In an offseason that has brought a lot of turnover on the roster, the Minnesota Timberwolves may not be done dealing. Recent reports have suggested they want to add another big man, and a more recent tidbit suggests they would be willing to trade a guard to free up money so they can offer more than the veteran’s minimum to an available free agent.
The Timberwolves did add a couple pieces to their backcourt this offseason by signing Brandon Roy and Russian Alexey Shved, and Ricky Rubio is also untouchable. So that leaves three likely candidates for a guard Minnesota may be willing to part with: Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea and Malcolm Lee.
Ridnour and Barea are clearly the most experienced of that trio, and may have the most appeal to other teams due to that alone. Ridnour averaged a career-high 12.1 points per game last season while starting 53 games for the Timberwolves, while also averaging 4.8 assists per game. For his career, over nine NBA seasons, he has averaged 9.9 points, 4.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game over 640 games (397 starts).
Barea played just 41 games (11 starts) in his first season with the Timberwolves last season, averaging 11.3 points and 5.7 assists per game. He was a key sparkplug in the run to the NBA title the Dallas Mavericks had in 2011, averaging 8.9 points and 3.4 assists per game in 21 postseason games that year.
The main concern for any team interested in either Ridnour or Barea would be financial, as Ridnour is due just over $8.3 million over the next two seasons and Barea is due over $13.5 million over the final three seasons of the four-year deal he signed with Minnesota prior to last season. Both salaries seem excessive for players the caliber of Ridnour and Barea, and the Timberwolves may have to agree to pay some of that money to faciliate a trade.
Lee, on the other hand, is not as experienced as he enters his second season but he is also a lot cheaper as he is due to make a little over $762,000 this coming season. But he is likely to have little appeal to other teams at this point in his career, so Minnesota would likely not get much in a trade or free up very much salary cap room.
For the Minnesota Timberwolves trading a guard would free up what looks to be a glut at that position with not enough minutes to go around, even with Rubio’s status for the start of the season at best up in the air as he works his way back from his knee injury. Convincing another team to take on the salary of a high-priced player, Barea in particular given his salary and lack of a productive track record, will be a big challenge for team president David Kahn.
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