Minnesota Sports Forum

I know the subject line applies to a lot of us. But I'm referring specifically to the Wolves. Just one year ago the Wolves were considered an upstart team loaded with young talent in Wiggins, Towns, LaVine, Bazz and the incoming Kris Dunn. Fast forward one year to this August and the Wolves story-line has changed dramatically. Yes, we still have Towns and Wiggins and they'll be 22 and 23 years old respectively this season. But otherwise, 7 of the 11 players currently on the Wolves roster will be 27 or older at or around the time the season starts. 5 of those 7 will be at least 29 years old and 2 of them over 30. Right now, it looks like Thibs will have 9 rotation players. Here's a list of them and their ages at he start of the season:

1. Teague - 29
2. Butler - 28
3. Wiggins - 22
4. Gorgui - 27
5. Towns - 22
6. Belly - 29
7. Gibson - 32
8. Crawford - 37
9. Jones - 21

I suspect we'll add at least two if not three 30-something players like the 37-year old Dunleavy or the 32-year old Aaron Brooks yet this fall. Even then, we won't be old. But we're definitely no longer what you can legitimately call a young team in today's NBA.

It really looks like we're a team largely in its prime with the exception of two or our three core players - Towns and Wiggins. But Towns is twice removed from being rookie of the year and even Wiggins now has 4 years under his belt. The talent is here and their largely in their prime. We're not depending on any rookies or 2nd year players. Expectations should be high.

I agree that the age balance on our roster has changed (for the better), but I think I would still regard us as a "young" team. When you have two stars aged 22 and 21 in the starting lineup, a backup PG who is 21, and a draft pick with a lot of upside in Justin Patton who is only 20, that still sounds like a very young team. And if they resign Muhammad to become their first wing off the bench at 24, the roster gets even younger.

But the key point is that we now have veterans in key roles that takes away any excuse that we are too young to win.

Good thread Lip.

FWIW on Wolfson's last podcast he said that Dunlevey was expected to sign elsewhere which wasn't surprising but what was surprising is that Wolfson included him in a group that would sign a vet min deal right now. Maybe Thibs is going away from old guys unless Tony Allen is an option.

In some ways trading Dunn made the team younger because Tyus will actually play.

One way the Wolves may get younger is adding some more youth at the back end of the roster that may have been stocked more with older players. Having legit vets playing meaningful minutes may allow them to sprinkle in a younger player here and there and it will work. MGH could be one of those guys as well as Patton down the road.

Regardless of the moves anyone would have made I think most of us would have had an older roster than last year in terms of who was playing some meaningful minutes. It just made sense to add some older even if they were in their late 20's vets.

longstrangetrip wrote:I agree that the age balance on our roster has changed (for the better), but I think I would still regard us as a "young" team. When you have two stars aged 22 and 21 in the starting lineup, a backup PG who is 21, and a draft pick with a lot of upside in Justin Patton who is only 20, that still sounds like a very young team. And if they resign Muhammad to become their first wing off the bench at 24, the roster gets even younger.

But the key point is that we now have veterans in key roles that takes away any excuse that we are too young to win.

I'll quibble a bit, LST. Wiggins and Towns will be 22 and 23 this season and they already have multiple years of NBA experience. Combined with the age of our other starters and rotation player, I don't think you can call the Wolves a young team. That's my quibble with you. But we both agree the age and experience of this team overall takes away any age or inexperience excuse for failing to win this season.

You are correct we are not super young anymore but I feel like we have the correct age construction to the roster.

Old vet role players: Crawford and Gibson (both on short deals)

Players in their prime: teague, Butler, Dieng, Belly

Young players: Wiggins, Towns, Patton, tyus, the guys on the partial deals and we added a draft pick.

We can't forget that wiggins would be in his rookie year if he stayed all 4 years and towns would be a senior.

I like what Thibs has done in terms in age construction, we might not be this super young team anymore but none of our core players are close to being past their primes and we still have upside players and we didn't ruin our future to just to win now, we are still set up to win now and in the distant future.

I'll add a point that Jon K brought up in a recent podcast. Thibs isn't absolutely all in to win now. He didn't give up that 1st round pick to clear space to get CJ Miles here. If they are really putting forth the campaign that it seems like they are to get Bazz back that's not really a win now move either.

This is certainly not an old roster. Taj and Crawford are the only guys on it over the age of 30 at this point. Crawford is old but Taj turned 32 a couple months ago so he isn't ancient.

Very happy to hear Dunleavy could be headed elsewhere.

monsterpile wrote:I'll add a point that Jon K brought up in a recent podcast. Thibs isn't absolutely all in to win now. He didn't give up that 1st round pick to clear space to get CJ Miles here. If they are really putting forth the campaign that it seems like they are to get Bazz back that's not really a win now move either.

This is certainly not an old roster. Taj and Crawford are the only guys on it over the age of 30 at this point. Crawford is old but Taj turned 32 a couple months ago so he isn't ancient.

Monster, I heard Jon say that too and wondered about his comment because I think Thibs is definitiely "all in" now...he has to be after last season's terrible disappointment. His decision to not give up the pick for Miles didn't signal to me that Thibs wasn't all in. To me it was just a value decision on his part. I think Thibs clearly thinks a first round pick is more valuable than a 30-year-old CJ Miles whether he's all in or not, and I agree with that assessment.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Very happy to hear Dunleavy could be headed elsewhere.

So am I!

kekgeek1 wrote:You are correct we are not super young anymore but I feel like we have the correct age construction to the roster.

Old vet role players: Crawford and Gibson (both on short deals)

Players in their prime: teague, Butler, Dieng, Belly

Young players: Wiggins, Towns, Patton, tyus, the guys on the partial deals and we added a draft pick.

We can't forget that wiggins would be in his rookie year if he stayed all 4 years and towns would be a senior.

I like what Thibs has done in terms in age construction, we might not be this super young team anymore but none of our core players are close to being past their primes and we still have upside players and we didn't ruin our future to just to win now, we are still set up to win now and in the distant future.

I agree that it's a nice blend of age and experience. Except for Crawford, Gibson and maybe Tyus, all the other likely rotation players currently on the roster are either in their prime (Butler, Teague, Gorgui, Belly) or close to entering their prime (Wiggins and Towns). Crawford and Gibson are on the back ends of their careers while Tyus is a youngster at age 21. With 3 open roster spots, we will likely get a bit older signing guys like Aaron Brooks and/or Tony Allen. But resigning Bazz would balance that out a bit. In any event, I like the blend for the near and mid-term horizon.

Looking longer term, it will be interesting to see how Patton develops. Belly turns 30 after this season and is in the last season of his contract. Gibson has two years on his contract after which he'll be 34 years old. So it would be great if Patton can develop over the next two years into a major part of our big-man rotation with Towns and Gorgui. I'm also a bit intrigued by the potential of Anthony Brown as young 3-point shooting wing who might potentially develop into a rotation player over the next couple years.