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Ron Jenkins / Associated Press
Veteran forward Luol Deng agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team announced:
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN first reported the two sides were finalizing an agreement. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported it's a one-year deal worth $ 2.4 million.
Wojnarowski Tom Thibodeau "has made no promises to Deng on playing time and role, but has offered the chance to earn minutes. "
Deng spent the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
At the time, his four-year, $ 72 million deal with Los Angeles was puzzling. The Lakers were in their first year of post-Kobe Bryant rebuild, so making that kind of investment in Deng did not make a lot of sense.
Deng averaged 7.6 points and 5.3 rebounds as the Lakers won 26 games in 2016-17. Then he played just 13 minutes over the entirety of the 2017-18 campaign.
Los Angeles bought Deng out of the remainder of his contract on Sept. 1 in order to give both sides a clean break. The Lakers benefited because they now have $ 38 million available for free agency in 2019, by ESPN.com's Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne. Deng, meanwhile, was given the opportunity to join a team where he could be more regular rotation player.
Because it's tough to gauge how valuable Deng can be for the Timberwolves.
Looking back at 2016-17, he's a career-low 38.7 percent of his field goals, and his 108.4 defensive rating was a career worst-of-the-well 2017-18-based to NBA.com.
Part of his struggles could simply be played down for a bad team with no playoff aspirations.
According to ESPN.com, Deng was 159th in real plus-minus (minus-0.33) two years ago. That number was not great, but it was not bad enough to fall in love with the league's worst players, either. He also held opponents to 32.2 percent shooting on three-pointers and 35.5 percent to 15 feet, by NBA.com.
Deng turned 33 in April, so Minnesota is not expecting to get the player back to back All-Star Games in 2012 and 2013. If he can be better than his 2016-17 self-not an unreasonable expectation- then this move will be worth it for the Timberwolves.
One could even try to put a positive spin on the system of 2017-18. Through his first 15 seasons, Deng logged 30,536 minutes on the court, which was most important during that span, by Basketball Reference. Physically, he should feel better heading into 2018-19 than he has in a long time.
Having said that, the Timberwolves were a landing spot that would catch the most flak for Deng signing, and the criticism is not necessarily misplaced.
Thibodeau continues to lean on the age of veterans who were key players during their tenure with the Chicago Bulls.
Signing Taj Gibson has worked out pretty well, but then he has managed to get back to work with Tyre Jones. Now, Deng's arrival is likely to push second-round pick Keita Bates-Diop further down the pecking order before he's had the chance to prove himself.
When Thibodeau joined the franchise in April 2016, the Timberwolves were a team on the rise, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins leading the way. The air has steadily come out of the balloon since then, even after Minnesota's trip to the playoffs last season.
Beyond the team's questionable roster moves-Jimmy Butler trade aside-there are other problems looming on the horizon. Wiggins has not shown much improvement, and Butler's agent did not exactly report Chicago Sun-TimesJoe Cowley of Butler's frustration regarding thenonchalant attitudes of younger teammates-specifically Karl-Anthony Towns. "
Deng can become a valuable addition for the Timberwolves. For now, this signing will be in the mood for 2018-19.
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