Hoops Rumors checks into the 2026 offseason all 30 NBA teamsrounding up the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s moves in the offseason and take a look at what else could happen before the regular season begins. Today we focus on Minnesota Timberwolves.
Signing free agents
- Ayo Dosunmu: Five years, $112,000,000. Fifth year player option. Rewritten using the rights of Bird.
- Jonathan Cuminga: Two years, $12,431,200. Second year player option. Signed using the middle-level taxpayer exemption.
- Jaylen Clark: Three years, $10,000,000. Full warranty. Rewritten using the rights of Bird.
- Kosty Highland: Year, minimum wage. Full warranty. Rewritten using the minimum wage exemption. They gave up the right of veto on trade.
- Trey Lyles: Year, minimum wage. Partially guaranteed ($1.5 million). Signed using the minimum wage exemption.
- Jules Bernard: Year, minimum wage. Not guaranteed (app. 9/10). Signed using the minimum wage exemption.
Trades
- Purchased Lamela’s ball and Josh Green from Hornets and draft rights to Isaiah Evans (Pick #33) from the Nets in a four-team trade in exchange for Julius Randle (to the Nets), Naz Reed (to the Hornet), draft rights to Joshua Jefferson (Pick No. 28; to Nets), draft rights Matteo Spagnolo (to Hornets), Timberwolves 2033 first-round pick (to Hornets), Timberwolves 2029 second-round pick (to Hornets), Timberwolves 2032 second-round pick (to Hornets), Timberwolves 2033 second-round pick (to Hornets), and 2028, 2029 and 2030 first-round picks (to Hornets).
- Purchased Cody Williams and John Kanchar from jazz in exchange for Josh Green and cash ($4 million).
Drafts
- 2-33: Isaiah Evans
- Signed to a four-year, $9,264,648 contract with the use of the second-round exception. The first three years with a guarantee. Fourth-year team option.
- 2-59: Trey Kaufman-Wren
Two-sided signatures
- Enrique Freeman
- One year, $91,000 partially guaranteed (will increase to $339,441 at the start of the regular season).
Note: Timberwolves rescheduled Roko Zikarsky and Sion Pullin on bilateral contracts from 2025/26.
Abandoned/Unsigned Free Agents
Other moves are listed
- They refused John Kanchar ($6,165,000 salary spread over three seasons).
Salary cap situation
Note: Numbers are rounded to one decimal place.
- Acts above the first apron ($209 million) and below the second tax ($221.7 million).
- A hard hat on the second apron.
- Team salary: $215.4 million (tax); $217.2 million (apron).
- Above the luxury tax line by $15 million; above the first apron by $8.1 million; below the second apron by $4.5 million.
- Two traded player exceptions are frozen/unavailable (the largest is worth $10.8M).
- One tradeable player exception is available ($2.5 million).
Offseason yet
After being hired as the Timberwolves president of basketball operations four years ago, Tim Connelly periodically reminded that he is not satisfied with reinsurance and will focus on saving jobs. Connelly controversially surrendered a huge package of players and draft assets Rudy Gober during the first year of operation in 2022, then traded Karl-Anthony Towns to New York in 2024.
Nearly two years after the Towns blockbuster, Connelly was set to make another big splash on the trade market, and he made a big splash this offseason with a deal for the Hershey’s point guard. Lamela’s ball.
Although Minnesota only sent one first-round pick to Charlotte in the trade, Ball’s overall price certainly wasn’t cheap. The Timberwolves’ exit package included three second-round picks, three first-round picks and a fan favorite Naz Reedwho has consistently been the sixth Man of the Year candidate in recent years and won the award in 2024.
It was a significant price for a player whose value appeared to be low ahead of the 2025/26 season. In the three years from 2022 to 2025, Ball played in just 105 games due to a series of injuries, including recurring ankle problems, and he didn’t exactly lead the Hornets to wins even when he was healthy — the team won 27, 21 and 19 games over those three seasons.
But Ball played 72 games in the 2025/26 regular season and proved what he can do when he can stay on the court. His average dropped to 20.1 points per game and he shot just 40.7% from the field, which was near a career low, but he cut his losses and played winning basketball, making everyone around him better.
The Hornets had an excellent +9.1 net rating and 123.2 offensive rating during Ball’s time on the floor. Those marks would have ranked second and first in the NBA, respectively, over a full season and represented a significant improvement over the +1.5 net rating and 110.6 offensive rating that Charlotte posted when the star point guard did not play.
