Minnesota Sports Forum

The Wolves could have significant cap space in a year if they don't add any significant salary beyond this coming season. Would anyone here prioritize having cap space for 2023? I don't usually love putting my eggs in the FA cap space basket but if in FA I'm not signing a guy (or taking one back in a trade) that's the answer to the roster then yeah maybe I'll consider having cap space and the opportunity to sign a number of more impactful players (or add them in a trade) in a year. It's something to consider especially when thinking about trades involving Russell or Beasley. Depending on how much the cap goes up the Wolves can still add some salary beyond this coming season beyond rookies and still have a max salary spot.

monsterpile wrote:The Wolves could have significant cap space in a year if they don't add any significant salary beyond this coming season. Would anyone here prioritize having cap space for 2023? I don't usually love putting my eggs in the FA cap space basket but if in FA I'm not signing a guy (or taking one back in a trade) that's the answer to the roster then yeah maybe I'll consider having cap space and the opportunity to sign a number of more impactful players (or add them in a trade) in a year. It's something to consider especially when thinking about trades involving Russell or Beasley. Depending on how much the cap goes up the Wolves can still add some salary beyond this coming season beyond rookies and still have a max salary spot.

I looked at the FA class that year and it's pretty darn weak.

kekgeek1 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:The Wolves could have significant cap space in a year if they don't add any significant salary beyond this coming season. Would anyone here prioritize having cap space for 2023? I don't usually love putting my eggs in the FA cap space basket but if in FA I'm not signing a guy (or taking one back in a trade) that's the answer to the roster then yeah maybe I'll consider having cap space and the opportunity to sign a number of more impactful players (or add them in a trade) in a year. It's something to consider especially when thinking about trades involving Russell or Beasley. Depending on how much the cap goes up the Wolves can still add some salary beyond this coming season beyond rookies and still have a max salary spot.

I looked at the FA class that year and it's pretty darn weak.

I don't think its all that weak. Here are some of the notable free agents in 2023:

UFA: Jokic, LeBron, VanVleet (player option), Myles Turner, Vucevic, Khris Middleton (player option), Jerami Grant, Christian Wood, Wiggins, Harrison Barnes, Poeltl, Horford, Kuzma (player option), Gary Trent (player option), Steven Adams, Brook Lopez, Talen Horton-Tucker (player option), Jae Crowder, Larry Nance, Gallinari, Seth Curry, Bogdanovic (Atlanta version), Kelly Oubre, Caris Levert, Draymond Green (player option), Reggie Jackson, Terrence Ross, Danny Green, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Clarkson, KCP;

Restricted: DeAndre Hunter, Grant Williams, Jordan Poole, Tyler Herro, Brandon Clarke, Zion, Cam Johnson, Paul Reed

There also could be some more big names for guys who exercise their player options in 2022 (Kyrie Irving), sign one year deals in 2022 or guys who turn down their qualifying offers.

Assessing the 2023 free agent class, I have to believe Jokic, VanVleet, Vucevic and Middleton all return to their respective teams. If Lakers miss the playoffs again, I could see LeBron wanting to sign elsewhere and maybe there is an outside chance he'd consider coming here on a one year deal. If we haven't addressed the big situation this coming year, Myles Turner, Jerami Grant and Christian Wood are interesting. Kuzma or Gary Trent could fit here. DeAndre Hunter, Jordan Poole and Cam Johnson are on teams that may have cap issues, so they might be attainable.

I think Chandler Parsons will be available in FA... and willing to come to the Timberwolves... in 2023.

KG4Ever wrote:Assessing the 2023 free agent class, I have to believe Jokic, VanVleet, Vucevic and Middleton all return to their respective teams. If Lakers miss the playoffs again, I could see LeBron wanting to sign elsewhere and maybe there is an outside chance he'd consider coming here on a one year deal. If we haven't addressed the big situation this coming year, Myles Turner, Jerami Grant and Christian Wood are interesting. Kuzma or Gary Trent could fit here. DeAndre Hunter, Jordan Poole and Cam Johnson are on teams that may have cap issues, so they might be attainable.

What I meant by weak is Jokic isn't coming here. I like vanvleet don't know if he is coming here. I would love Middleton but why would he leave Giannis to come to the wolves.

The rest of the guys you mentioned I don't know for 100% are better then Dlo, Beasley and pat bev (the 3 players who would need to go to create max cap space).

There are good players here on the list but none are legit all star players that change the wolves future. It would be a lot of furniture moving in my opinion, what can be good for the roster context.

So when I meant weak there is nobody who I think can realistically come here who makes our "big 3" advance a tier

I think holding out for Free Agents should never be a Wolves strategy.

kekgeek1 wrote:

KG4Ever wrote:Assessing the 2023 free agent class, I have to believe Jokic, VanVleet, Vucevic and Middleton all return to their respective teams. If Lakers miss the playoffs again, I could see LeBron wanting to sign elsewhere and maybe there is an outside chance he'd consider coming here on a one year deal. If we haven't addressed the big situation this coming year, Myles Turner, Jerami Grant and Christian Wood are interesting. Kuzma or Gary Trent could fit here. DeAndre Hunter, Jordan Poole and Cam Johnson are on teams that may have cap issues, so they might be attainable.

What I meant by weak is Jokic isn't coming here. I like vanvleet don't know if he is coming here. I would love Middleton but why would he leave Giannis to come to the wolves.

The rest of the guys you mentioned I don't know for 100% are better then Dlo, Beasley and pat bev (the 3 players who would need to go to create max cap space).

There are good players here on the list but none are legit all star players that change the wolves future. It would be a lot of furniture moving in my opinion, what can be good for the roster context.

So when I meant weak there is nobody who I think can realistically come here who makes our "big 3" advance a tier

LeBron in Minnesota, I'm down! Maybe he could even reunite with Kyrie if one of them takes a paycut to come here for a title run.

The nice thing is the Wolves don't have to decide for another year and then can decide how best to spend their salary. I don' t know how the class of 2024 free agency looks, but if its better than 2023, they can probably kick the can down a year, by one year extensions or signings.

FWIW a year from now there could be 3-5 or even more guys that we might be happy to have the cap space to be able to sign. Who thought a few months ago Jalen Brunson would be a guy that will be a highly sought after FA? This happens every year a couple guys become much more intriguing than they were a few months earlier. What guys might we be able to just absorb in a trade?

The Wolves have never been a FA destination but opportunity and being able to get paid well for a team that actually is good sometimes brings good players to organizations that have not typically brought players there. Maybe there isn't a franchise changing FA that will come here. I'm not exactly feeling like there are many of those guys that are going to ne available in a trade this offseason that I would want to acquire. Things can change quickly in the NBA.

I need to do a bit more research on some of the CBA stuff but I believe that if the Wolves went into 2023 offseason below the cap they would have possible relatively low cap holds for both Nowell and Reid for around 5 million. They could resign those guys to more expensive deals after they used cap space. Neither guy might be worth keeping for more than that but it's possible both guys would be worth resigning for more money next offseason. The Wolves would have to renounce both Beasley and Russell to have cap space but they could also resign either player with cap space.

All I'm trying to lay out here is one possible path the Wolves could consider as they look at what they do the next few weeks and months. There are a lot of avenues to adding or reconfirming the roster. There isn't just one path.

Who are Ant's friends? Any free agent hopes and dreams are tied to who would wanna join him.