a former fringe starter in Morris makes too much sense. Can the Wolves get a guy in the buyout market or some sort of FA to help with depth? Probably. I don’t have anyone in mind but there are some options out there for FA. Maybe they could even sign a younger player at some point.
Overall I like where the Wolves are right now. With Morris the legitimately likely upgraded their rotation with a highly competent guard which was their biggest need. Anderson despite not being as good offensively has surprisingly looked pretty good defending as a SF so that helps that position quite a bit. Another option would be to just throw Naz out there at SF for a few minutes and live with the consequences. His 3 point shooting has changed the calculus for this team to some extent.
It does make some sense to make another move but I tend to agree with Lip that the Wolves might be done in terms of making anything significant in other words I don’t think they are going to move Anderson but we will see soon enough. Maybe they move Moore to save some money.
As for this trade it’s a no-brainer although there is a chance Morris doesn’t get his game back this year but if he does you added a guy that’s been a starter on a really good team. Conley Morris and McLaughlin can play with a one including each other. That could mean NAW could play more as a SF at times which help with the loss of Brown who was a solid depth piece if McDaniels or Anderson aren’t available at SF.
The Milton signing didn’t work out but last offseason if you told most here that the Wolves would sign a couple FAs and those salaries would help the wolves acquire Morris for a 2nd rounder well I think we would have been thrilled. To me that was part of what I liked about signing those guys was possible salary matching contracts. I think signing brown was solid and I would have liked to keep him beyond this year but honestly maybe not for 4 million. That means he might not have stuck around.
The question about this trade beyond whether Morris will round back into shape is depth at SF. Brown wasn’t doing much offensively lately when he was in there. I guess if you just need a mistake free defender that doesn’t do much maybe even Moore could give you some minutes if needed. Want a bigger energy guy that can rebound maybe throw Minott out there. Depending on how much size you need you might even play Nix as a defender. Brown provided a young vet with a little playoff experience but losing him for a former fringe starter in Morris makes too much sense. Can the Wolves get a guy in the buyout market or some sort of FA to help with depth? Probably. I don’t have anyone in mind but there are some options out there for FA. Maybe they could even sign a younger player at some point.
Overall I like where the Wolves are right now. With Morris the legitimately likely upgraded their rotation with a highly competent guard which was their biggest need. Anderson despite not being as good offensively has surprisingly looked pretty good defending as a SF so that helps that position quite a bit. Another option would be to just throw Naz out there at SF for a few minutes and live with the consequences. His 3 point shooting has changed the calculus for this team to some extent.
It does make some sense to make another move but I tend to agree with Lip that the Wolves might be done in terms of making anything significant in other words I don’t think they are going to move Anderson but we will see soon enough. Maybe they move Moore to save some money.
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Carlos Danger
- Posts: 2402
- Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
Looks like everyone is pretty happy with the deal and I am as well. My only pick was similar to what I saw Cool write - wish we could have held onto TBJ. He's still only 24 and has shown he can be a somewhat productive bench guy. I thought he could've fit with the second wave of youngsters. I'd rather they gave up WMJ instead, but oh well. TBJ really wasn't getting much run here so I assume the high powers were not sold on him.
Regardless. At the end of the day we cleaned up the bottom of the roster a little and got better which was what almost everyone was hoping would happen.
Regardless. At the end of the day we cleaned up the bottom of the roster a little and got better which was what almost everyone was hoping would happen.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
I agree. I hope we offered Moore instead of TBJ. If that happened and the Pistons said no, then I’m satisfied.Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 7:27 am Looks like everyone is pretty happy with the deal and I am as well. My only pick was similar to what I saw Cool write - wish we could have held onto TBJ. He's still only 24 and has shown he can be a somewhat productive bench guy. I thought he could've fit with the second wave of youngsters. I'd rather they gave up WMJ instead, but oh well. TBJ really wasn't getting much run here so I assume the high powers were not sold on him.
Regardless. At the end of the day we cleaned up the bottom of the roster a little and got better which was what almost everyone was hoping would happen.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
Here’s the ESPN grade and analysis of the Wolves deal:
Minnesota Timberwolves grade: A
Entering play Wednesday, the Timberwolves are one of four teams atop the Western Conference standings. The LA Clippers have the best winning percentage of the group, with one fewer win and one fewer loss than Minnesota, the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The tight race means even a small upgrade could make the difference between the Timberwolves having home-court advantage through the West finals or only having it for the first round.
This trade is an admission that Minnesota's offseason additions didn't work. The Timberwolves used their non-taxpayer midlevel exception to sign both Brown and Milton, who have played a combined 139 minutes since Jan. 1 while on the fringes of coach Chris Finch's rotation. Minnesota didn't spend much on the two players, who make a combined $9 million and have non-guaranteed salaries for 2024-25, meaning they were easily tradeable.
