Watch out NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves are coming! It's safe to say that the previous sentence perfectly describes what the Timberwolves have done so far in the offseason. Earlier this week they acquired Jimmy Butler from the Chicago Bulls, in a trade that sent Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn to the Bulls. On Friday night the Timberwolves signed Jeff Teague, who was a free-agent, to a three-year deal worth around $57 million.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarorwski was the first to report about this deal, as the former 19th pick and the Timberwolves agreed to a three-year agreement which has a player-option for the third year.
Teague just turned 29 and he still has a lot of good basketball in front him, but it remains to be seen will he be a good fit for this new Minnesota team.
Free agent Jeff Teague has agreed to a 3-year, $57M deal with Minnesota, league sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/fgvUnhATgH
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) 1. srpnja 2017.
Ricky Rubio's replacement
The news about Teague's agreement with the Timberwolves came just a couple of hours after the team traded Ricky Rubio to the Utah Jazz. In this trade, Minnesota received OKC's 2018 first-round pick and also, along the way, they freed up cap space in order to get Teague. With Rubio now out of town, Teague will be the starting point guard and he showed last year that he can be a pretty good leader from the point guard position.
After spending the first seven seasons of his career with the Atlanta Hawks, Teague played for the Indiana Pacers last season. He averaged 15.3 points and a career-high 7.8 assists per game during the 2016/2017 campaign. Teague is also a reliable three-point shooter as he is a 35% three-point shooter for his career.
Rubio did a solid job for the Timberwolves in his six seasons with the team as he averaged 8.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game, but the front office thought it was time to go in a different direction.
It will be tough for Teague to match Rubio's stats with the Timberwolves, considering he is not a pass-first point guard. On the other side, Teague brings leadership and much-needed playoff experience to this young Timberwolves team. It is also worth mentioning that Teague missed just 17 games over the past four seasons.
Rebuilding process for the Pacers
After trading away Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Indiana Pacers are now left without an All-star caliber player in Jeff Teague. It seems like the Pacers are in for a long rebuilding process in years to come, and the players they received in the Paul George trade could be the foundation. Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis are promising young prospects, and the Pacers already have Myles Turner who showed flashes of potential last season. Pacers fans should be patient in the next few years as they hope to see their team back at the top of the NBA.
