SCHREIER: Wolves Are Spending Money

Written by Tom Schreier

“You walk into the locker room every year, and it’s completely turned over,” Love says. “There’s new guys everywhere. And then it happens again and again. You start to wonder: Is there really a plan here? Is there really any kind of a … plan?”
​— Kevin Love, as quoted by Adrian Wojnarowski, Dec. 11, 2012

Let’s give Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor this much: He’s willing to spend, and that’s a good thing. It means the Wolves have a plan.

Too often there’s a double-standard among the vox populi: When an owner doesn’t spend, he’s seen as parsimonious, but when he or she does, they are criticized for giving players large contracts. Certainly the general public has become jaded due to owners demanding public funding for new or renovated arenas and then filling them with one or two superstars that lack a legitimate supporting cast. All four teams in the Twin Cities could justifiably be accused of this at one time or another. But the Wolves, who haven’t made the playoffs since Kevin Garnett was traded to the Boston Celtics, are spending, which indicates that they are making a legitimate effort to turn things around in the near future without a complete rebuild.

The numbers

Good players get paid; that’s the bottom line. — Saunders at the press conference announcing Rubio’s 4-year, $55 million extension

Minnesota entered the season spending $64 million on their roster, according to HoopsHype.com (subtracting J.J. Barea, who was bought out), and had $56 million committed next season before Ricky Rubio signed his 4-year, $55 million contract over the weekend. That additional $13.75 million annual salary bumps them up to nearly $70 million against the cap — and that’s without Mo Williams, Ronny Turiaf and Robbie Hummel on the books. The NBA salary cap this season is $63 million. No, the Wolves aren’t pressing towards the luxury tax, which is approximately $76.8 million, but it’s not anywhere near the cap floor either, which is $56.8 million. (All salary cap info via NBA.com). Sure, the Wolves are asking for $97 million in public funding to renovate the Target Center, an admittedly outdated venue, but they are meeting the Minnesota taxpayer halfway; they are committed to putting a quality product on the floor.

Spending money doesn’t automatically translate to winning on the court, of course, so it’s still important to show where that money is going. Nikola Pekovic is currently the highest paid player at $12.1 million this year, and he will make that salary for the next two years before finishing at $11.6 million in 2017-18. Thad Young is making $9.2 million this year, and has a player option for $9.7 million next year. Kevin Martin is making $6.8 million this year and over $7 million the next two. Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and Ricky Rubio all make around $5 million this year, as they are on their rookie contracts. Everyone else makes less.

The three contracts that are under the most scrutiny, of course, are Pekovic’s, Martin’s and Rubio’s. The common criticism is that all three are incomplete players: Pekovic is a plodder and not a rim protector, Martin probably shouldn’t be a starter and offers little defensively and Rubio is a poor shooter who has trouble guarding bigger opponents. And, additionally, their combined $32 million salary (roughly) constitutes nearly half of the committed salary for next season.

Large contracts look better with new NBA television deal

When this deal kicks in in 2016-17, it will lead to a substantial increase that year in the salary cap. — Adam Silver, after signing a $24 billion media-rights deal with ESPN and Turner

So what are the Wolves going to do when Bennett and Wiggins — and Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine to a lesser extent — start asking for the big bucks? Their options start kicking in around 2016-17. Here’s the kicker: The NBA’s 9-year, $24 billion media-rights deal with Turner and ESPN will kick in that season. The salary cap, which is calculated as a percentage of the league’s revenue from the previous season, is expected to literally blow through the roof in 2016-17. According to Deadspin, which did a large breakdown of the Turner/ESPN NBA deal when it was signed in October, if the new deal were in place right now, the salary cap would be $88 million. In which case, the Rubio and Pekovic deals, which run through 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively, don’t look so bad after all. The bottom line is signing these players to long-term contracts will benefit the team in the long run because of the TV deal.

Saunders didn’t want to speak about money at the press conference after Rubio’s signing other than to say that he didn’t see eye to eye with Rubio’s agents — the Wolves had offered Rubio a 4-year, $44 million contract similar to Steph Curry’s earlier — and likely doesn’t want to speak about Pekovic or Martin’s either, but it’s hard to think that Rubio’s contract wasn’t negotiated with the new TV deal in mind. The team has only about $33 million committed for the 2016-17 season, meaning they will have plenty of room to pick up team options for young players like Bennett ($7.3 million), Wiggins ($6 million), Muhammad ($3 million), Dieng ($2.3 million) and LaVine ($2.2 million) if they so choose. In fact, they could also offer extensions to Young, Brewer and Williams, while also picking up a core piece in free agency and still squeeze in around the cap.

