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Year-Round News & Updates on the Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a busy Tuesday night. It was announced around 5pmCT that the Wolves had re-signed Chase Budinger with a three-year/$16million contract. About an hour later the Clippers landed J.J. Redick in a sign-and-trade, three-team deal. J.J. was reportedly offered a four-year deal by Minnesota that would've netted him roughly $3million more over the life of the deal. Taking J.J. off the Wolves' target list, their main targets then became either Mayo or Martin. K-Mart then became Minnesota's main target and they obviously moved quickly because it was then announced just before 7pmCT that the Wolves had then come to an agreement with the free agent shooting guard...
The deal will pay him an average of $7million a year. Martin is 30-years old and this obviously means he's signed until he's 34.
This is a bit much to pay for an older shooting guard whose skills have begun to decline slightly. That being said, I'm still a big fan of this acquisition. The Wolves FINALLY have a competent shooting guard and by re-signing Budinger and grabbing K-Mart, Flip has done what he set out to do this offseason--surround Ricky Rubio with guys who can knock down threes and open shots. Martin averaged 14 points on 45% FG for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season after being traded in the preseason in the deal that landed James Harden in Houston. Martin will again join Rick Adelman. He was coached by him in Sacramento. Then Adelman left Sac-Town and a year later landed the Houston Rockets coaching job. The Rockets then swung a deal that nabbed them Martin. Now, K-Mart will join Adelman once again. The Wolves' offseason isn't over yet, but they've had a great start. They added Shabazz Muhammad & Gorgui Dieng in the Draft, two players that should be part of the rotation in 2013-14. Today, they've re-signed Budinger and nabbed shooter Kevin Martin. So, what's left to do? The Wolves will likely trade either Luke Ridnour or J.J. Barea. They'll either trade one of them for a defensive wing or for picks. If it's for picks, they could look at someone like Matt Barnes, Francisco Garcia or Al-Faroq Aminu in free agency. And lastly and MOST IMPORTANTLY re-signing center Nikola Peković. This could go down as one of Minnesota's best offseasons in franchise history. One unfortunate aspect of this offseason and by signing Martin is that the Timberwolves won't be able to re-sign Andrei Kirilenko. With a starting lineup of Rubio, Martin, Budinger, Love & Peković the Wolves aren't very good defensively, but they will be a high-powered offensive team and if they can stay healthy, they could nab a low seed in the Playoffs and make some noise. That's all for now, stay tuned for news on Nikola Peković and potential trades for Ridnour or Barea.
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Cody AndersonA TWolves fan, bringing you the daily updates. News Archives
August 2017
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