In return, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is reunited with Morris, one of his many draft finds during nine years with the Nuggets. Taken 51st overall in 2017, Morris developed into one of the league's best backup point guards and a capable fill-in starter during Jamal Murray's absence due to an ACL tear in 2021.
Morris replaces Jordan McLaughlin as the backup to veteran Mike Conley Jr., offering a tad more size at 6-foot-2 than the 6-foot McLaughlin and -- crucially for Minnesota's spacing -- more shooting. McLaughlin is hitting 40.5% of his 3s this season, but that's out of line with his career 35% mark. Morris is a career 39% 3-point shooter. Both players will help Minnesota manage the 36-year-old Conley's workload down the stretch of the regular season.
For this season, Morris' $9.8 million salary is close enough to what Brown and Milton were making that the Timberwolves should be able to temporarily fill their 14th roster spot using 10-day contracts and avoid paying the luxury tax as long as they don't win the championship, which would trigger a $750,000 incentive for Conley. (And if the Timberwolves do hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time in franchise history -- and having not won a playoff series since 2004 -- they surely won't sweat the tax.)
This summer, Minnesota will have full Bird rights on both Conley and Morris. Given the coming financial crunch for the Timberwolves, who already sit $9 million over the projected 2024-25 tax line with extensions for Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns kicking in, re-signing both Conley and Morris seems unrealistic. Nonetheless, having another, younger option at point guard is a positive for Minnesota, which likely won't have access to the taxpayer midlevel exception.
Minnesota Timberwolves grade: A
Entering play Wednesday, the Timberwolves are one of four teams atop the Western Conference standings. The LA Clippers have the best winning percentage of the group, with one fewer win and one fewer loss than Minnesota, the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The tight race means even a small upgrade could make the difference between the Timberwolves having home-court advantage through the West finals or only having it for the first round.
This trade is an admission that Minnesota's offseason additions didn't work. The Timberwolves used their non-taxpayer midlevel exception to sign both Brown and Milton, who have played a combined 139 minutes since Jan. 1 while on the fringes of coach Chris Finch's rotation. Minnesota didn't spend much on the two players, who make a combined $9 million and have non-guaranteed salaries for 2024-25, meaning they were easily tradeable.
In return, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is reunited with Morris, one of his many draft finds during nine years with the Nuggets. Taken 51st overall in 2017, Morris developed into one of the league's best backup point guards and a capable fill-in starter during Jamal Murray's absence due to an ACL tear in 2021.
Morris replaces Jordan McLaughlin as the backup to veteran Mike Conley Jr., offering a tad more size at 6-foot-2 than the 6-foot McLaughlin and -- crucially for Minnesota's spacing -- more shooting. McLaughlin is hitting 40.5% of his 3s this season, but that's out of line with his career 35% mark. Morris is a career 39% 3-point shooter. Both players will help Minnesota manage the 36-year-old Conley's workload down the stretch of the regular season.
For this season, Morris' $9.8 million salary is close enough to what Brown and Milton were making that the Timberwolves should be able to temporarily fill their 14th roster spot using 10-day contracts and avoid paying the luxury tax as long as they don't win the championship, which would trigger a $750,000 incentive for Conley. (And if the Timberwolves do hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time in franchise history -- and having not won a playoff series since 2004 -- they surely won't sweat the tax.)
This summer, Minnesota will have full Bird rights on both Conley and Morris. Given the coming financial crunch for the Timberwolves, who already sit $9 million over the projected 2024-25 tax line with extensions for Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns kicking in, re-signing both Conley and Morris seems unrealistic. Nonetheless, having another, younger option at point guard is a positive for Minnesota, which likely won't have access to the taxpayer midlevel exception.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t care at all about the luxury tax at this point. I’d make a run now at signing the best shooter in the buy-out market to fill one of our two open roster spots. The goal is to win a championship THIS SEASON or at least get to the NBA finals. If we get knocked out in the first or second round, then we can clean up the balance sheet over the summer, avoiding the 2nd apron and retooling for the long haul - which would mean trading KAT, Rudy, Jaden and/or Naz.Monster wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 6:59 am If the Wolves win a championship and therefore go into the luxury tax this year nobody will give a fuck. You just won a championship. That’s why you go into the luxury tax.
As for this trade it’s a no-brainer although there is a chance Morris doesn’t get his game back this year but if he does you added a guy that’s been a starter on a really good team. Conley Morris and McLaughlin can play with a one including each other. That could mean NAW could play more as a SF at times which help with the loss of Brown who was a solid depth piece if McDaniels or Anderson aren’t available at SF.
The Milton signing didn’t work out but last offseason if you told most here that the Wolves would sign a couple FAs and those salaries would help the wolves acquire Morris for a 2nd rounder well I think we would have been thrilled. To me that was part of what I liked about signing those guys was possible salary matching contracts. I think signing brown was solid and I would have liked to keep him beyond this year but honestly maybe not for 4 million. That means he might not have stuck around.
