Minnesota Sports Forum

Damian Lillard considered Celtics, Timberwolves before returning to Portland
Jul. 19, 2025, 8:42 AM CDT
Instead, Damian Lillard returned to a Trail Blazers team that he spent the first 11 years of his career with. The Celtics may have missed out on him, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort, as Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the nine-time All-Star was seriously considering signing with Boston. “Over a dozen teams made minimum and midlevel exception offers to Damian Lillard,” Charania said on “NBA Today.” “Two teams in particular I’m told that Damian Lillard really considered, and that’s the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. He held calls with both teams at different points.”
NESN.com

Would have been a nice signing for the Wolves. He won’t be ready to play next season but he’d likely be available to play in the 2026-27 season after Conley likely retires. But I like that Lillard’s going back home to Portland. It’s a nice story.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 10:23 am Damian Lillard considered Celtics, Timberwolves before returning to Portland
Jul. 19, 2025, 8:42 AM CDT
Instead, Damian Lillard returned to a Trail Blazers team that he spent the first 11 years of his career with. The Celtics may have missed out on him, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort, as Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the nine-time All-Star was seriously considering signing with Boston. “Over a dozen teams made minimum and midlevel exception offers to Damian Lillard,” Charania said on “NBA Today.” “Two teams in particular I’m told that Damian Lillard really considered, and that’s the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves. He held calls with both teams at different points.”
NESN.com

Would have been a nice signing for the Wolves. He won’t be ready to play next season but he’d likely be available to play in the 2026-27 season after Conley likely retires. But I like that Lillard’s going back home to Portland. It’s a nice story.

He got a pretty decent chunk of money to go to Portland. I had no idea how that would work in terms of his salary for a year or 2 deal. No way the Wolves were able to offer anything like that. I agree it's a nice story. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

Marcus Smart to the Lakers

Sundog wrote: ↑Sat Jul 19, 2025 5:53 pm Marcus Smart to the Lakers

I wondered where he would end up. Teams are doing plenty of buyouts. It's not a new phenomenon as even 10+ years ago it was happening but I bet Washington is fine savijg some cash and moving on.

If Smart can stay healthy that could be a nice move foe the Lakers. Smart probably isn't quite the player he once was but they could use a guy with his toughness. It was something they lacked at almost every position.

Another heartwarming story with Chris Paul returning and signing with the Clippers. I don't think Paul was gonna sign for a whole lot of money regardless but he wanted to be in LA. Dame wanted to be where his family was. Paul has already made over. 400 million in NBA salary plus endorsement and he seems like a smart guy he has probably invested and possibly made some money already. Another 2-7 million probably wasn't his priority in his next stop.

Meanwhile the Clippers picked up 2 pretty good players for nothing. Paul isn't what he once was but he is a pretty nice player to add plenty productive last year going into his age 40 season. Conley is over 2 years younger and likely will still be plenty useful. Both of then have already cheated father time as small PGs and may continue to do so for another season.

The Clippers have real concerns about staying healthy but they were able to still be plenty good last year missing key guys at times. I think part of that is do to the coaching of Ty Lue. They probably have a roster more capable of playing different ways than last year and John Collins has to be THRILLED to be playing with Harden and Chris Paul. He is gonna be getting some easy baskets whether he starts or comes of the bench which is good for him since he is an impending FA. This might be the chance for his career to get back on track.

Monster wrote: ↑Mon Jul 21, 2025 8:12 pm Another heartwarming story with Chris Paul returning and signing with the Clippers. I don't think Paul was gonna sign for a whole lot of money regardless but he wanted to be in LA. Dame wanted to be where his family was. Paul has already made over. 400 million in NBA salary plus endorsement and he seems like a smart guy he has probably invested and possibly made some money already. Another 2-7 million probably wasn't his priority in his next stop.

Meanwhile the Clippers picked up 2 pretty good players for nothing. Paul isn't what he once was but he is a pretty nice player to add plenty productive last year going into his age 40 season. Conley is over 2 years younger and likely will still be plenty useful. Both of then have already cheated father time as small PGs and may continue to do so for another season.

