Rudy extension

[kekgeek]

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert has reached a three-year, $110 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN. T’Wolves and Gobert’s agent, Bouna Ndiaye, negotiated the new deal locking in the league-record four-time Defensive Player of the Year winner in Minnesota.

He has declined his player option next year

[guest81]

Really good deal for the wolves

[WildWolf2813]

so a paycut but not the hugest paycut that some of us may have wanted.

[Wolvesfan21]

Cap is suppose to go up a lot too, so might be a pretty fair deal. Let's just hope he continues to play well for years to come which I think he will.

[Coolbreeze44]

Pretty fair deal for us.

[Q-is-here]

Cap is suppose to go up a lot too, so might be a pretty fair deal. Let's just hope he continues to play well for years to come which I think he will.

Seems like a guy like him should age pretty well. He doesn't really rely a ton on athleticism or explosiveness and it seems like he really takes care of his body. I look at Brook Lopez and Al Horford as aging bigs that have continued to play pivotal roles for winning teams.

[60WinTim]

If the extension is structured as a normal NBA contract, the first year would start at 34 mil with 8% raises the next two years. That's roughly a 12.5 mil savings for next year's cap. The Wolves would be just into the luxury tax, but well under the 1st and 2nd aprons. Although they'll to figure out a NAZ extension, along with adding a couple more bodies to the roster...

[davemang]

It's no Jalen Brunson deal, but far better than we've done in the past where it seems like we're bidding against ourselves for no reason.

[Lipoli390]

If the extension is structured as a normal NBA contract, the first year would start at 34 mil with 8% raises the next two years. That's roughly a 12.5 mil savings for next year's cap. The Wolves would be just into the luxury tax, but well under the 1st and 2nd aprons. Although they'll to figure out a NAZ extension, along with adding a couple more bodies to the roster...

Not sure about your math. With Rudy’s new contract, the Wolves will have a guaranteed payroll next season of $186.52 million for 12 players without NAW, assuming Naz and Randle exercise their player options. That’s only about $2.5 million below the current second apron. The NBA cap went up 3.4% from last year to this year. Assuming the cap goes up by the max 10% (which is really optimistic), the new second apron threshold would be $207.79 million. Keeping Naz will likely require an additional $10 million (putting him at $25M next season). That would put the Wolves payroll at $196.52 million with 12 players. Keeping NAW would obviously put us over the second apron again since I can’t see signing him at a salary of less than $10 million per year. If we let NAW go and signed two minimum vet players, it would add 4 million to our payroll and put us at $200.52M. That would put us over the 1st apron of $195.94M (assuming a 10% increase in the cap)

Bottom line is that this team will remain above the 1st apron next season and will be hard pressed to get below the 2nd apron even with the new Rudy contract unless we let NAW go AND either pass on re-signing Naz or trade Randle for salary savings. The Rudy deal opens the door ever so slightly to getting below the 2nd apron, but it will still be very challenging. There’s no way we’ll get below the 1st apron unless we blow it up after this season. My prediction is that either Naz or Randle will play somewhere else next season.

[Q-is-here]

If the extension is structured as a normal NBA contract, the first year would start at 34 mil with 8% raises the next two years. That's roughly a 12.5 mil savings for next year's cap. The Wolves would be just into the luxury tax, but well under the 1st and 2nd aprons. Although they'll to figure out a NAZ extension, along with adding a couple more bodies to the roster...

Not sure about your math. With Rudy’s new contract, the Wolves will have a guaranteed payroll next season of $186.52 million for 12 players without NAW, assuming Naz and Randle exercise their player options. That’s only about $2.5 million below the current second apron. The NBA cap went up 3.4% from last year to this year. Assuming the cap goes up by the max 10% (which is really optimistic), the new second apron threshold would be $207.79 million. Keeping Naz will likely require an additional $10 million (putting him at $25M next season). That would put the Wolves payroll at $196.52 million with 12 players. Keeping NAW would obviously put us over the second apron again since I can’t see signing him at a salary of less than $10 million per year. If we let NAW go and signed two minimum vet players, it would add 4 million to our payroll and put us at $200.52M. That would put us over the 1st apron of $195.94M (assuming a 10% increase in the cap)

Bottom line is that this team will remain above the 1st apron next season and will be hard pressed to get below the 2nd apron even with the new Rudy contract unless we let NAW go AND either pass on re-signing Naz or trade Randle for salary savings. The Rudy deal opens the door ever so slightly to getting below the 2nd apron, but it will still be very challenging. There’s no way we’ll get below the 1st apron unless we blow it up after this season. My prediction is that either Naz or Randle will play somewhere else next season.

Notwithstanding the KAT trade, I always thought next offseason was going to be the big one where we officially enter the second window, get under the second apron, and build around Ant. Even the KAT trade is a bit of a stand-in-place move this season as it doesn't impact our cap situation this season and talent-wise it's probably a net neutral.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a fair amount of roster turnover between the trade deadline this season and the beginning of camp next season. NAW, Randle, and even a couple of guys we may really value like Jaden or Naz might be moved. I'm not advocating for anything in particular, but I can envision a fairly substantial roster overall to set us up for the ensuing 3-4 years.

BTW, Finch may not be exempt from said overhaul. I think he's a great coach, but sometimes a team grows and learns as much as they can from Coach A and simply needs a new voice in order to take the next step.