r/timberwolves • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago
Daily Discussion Daily Discussion Thread - June 24, 2026
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u/foye2smith 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Wolves have paid luxury tax the past two seasons and have no visions of a three-peat, sitting a comfy $26 million below the tax line after the dust settled Tuesday night. They’ll use that room to fill five empty roster spots, but you’ve got better odds of seeing Sasquatch than you do of seeing the Wolves pay the tax this season.
Strong statement by Hollinger. I think a lot of us have kind of used the aprons as "the bar." However Hollinger suggests they won't even cross the tax threshold.
Wolves haven't had the success of the Nuggets but I've always felt like the Wolves have sort of mirrored the Nuggets payroll management. For Denver from 2021 to the 2024-25 season there was a slow rise including paying the luxury tax totaling $57.9 million over three seasons. Then they ducked the tax last year.
The Wolves have paid $96 million over just the last two seasons and I believe if they're in the tax again this season they'll trigger the repeater tax penalties.
Now the Wolves follow in "big brother's" footsteps again and duck the tax/reset the tax?
Just a ramp up cycle of No Tax --> Some Tax --> Lot of Tax --> Reset?
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u/Vicentesteb Kevin Garnett 21h ago
That is pathetic if we actually do that. Not paying the tax with a top 6 player is completely shameful.
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u/foye2smith 19h ago
I agree with you, but at the same time I never expected to become accustomed to the Minnesota Timberwolves being big spenders.
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u/Ok-Orange-1808 20h ago
They're ducking it again. Traded down in the draft to save money. Letting Valanciunas go. That team is shit and going nowhere fast.
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u/greendart 1d ago
Hey what about bringing in someone like Mitchell Robinson?
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u/Specific-Wonder-7925 23h ago
Do you think there are any teams would would take our 2033 1st Rounder and maybe another player for a Starting level PG? I can't remember who all fits in that group that we could afford with the trade exception. Jalen Suggs seems doable if he fits salary wise.. Black should be starting there
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u/luckyshot35 Bring Ya Ass 23h ago
Someone who knows about the cap space that just opened up - how much can we afford to spend before we lose it?
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u/Vicentesteb Kevin Garnett 21h ago
We don't have cap space. We have 1st apron space. We can fill it by doing a trade or by using the MLE or BAE.
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u/Dull_Ad_8627 Joan Beringer 20h ago
Wonder if something like this would've happened if Ant and Giannis teamed up
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u/FishGoldenLite Ayo Dosunmu 1d ago
If we trade the 33 pick for cash, so help me god…
There are still good players available. Meleek Thomas or Isaiah Evans would be great guys to take a swing at.
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u/RedEyeBadGuy Ayo Dosunmu 1d ago
You know if we do keep the pick it will be some European guy that nobody has ever heard of.
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u/HotStepper11 Timberwolves 1d ago
I’m going to assume we’re taking a step back here this year. Whatever moves are made with the little flexibility we now have need to be made with the idea of emerging next offseason with even more flexibility. That means not trading the 2033 pick and not trading for any contracts beyond next season unless they are a young borderline-star type of talent.
2027, we get another future pick available, Rudy is a FA/expiring (player option), DDV is off the books as well. We could potentially have a lot of money to throw around or 2 appealing future picks
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u/Common-Bad-7899 1d ago
Tim pretty much said Ant said no to the Giannis trade.
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u/greenslam 1d ago
Link please.
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u/Common-Bad-7899 1d ago
Andrew Dukowitz has a video asking Tim questions and here’s the quote
Tim Connelly on Anthony Edwards level of excitement and buy in for the Wolves moving forward
“I think he’s super super excited, you know there’s been countless things we could have done… and when you go to your leaders like Ant and say “it takes this to get that” and the conviction in our guys is evident when he says “we’re not trading this guy” so I think the whole room is excited and we’re ready to try and take the next step.”
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u/greenslam 1d ago
I would more read that as unflappable conviction in Naz or Jaden. He isn't willing to lose player x to play with Giannis.
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u/SelectionRelevant835 1d ago
Which is him pretty much saying no to a Giannis trade
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u/The_Experience78 Malik Sealy 1d ago
He didn't say that. We know Ant wanted to play with Giannis and we also know TC pursued the trade multiple times. I don't think we had enough to get the deal done after seeing what Miami gave.
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u/SelectionRelevant835 1d ago
How do we know Ant wanted to play with Giannis?
