As the team with the highest payroll in the NBA, not even the most optimistic fan in Minnesota expected to see the Timberwolves pull off something massive in free agency.
Sure, they could have brought back Kyle Anderson if they really wanted to, using his bird rights to hand him a new contract similar to what he got from Golden State, but any deal they agreed to would have meant paying multiple times his pay in luxury tax bills, which is probably not the best business for a second-unit playmaker.
Fortunately, the Timberwolves were ultimately able to have their cake and eat it too, as, in both free agency and the draft, they were able to add quality performers in rookie Rob Dillingham, who will likely serve as the team's sixth-man point guard and Joe Ingles, Mike Conley's former teammate from the Utah Jazz who spent the last season in Orlando.
Standing 6-foot-9, 220-pound, and hailing from Canberra, Australia, Ingles is a combo forward who can still do a little bit of everything even now at 36, even if he isn't the reliable scorer who was once a serious contender for Sixth Man of the Year. In 2023-24, Ingles played the lightest role of his career, averaging just 17.8 minutes per game in 68 appearances without a start, and yet, he still found ways to play into Orlando's success, averaging 4.4 points, three assists, and 2.1 rebounds while hitting 43.5 percent of his 2.4 3 point attempts per game. Granted, that sample size is relatively small, but it did mark the second season in a row where Ingles hit over 40 percent of his balls from deep and is in line with his 41 percent career average.
Though Ingles' athleticism has dipped over the years and could theoretically fall off even further in the forthcoming season should Chris Finch ride him hard due to injuries, in the correct dosage, the Australian forward has the potential to be a fantastic connective passer, reliable spot-up shooter, and a capable switch defender who probably shouldn't be on an opposing team's top perimeter scorer for very long but could put in work for a few seconds without things turning into an unmitigated disaster, as his positive 1.2 defensive box plus/minusfor the past season clearly proves.
Between Dillingham and Ingles, the Timberwolves were able to add not one but two promising players to their rotation just in time for an incredibly consequential 2024-25 season, which, considering the ammunition they had at the time to work with, means Tim Connelly deserves nothing but praise for what he was able to accomplish.
Tim Connelly believes Rob Dillingham can play in 2024
Speaking of the addition of Rob Dillingham and how he could impact Minnesota's plans in 2024-25 as a rookie, team president Tim Connelly laid out to reporters what he thinks of the youngest member of the Timberwolves and what kind of role he could fill right out of the gate.
*spoiler alert* the T-Wolves didn't draft Dillingham to sit on the bench to develop.
“I can't think of any time that you can get that high without losing a core piece. And certainly, it's a real asset we gave up. It can inhibit deal-making moving forward. But knowing the restrictions you start to enter when guys rightfully get paid, yeah, we just looked at it, and we think, ‘How can we get a guy that can be this impactful?'” Tim Connley told reporters via The Athletic
“I don't know how we can achieve that in the next two or three years via free agency. We don't want to trade our core guys. It's pretty simplistic. I think we've checked a major box that we lacked last year… He's a guy who, from Day 1, is going to have a role and a responsibility. Certainly, it's going to be hard for him. But I don't think you're that aggressive in the top 10 with a guy you don't think can play right away.”
As things presently stand, the Timberwolves have the most salary cap allocated of any team in the Association, with the team currently $17 million over the second aprons, according to Spotrac. While they could get some relief if Naz Reid opts out and decides to leave for greener pastures or if Rudy Gobert opts out of his contract and signs a new, long-term contract at a number less than the max, for now, adding a player like Dillingham, who won't have a cap number higher than $7 million until his fourth professional season, feels like an absolute steal for one of the best team in the West, especially if he really can play top-8 minutes right out of the gate.
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