The Timberwolves hope that Ball can be useful for such players Jayden McDanielsGober and Joan Behringer what he did for the like Mog Knueppel, Brandon Millerand Moussa Diabate in Charlotte, drawing the attention of defenders and setting up his teammates for open shots and easier shots around the net. Ball’s presence will also reduce the pressure Anthony Edwardswho in the 2025/26 season, in a team without a true playmaker, was overstretched in attack and his defensive intensity dropped a bit as a result.
Ball’s acquisition and re-signing mid-season trade acquisition Ayo Dosunmu a five-year, $112 million deal guaranteed Minnesota would have one of the best backcourts in the NBA, and those two and Edwards are expected to play major roles. But the Wolves will need to make up for the loss in the frontcourt, where Reid and Julius Randle – who were traded to Brooklyn as part of a cost-cutting deal – are no longer in the mix.
Minnesota reached an agreement at the beginning of free will to return Trey Lyles from Europe on a contract with a partially guaranteed minimum wage. But Lyles, an NBA journeyman, is better suited to a backup role, so the front office spent most of the summer trying to figure out how to acquire a starting-caliber forward with limited roster-building tools at its disposal. That effort eventually paid off as the Wolves prevailed Jonathan Cumingawho was looking for a more lucrative deal to accept a two-year, $12.4 million offer that includes a second-year player option.
The Wolves had to send a possible rotation wing (Josh Green) in a cost-cutting trade to free the taxpayers of the mid-level exception to sign Cumings, but the team felt it was a worthwhile deal to get the former No. 7 overall pick, who is entering his age-24 season and has shown promise on both ends of the court over five NBA seasons.
Even if Cummings plays well, there are questions about the Timberwolves’ depth with Reed and Randle gone and Donte Di Vincenzo will likely spend most of the season recovering from the Achilles tear he suffered in the first round of the 2026 playoffs. Minnesota will look to internal improvement from young players like Behringer, Terrence Shannon Jrand Jaylen Clark – who signed a new three-year, $10 million deal this offseason as the team looks to become a top-five seed in the West.
Next
Their series of roster moves, which included trading Green, signing Cummings and waiving John Kancharit appeared that the Timberwolves would be limited to 14 players on standard contracts entering the regular season. However, with $4.5 million in cap space below the second tax apron, Minnesota can now afford to sign the 15th man under a minimum salary contract ($2.45 million) and still have some flexibility below that cap.
It remains to be seen whether the Wolves will take a full 15-man squad for opening night. With Di Vincenzo on the shelf, there is still no idea what the club can expect from the youngsters Isaiah Evans and Cody Williams Adding a 15th man to a non-guaranteed deal for depth would not be the worst idea this fall, but the pickings are pretty slim right now. Veteran free agent forwards like Kevin Love, Nikolay Batumor Jeff Green fit in theory, but they may not have much left in the tank at this point in their careers.
Minnesota still has an unsigned 2026 second-rounder, but it sounds like the No. 59 pick Trey Kaufman-Wren there is focused on going back to school for one more year instead of starting his NBA career. That would likely sit well with the Wolves, who don’t currently have a two-way slot available and could keep a close eye on Kaufman-Rehn as an interior draft and storage prospect.
Several prominent Wolves players are currently eligible for extensions, including Edwards, Ball and DiVincenzo. McDaniels (Oct. 1) and Gobert (Oct. 24) will soon join that group as well.
Still, there shouldn’t be an urgent need to deal Edwards, Ball or McDaniels, who each have three years left on their current contracts. Edwards can too claim super-max expansion if he makes the All-NBA team in 2026-27, so it’s a safe bet he’ll wait until next summer to negotiate a new deal.
It would also be very shocking if Wolves extended DiVincenzo while he is still deep in the rehabilitation process of his Achilles tear.
That leaves Gobert as the likely next man up for an extension. The French center can become a free agent as early as 2027 as he has a $38 million player option for 27/28, but he won’t be eligible to negotiate a new deal until after opening night. We’ll see if he and the Wolves want to try to do something during the season, or if they hold off until the spring to get serious about an extension.
Gobert turns 34 in June, so the Wolves will likely be cautious about how many years they’re willing to guarantee, but the big man remains a vital part of the team’s game plan as its rim-protecting anchor and perennial Defensive Player of the Year vote-getter.
