Timberwolves President: Rookies Will Have To Play Role For Cash-Strapped Club

September 4, 2024

The Minnesota Timberwolves are coming off a run to the Western Conference finals and have plenty of reasons to think they can advance even further this season.

For starters, those reasons go by the names of Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, and others.

But Minnesota is also up against the salary cap and has little room to wiggle financially. Edwards and Towns are on max deals. Gobert is close to it. Jaden McDaniels is entering the first season of a five-year extension.

Basically, the Timberwolves are in uncharted territory when it comes to salary and luxury tax penalties. So that will make rookie Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. even more important when it comes to developing quickly and becoming immediate parts of the rotation.

“We don’t want to put too much on any young guy’s shoulders, but we’re gonna put a lot on their shoulders,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly told Darren Wolfson of KTSP. “Obviously, they’re going to have to prove they’ve earned those minutes. But where we are, we’ve become a pretty expensive team, so we’re going to have to find some spots for these young guys.”

Dillingham is a 6-foot-1 point guard and was selected with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Shannon is a 6-6 guard and was taken at No. 27.

Dillingham has a great teacher in Conley, while Dillingham can back up both Edwards and McDaniels.

“We know it’s not always going to be pretty, but most importantly they buy into [Wolves head coach Chris Finch],” Connelly told Wolfson. “We’re not expecting perfection, we’re just expecting a commitment to do things the way we do them.”

Connelly, for the record, is the former head of basketball operations for the Denver Nuggets — the team the Timberwolves knocked out of the West semifinals last season.