There’s no doubt that Minnesota Timberwolves‘ new president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas has shifted the culture of the franchise by injecting a youth movement into the organization. Minnesota needed a reset after the Tom Thibodeau era and Rosas did a great job in that, but Rosas may have over corrected by going too young too quick.
Rookies
Minnesota has four rookies entering this season. They drafted Jarrett Culver and Jaylen Nowell, while signing Naz Reid to a four-year deal and Jordan McLaughlin to a two-way contract.
https://twitter.com/Timberwolves/status/1148082612507779077
The average age of those four players is 20.5 years old. That’s a very young rookie class that will need a lot of guidance this upcoming season.
Free Agency and Trades
The team’s new players via trade and free agency aren’t especially experienced. They added Jordan Bell, Noah Vonleh and Tyrone Wallace via free agency, and Jake Layman, Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham were added via trades.
The average years of NBA experience of those six players is 3.3 seasons. Not especially encouraging to bring a level of maturity and professionalism to the franchise.
Established Players
Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins only have nine seasons of experience between the two of them. Not very encouraging of the team’s core to lead the young group of new players. The average years of experience for the roster as a whole is only 3.1 seasons, and the average age of the roster is 24.1 years old.
As of now, it’s completely possible that the Timberwolves will be one of the youngest teams in the NBA at the beginning of the season.
Veterans
Only Robert Covington, Jeff Teague and Gorgui Dieng have more than five seasons of experience. Teague is the most experienced with 10 seasons under his belt, including multiple playoff runs. Covington and Dieng have played in six seasons with one playoff appearance on their resumes. All three are over the age of 25 and Napier is the only other player that’s in that same age bracket.
The T-Wolves may struggle in several categories of maturity due to their age. They only have three “real” veterans, not to mention a very young head coach in Ryan Saunders. They don’t have anyone on the roster with championship experience. It may not seem like a big deal, but it can be when it comes to developing a championship culture. Only Teague has been in the playoffs multiple times, whereas Covington and Dieng were only on rosters that made the playoffs for the first time.
Developing a winning culture will be hard to do with all these young players and only three veterans. Don’t be mistaken, adding this young talent is necessary in trying to find long term pieces. Rosas did a solid job in finding legit young talent to build upon, but he should have added another veteran or two to help guide and develop these young players for the future.