The Clippers have real concerns about staying healthy but they were able to still be plenty good last year missing key guys at times. I think part of that is do to the coaching of Ty Lue. They probably have a roster more capable of playing different ways than last year and John Collins has to be THRILLED to be playing with Harden and Chris Paul. He is gonna be getting some easy baskets whether he starts or comes of the bench which is good for him since he is an impending FA. This might be the chance for his career to get back on track.

Great post, Monster. I agree. I’m happy for Chris Paul. But I’m not happy about how the Clippers have improved this summer.

With the improvements in LA for both teams, I think the wolves might be a play in team this year. I’m not sure what TC is doing at PG, but this isn’t a contender this year with the PGs we have. We need to sign another rotation level PG OR we need to trade Julius for a PG/big combo.

D-Loser25 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 22, 2025 10:13 am With the improvements in LA for both teams, I think the wolves might be a play in team this year. I’m not sure what TC is doing at PG, but this isn’t a contender this year with the PGs we have. We need to sign another rotation level PG OR we need to trade Julius for a PG/big combo.

I wondered about this heading into Summer League, too. But based on what we saw in Summer League, and re-visiting how the Wolves played after Randle and Donte returned from their mid-season injuries, I have a lot of confidence in what our current 13-man roster can do. That 14th and/or 15th player will likely be pretty far down on the depth chart, regardless of position. While Conley/Dilly may be penciled in at PG, we have seen an ANT/DDV backcourt can be pretty damn good. And coming out of Summer League, an ANT/TSJ lineup is pretty intriguing as well. I think PG is covered very well with the current personnel before Finch would have to reach down to whoever is signed to fill out the roster. Miller and Beringer give a similar vibe of depth for our bigs.

Given the continuity of our roster heading into next season, I expect a fast start with a lot of dominate wins. So, not only will we stack up wins, Finch will have the luxury of giving playing time to younger players to help their development. The Wolves are poised to be among the top 4 in the West for the entire season.

That doesn't mean I am not intrigued by who the 14th and/or 15th player might be! Last year we entered the season with 3 rookies. It's not surprising we maintained 15 players on the roster for most of the year. With only 1 rookie entering this season, I expect TC will keep that 15th spot open for flexibility during the season. The 14th spot will likely be filled by a vet who could not find a landing spot elsewhere, which may not come until training camp time.

Okogie to sign with the Rockets.

Lakers waive Shake Milton and Jordon Goodwin.

As teams sign and release players it might give the Wolves an opportunity at a player that woukd be a good fit for them either with some sort of NBA contract or to sign on a 2-way deal.

Jordan Goodwin is a very moderately interesting player. He would be a guy that might be worth a look on a non guaranteed deal. He was always a G-league guy that did a whole bunch of shit filling up the Stat sheet but never really hit the 3 consistently. I always wondered if he was a good defender but my guess is the answer is yes or he wouldn't have played some actual minutes on NBA teams over couple seasons. Zach Lowe suggested the Lakers may have been wise to have kept him over signing Smart. He is a good sized combo guard that sounds like plays hard can handle the ball some and probably wouldn't be terrible if he had to fill in for a few games. Newton might be capable of doing the same idk. Goodwin is sort of a cheap keep the boat afloat signing probably in the same vein as Dozier last year. Not exactly thrilling but sometimes these guys figure it out a bit and become more valuable. If he actually can hit 3's (which he did with the Lakers in his time there) then his value would go up. I've written too much about him and I would guess there will be a better option avaibale but with various movement around the league the Wolves could end up being able to sign someone that isn't even a free agent right now.

Suns claimed Goodwin from the Lakers and Signed Jared Butler. Butler was a younger depth PG that interested me. The Suns have a full roster now. They don't really have an established PF or PG but they potentially have a lot of depth on their roster. Coaching is gonna be a big factor in how competent they are this season of their roster is basically finalized.