Inside, they decided to hold on to Derrick Williams, who showed some improvement with Love out for the majority of the season. They also signed veteran center Ronny Turiaf and drafted jumping jack Gorgui Dieng, both of whom are likely to get some minutes at backup center.
It’s not the best supporting cast in the NBA, but if the team from 2011 could have a shot at the playoffs, this team’s chances are even better.
3. A healthy offseason for Ricky Rubio. Last summer, Rubio’s development may have been temporarily stunted. His torn ACL prevented any chance to fully work on his game and hone in on things he needed to improve.
With a clean bill of health this summer, Rubio has that chance. The two weakest aspects of his game to this point are perimeter shooting and his ability to finish around the rim. Both of these are fixable, but will take practice. Last summer, Rubio didn’t have a chance to work on it much. This year is a different story.
Rubio will be playing in the European Championships for Spain, and that will be our first look into what he has worked on this offseason.
4. Life without AK47. Andre Kirilenko brings a lot more to a team than just a great stat line. On defense, he is more than capable of guarding the opponent’s top wing scorer. He is both a solid interior and perimeter defender and also plays good help defense. On offense, Kirilenko is crafty moving on the baseline and one of the best passers at his position.
This offseason, AK47 left $10 million with Minnesota on the table to explore a multiyear deal in free agency. It backfired, and he landed with the Brooklyn Nets at about one-third of that money, a pretty hefty pay cut.
Forced to move on, Saunders chose not to give Kirilenko’s salary slot to one high-priced free agent and went with Martin and Brewer. Martin’s prowess in moving without the ball will be needed on the offensive end, while Brewer’s job will be to try to fill the void on defense.
Odds are they won’t quite live up to what AK47 was able to do in his one year in Minnesota. But there’s no way to know for sure until we see what they can do with Rubio as their point guard.
5. Kevin Martin is back in his old role. As Martin himself put it, “I’ve never played with a pass-first point
guard my whole life, despite all the points I’ve scored.”
When Martin was traded from Houston to Oklahoma City a year ago, the idea was for him to replicate supersub James Harden from a scoring standpoint. For the most part, he did that. Production-wise, he had one of his better years. Statistically speaking, not so much.
In OKC, Martin played third fiddle to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who last season finished second and sixth in scoring, respectively. In Minnesota, Martin likely will start as he did in Sacramento and Houston and play second fiddle to Love in the shots department. Playing slongside Rubio should work well with his ability to come off pindowns and stagger screens.
The signing of Brewer, drafting of Muhammad and the $60 million given to Pekovic all have generated mild concerns. But most folks are pretty happy with the acquisition of Martin. There will be scoring in Minnesota, no doubt.
TIMBERWOLVES SALARIES AND ANALYSIS
Tim Faklis writes for Sheridan Hoops and is a Timberwolves and Lynx reporter and writer for SB Nation’s canishoopus.com, a Minnesota Timberwolves blog. Follow him on Twitter.