The question about this trade beyond whether Morris will round back into shape is depth at SF. Brown wasn’t doing much offensively lately when he was in there. I guess if you just need a mistake free defender that doesn’t do much maybe even Moore could give you some minutes if needed. Want a bigger energy guy that can rebound maybe throw Minott out there. Depending on how much size you need you might even play Nix as a defender. Brown provided a young vet with a little playoff experience but losing him for a former fringe starter in Morris makes too much sense. Can the Wolves get a guy in the buyout market or some sort of FA to help with depth? Probably. I don’t have anyone in mind but there are some options out there for FA. Maybe they could even sign a younger player at some point.
Overall I like where the Wolves are right now. With Morris the legitimately likely upgraded their rotation with a highly competent guard which was their biggest need. Anderson despite not being as good offensively has surprisingly looked pretty good defending as a SF so that helps that position quite a bit. Another option would be to just throw Naz out there at SF for a few minutes and live with the consequences. His 3 point shooting has changed the calculus for this team to some extent.
It does make some sense to make another move but I tend to agree with Lip that the Wolves might be done in terms of making anything significant in other words I don’t think they are going to move Anderson but we will see soon enough. Maybe they move Moore to save some money.
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Carlos Danger
- Posts: 2402
- Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
Good stuff - thank you for posting that (it was behind the paywall and I'm cheap!)Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2024 1:08 pm Here’s the ESPN grade and analysis of the Wolves deal:
Minnesota Timberwolves grade: A
Entering play Wednesday, the Timberwolves are one of four teams atop the Western Conference standings. The LA Clippers have the best winning percentage of the group, with one fewer win and one fewer loss than Minnesota, the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The tight race means even a small upgrade could make the difference between the Timberwolves having home-court advantage through the West finals or only having it for the first round.
This trade is an admission that Minnesota's offseason additions didn't work. The Timberwolves used their non-taxpayer midlevel exception to sign both Brown and Milton, who have played a combined 139 minutes since Jan. 1 while on the fringes of coach Chris Finch's rotation. Minnesota didn't spend much on the two players, who make a combined $9 million and have non-guaranteed salaries for 2024-25, meaning they were easily tradeable.
In return, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is reunited with Morris, one of his many draft finds during nine years with the Nuggets. Taken 51st overall in 2017, Morris developed into one of the league's best backup point guards and a capable fill-in starter during Jamal Murray's absence due to an ACL tear in 2021.
Morris replaces Jordan McLaughlin as the backup to veteran Mike Conley Jr., offering a tad more size at 6-foot-2 than the 6-foot McLaughlin and -- crucially for Minnesota's spacing -- more shooting. McLaughlin is hitting 40.5% of his 3s this season, but that's out of line with his career 35% mark. Morris is a career 39% 3-point shooter. Both players will help Minnesota manage the 36-year-old Conley's workload down the stretch of the regular season.
For this season, Morris' $9.8 million salary is close enough to what Brown and Milton were making that the Timberwolves should be able to temporarily fill their 14th roster spot using 10-day contracts and avoid paying the luxury tax as long as they don't win the championship, which would trigger a $750,000 incentive for Conley. (And if the Timberwolves do hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time in franchise history -- and having not won a playoff series since 2004 -- they surely won't sweat the tax.)
This summer, Minnesota will have full Bird rights on both Conley and Morris. Given the coming financial crunch for the Timberwolves, who already sit $9 million over the projected 2024-25 tax line with extensions for Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns kicking in, re-signing both Conley and Morris seems unrealistic. Nonetheless, having another, younger option at point guard is a positive for Minnesota, which likely won't have access to the taxpayer midlevel exception.
Re: Monte Morris is a Wolf
So here is something to monitor...
Finch clearly prefers a 9-man rotation. And as of late, JMac has clearly been the #9 guy in that 9-man rotation. And Finch's #9 guy gets minimal minutes -- significantly less than the #8 guy, which is usually SloMo. So where does Morris fit into the rotation? I have to think his role will be much bigger than JMac's.
Assuming Morris is meeting expectations, I would speculate that SloMo will see the biggest drop in minutes. Maybe Conley will see a few minutes shaved off. NAW and NAZ seem to have solidified their roles. So the minute split between Morris and SloMo will be an interesting thing to watch.
Finch clearly prefers a 9-man rotation. And as of late, JMac has clearly been the #9 guy in that 9-man rotation. And Finch's #9 guy gets minimal minutes -- significantly less than the #8 guy, which is usually SloMo. So where does Morris fit into the rotation? I have to think his role will be much bigger than JMac's.
Assuming Morris is meeting expectations, I would speculate that SloMo will see the biggest drop in minutes. Maybe Conley will see a few minutes shaved off. NAW and NAZ seem to have solidified their roles. So the minute split between Morris and SloMo will be an interesting thing to watch.