Basically they can keep the core together for a long time. The caveat, of course, is that the young players have to pan out and the older ones have to be reliable, but this means — crazy as it may seem — that Taylor, Saunders and Co. appear to have a plan. This isn’t the Love/Kahn era anymore, kids. This regime means business.

Young guys have productive minutes, the veterans finish the game off

I think that’s what’s so great about this team, it’s such a perfect mix of veteran and young players. Some nights we’ll have back-to-backs, so when we’re at Game 30 and I’m feeling old, the young guys can come in and play the up-tempo and get us through the moments, and then in crunch time when you need the experienced guys. — Martin after a 97-91 win over Detroit on Nov. 30, 2014

In order for the Wolves to succeed in the post-Love era, Saunders needs to get productive minutes from his young players, and he has to be able to count on the veterans to close out a game. He has the right personnel to do so, and so far the team is off to the right start this season, despite a 1-2 record.

Wiggins’ defense can keep him on the floor, he’s shown offensive flashes and because the Wolves don’t have to hand him the key to the franchise just yet, Saunders can pull him from the game at will if he sees him floating. Bennett has contributed offensively and has the size, and now the athletic ability, to be a force down low. LaVine and Muhammad have played less minutes, but have put their otherworldly athletic ability on display — even if you might have to show up to pre-game to see it (or, in LaVine’s case, just have access to YouTube). Even Dieng, who was considered a one-dimensional player coming out of Louisville, has shown the ability to score the ball if put in the right situation.

As the game clock winds down, however, Saunders isn’t forced to play Wiggins, Bennett and the rest of the young guys and hope they make the right decisions in crunch time. That’s left up to Williams, Young and Martin.

Williams, who is capable of either taking the ball up the court or playing alongside Rubio at the 2, is unabashedly willing to shoot the ball — which is a positive thing. He’s also not afraid of passing the ball, and has those point guard instincts to find the open man, as he did Saturday when he set up a wide open, potentially game-winning shot by passing to Kevin “Big Balls” Martin, who could have hand-delivered his $15,000 fine to the league office and still made it back in time to knock down his 3-point shot against the Chicago Bulls. Young also has ice in his veins and can knock down open jumpers in crunch time, as he did in the Wolves 97-91 win over the Detroit Pistons last week.

This is basically the same dynamic as a major league bullpen: the starters, which should be the younger players that need the experience, are like the starter in baseball who is expected to eat up innings and maintain a lead late into the game, and then the veteran players (Williams, Martin, Young) come in and close it out.

This will work as long as everyone does their job, which really is what team sports is all about — even though this often gets lost in the star-driven NBA.

Flip Saunders becomes the face of the Wolves

I told our guys after the game, I said, ‘You know who’s got the toughest job in this room?’ And some guys said, ‘Well, Thad Young because he’s got to go against power forwards. Or Pekovic.’ And I said, ’No me, because I’ve gotta decide who plays.’ — Saunders after the win over Detroit on Nov. 30

Speaking of the star-driven NBA, the Wolves have had a Kevin as the face of their franchise for most of its existence.

Kevin Garnett came first, of course, the child prodigy that started the high school-to-pros trend before it became illegal, literally. He was the first guy to sign a ridiculous contract with the team before leading them to the Western Conference Finals and then ultimately being traded to Boston.

Kevin Love was obviously the next Mr. Timberwolves, albeit a disgruntled one. He was upset at UCLA because he didn’t feel he was part of their offense, he was upset early in his career because people were calling him fat and he was upset later in his career because general manager David Kahn didn’t really have a plan and surrounded him with either poor draft choices like Jonny Flynn, Wesley Johnson and Derrick Williams or washed up former high draft choices like Michael Beasley or Darko Milicic.

Even Kevin McHale had a run as the Kevin du jour in Minneapolis, as he was the liaison between K.G. and K-Love. He will be remembered for a) being a great player that was born and raised in the area, b) signing Joe Smith to an under-the-table deal and c) probably being a better coach than GM, or at least he should have been in the position Saunders is in now where he plays both roles.

The Reign of Kevin is over, however, unless you have a strong affinity for Kevin Martin. This team is all about Flip: he’s building it, he’s coaching it and he’s calling the shots. Love arguably hired his own coach in Rick Adelman and propped the door open for Wolves management to shove Kahn out; Wiggins won’t get such treatment. If Saunders wants to bench him, he’ll get benched. Same goes for Rubio; same goes for Bennett; same goes for Muhammad or LaVine.

This is Saunders’ team, and that’s the way it should be. After all, he has a plan. And he has the bankroll to execute it.