Wolves Cap Situation

[Lipoli390]

As we all know, the Wolves have no cap room and there's no realistic way to obtain cap room unless you believe that a team with cap space will trade picks for Teague, Wiggins or Gorgui. So the name of the game for the Wolves at this juncture is avoiding the luxury tax threshold of $132 million.

The Wolves have 9 players under contract for next season for a total of about $110M. One of those salaries, Cam Reynolds, is non-guaranteed. The Wolves also have about $685K on the books for the Cole Aldrich contract stretch. In addition, the Wolves will have about $3.5 million on the books for their 1st round pick (currently a cap hold). Adding the Wolves 1st round pick with no other roster changes would give the Wolves 10 roster players with a total salary (including the non-guaranteed Reynolds) of about $114.2M.

If the Wolves released all their player cap holds, including Tyus, Rose, Deng, etc., the team would be about $18M under the luxury tax threshold with 10 roster players and 4 slots to fill. To fill the remaining 4 roster spots, the Wolves could spend the full $9.2M MLE and the full $3.6M BAE for two players for a total of just under $13M. That would leave the Wolves with about $5M to fill the remaining two or three roster spots with minimum salary players. The minimum salary cap hit is $1.416, so two of those would total about $3M.

If the Wolves sign Tyus to a contract starting at $6M, but release all the other cap holds, then the Wolves would have 11 roster players and be about $12 million under the luxury tax threshold. The Wolves could spend just about all of the $9.2M MLE and still have just enough to sign two minimum-salary players to fill out the roster. One of those two final players could be the Wolves second round pick (#43).

Bottom line is that the Wolves are not in a terrible financial position. If the Wolves take a conservative approach this summer, simply signing their #11 and #43 picks, re-signing Tyus and using their MLE to sign a good rotation free agent with their MLE, the resulting roster should be competitive if Covington is truly healthy. The Wolves won 37 games last season in spite of (1) the major turmoil associated with the Butler fiasco, (2) a mid-season head coaching change, and (3) Covington's injury. Before Covington's injury, the Wolves were actually playing really well. The Wolves during that stretch, immediately following the Butler trade and before Covington went down, were better than a 37-win team. So I see the starting base for the Wolves as at least a 40+ win team. The Wolves should improve from there based on (1) having far more stability than last season, (2) the likely improvement of Okogie and KBD, and (3) the addition of a good rotation player with the MLE.

So I see the Wolves competing for a playoff spot even if their draft picks this week don't contribute much next season. In short, this team can take a long-term patient approach this off-season and still be competitive next season in the first year of KAT's 5-year deal. That means the Wolves can (and should in my view) emphasize upside in their draft selections next Thursday. It also means the Wolves can (and should) resist the temptation to take any shortcuts that involve trading draft picks or young talent like Okogie for older veterans. In other words, no more Butler deals, no more letting a Chauncey Billups go in favor or a Terrell Brandon, etc.

Ideally, I'd like to see the Wolves deal Teague and/or Wiggins this summer if it would bring in more high-upside talent. I'd like to see the Wolves trade up in the draft to get Darius Garland without giving up Okogie or KBD. As an alternative, I'd like to see the Wolves trade down with the Celtics, exchanging the #11 pick for two of the Celtics three first round picks. But I'll be content if the Wolves make two good draft picks next Thursday and then move forward with the development of those two players along with Okogie, KBD, Dario Saric and Cam Reynolds.

[Monster]

Lip you laid out things in terms of salaries pretty well. I will add that assuming the Wolves draft and sign a 2nd round pick they will cost less than the 1.4 million min charge. They could also sign another younger player with less experience to lower that number.

As you said the Wolves aren't in a terrible position but there will also be opportunities to be creative in adding to the roster. There will be a lot of movement around the league and chances to get various players to the roster. I hope this team is truly open to the development aspect.

[KG4Ever]

I'm not sweating our cap situation at all. Rather than the quick fix route ala Butler, I'd prefer we try to develop our team organically with young talent in this year's draft, plus our other young players like Okogie, KBD and Reynolds. Perhaps, add some other 25 or under talent (I'd take a flyer on Patton's health on a cheap deal and hope Rosas and company can unearth another Covington like impact player in free agency). I hope we resign Tyus cheaply. I'm also interested to see if Rosas and a full year of the new coaching staff can get Wiggins to be a more efficient scorer and focus more on the defensive side. I want to shed Teague (but he'll at least be gone in a year) and so I certainly wouldn't give up any picks to do so. I also wouldn't give up anything valuable to dump Dieng's contract at this point.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Getting Covington back should be a huge help. And I feel like the odds are that Teague and Saric should play better next year. And Dieng, while obviously overpaid, can be a solid player and reminded us of that fact at the end of the year. Hopefully Okogie can take a step forward as well, and maybe KBD starts to get solid rotation minutes. So all of those are areas for possible internal improvement.

But we should remember that letting Taj and Rose go will hurt us. I understand those moves for sure, but those two were our 2nd and 3rd best players after Covington went down. Deng should be replaceable with KBD, but he was ok for us. Heck, losing Tolliver could hurt as well given our weakness in stretching the floor, although I never understood why we didn't use him more.

We really need outside shooting and playmaking.

[kekgeek]

Ya, I think we are underrating what we are going to lose this summer.

Rose was our best off the ball scorer
Gibson was our most consistent player and one of the only players that did the dirty work
Tolliver was our 3rd best volume 3 pt shooter
Even Deng was pretty darn good.

[KG4Ever]

I really don't want to resign Derrick Rose or Tolliver, even at the minimum. Time to move on from them.

[kekgeek]

I really don't want to resign Derrick Rose or Tolliver, even at the minimum. Time to move on from them.

I don't even disagree with you. Just think they brought things that will be hard to replace next year

[Monster]

Speaking of Patton he is doing the workout circuit with various players trying to make an impression. Here is an article with an old quote about another guy trying to find a spot on the end of a roster.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2019/06/05/jazz-host-multiple-first/

"We knew the second practice [after he was acquired] that he couldn't play at [an NBA] level,'' a Bulls source told the Chicago Sun Times. "The only reason it took two practices was because we thought maybe it was nerves in the first one."

As for the Wolves vets that may or may not be leaving like Taj, Rose, Tolliver and Deng some of those guys might actually come back. If they don't I'd be surprised if the Wolves don't sign at least one guy that will be pretty useful with the mid level or some other creative addition. It's not gonna be just a complete loss of guys leaving and nothing coming in. It will be interesting to see what happens with Rose what his market is. If Deng would accept a vet min deal i'd do that without hesitation. He is a solid vet that does actually fit the modern game and will likely know his place as a guy that will play a little and help as a mentor to other guys. It's gonna be interesting to see what some non-star Tolliver and Taj types in addition to Rose get/are offered on the open market.

[bleedspeed]

I honestly think Wiggins contract looks a little better after this FA period.

[WildWolf2813]

I honestly think Wiggins contract looks a little better after this FA period.

I don't see how this is possibly true when nobody in their right mind would have offered Wiggins the 4 years and $122 mil he has remaining.