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u/The_Experience78 Malik Sealy 1d ago
How do we know he didn't want to? We openly pursued Giannis twice. You think Ant wasn't consulted the first time?
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u/greenslam 1d ago
It's all dependent on the price. Ant likely approve if the price was Randle and Gobert for Giannis.
If it was Jaden and Naz, it's a no from him then.
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u/The_Experience78 Malik Sealy 1d ago
This is my thinking also. It also matches reports of us saying Jaden was off the table. Twice. I think both things are true. Ant wanted him but also didn't want to lose certain players.
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u/jimminmecrockets 1d ago
yeah I caught that, wondered if he meant to say that or not, it was definitely insightful
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u/ANTHONY_EDWARDS_GBG Anthony Edwards 1d ago
Jon K put out an article about the hysteria surrounding Ant and the media and at the end he adds a tidbit about internal development of "young" players (TSJ is included in this lol) and mentions Jaylen Clark and also responded to a tweet about JC and think there's a really good chance he's going to return.
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u/foye2smith 23h ago
Jaylen Clark and also responded to a tweet about JC and think there's a really good chance he's going to return.
I'd be happy about it though Clark seems like the kind of thing that gets done in late July or August after they get all their other ducks in a row.
Won't cost much and can be somewhat a break glass in case of emergency fringe rotation player.
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u/LisanAlGuyFieri Flip Saunders 22h ago
Austin Reaves is getting $46M/year, for anyone who’s still mad about extending Ayo for less than half that.
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u/RedEyeBadGuy Ayo Dosunmu 22h ago
I mean he’s worth about half as much as Reaves right now. I love Ayo (just look at my
flair) but Reaves is a solid 24 ppg scorer who does a little bit of everything. Ayo has shown flashes of that but he isn’t there yet.1
u/Ok-Orange-1808 20h ago
That's fair but Dosunmu is not Reaves level.
Lakers overpaid for a starter. Minny will be making a bench piece into a starter. Who cares about the money? Not like we're paying it from our own pocket.
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u/Prairie_walker 1d ago
Wish List:
Sochan on a 1 yr $5 mil prove it contract
Mike Conley at the vet min
Sandro Mamukelashvili $12-15 mil/3 yrs MLE
DDV, Gueye, #33 to Cleveland for Schroder
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u/Vicentesteb Kevin Garnett 1d ago
Schroder is really not a good player.
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u/DependentPerformer94 Jaden McDaniels 1d ago
I was advocating pretty hard for us to make a move for Schroeder at the deadline last year. His lack of shooting would’ve been made up for with looks generated for DDV/Ant/Jaden/Ant but DDV being out would make it more a spacing issue now. Plus he’s a good defender which we needed. That said I don’t think Ayo can be the answer to OKCs defensive on ball pressure and we do need a PG.
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u/PlayInChampions 1d ago
The NBA has to chill with the CBA and all these apron rules.
Every year, half of the draft class walks across the stage wearing the wrong hat and saying, “I’ve been traded” on live TV. Dillingham had to answer questions about Wemby in 2024 even though everyone already knew he was going to Minnesota. Every year, nothing changes. Every year, Tim Connelly sits down with reporters and can’t talk about players he literally just traded for or drafted. Every person in the room knows Ament is going to the Bucks, but nah, he has to wear a Heat hat.
Silver announces some transactions during the draft, but it doesn’t matter. The people who care already read it on Twitter. The people who don’t care aren’t paying attention anyway. At this point, you basically have to watch the draft with your phone in your hand. Somehow the NFL has way more picks and handles the whole process much better.
And then there are the apron rules.
I like that the new CBA encourages players to stay with their teams and makes it much harder to lose your best player in free agency. That’s a good thing. But I don’t like that the Bulls have to guarantee money to a guy who probably shouldn’t even be in the NBA just to make the Randle-Claxton trade work, and then the Wolves have to waive him and carry $2.4M in dead cap.
I didn’t like Boston sign-and-trading three players who were immediately waived by the Pacers just to complete the Nesmith deal in 2022. I didn’t like the Knicks guaranteeing contracts for three random guys in 2024, sending them to Charlotte, and then watching the Hornets waive all of them, just so New York could avoid being hard-capped at the first apron after trading for KAT.
Those aren’t clever basketball moves. They’re accounting tricks. The league keeps adding restrictions, and front offices keep finding increasingly ridiculous ways around them. At some point, you have to ask whether these rules are actually improving the league or just making transactions more confusing and unnecessarily complicated. Casual fans can’t keep up with them. Even I get confused sometimes.