Timberwolves Might Not Be Able to Sign John Collins Despite Reported Interest

· Yahoo Sports

The Minnesota Timberwolves have already had themselves a busy offseason with trading for LaMelo Ball and Josh green from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Naz Reid and several future draft picks and pick-swaps along with signing Ayo Dosunmu to a five-year, $112 million contract to keep their midseason trade acquisition in Minnesota. 

Those are already deals that have solidified the Timberwolves' future, but the cost that came with adding or retaining those players may have left Minnesota limited in the kind of spending the team can do moving forward, and it may have already cost them another free agent the team had their eyes on. 

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John Collins, who played with the Los Angeles Clippers this past season, has been attached to the Timberwolves in free agent speculation, but with the new contracts on the books for Minnesota, a report from Marc Stein has put the idea of the Timberwolves bringing Collins aboard in question.

Stein Has Doubts

“League sources say John Collins certainly has fans in Minnesota, but it appears unlikely that the Timberwolves will have sufficient spending power to pursue the scoring forward, who spent last season with the Clippers," Stein wrote. 

Factoring in their new contracts, especially Ball's $40+ million salary for the 2026-27 season, the Timberwolves are already close to $93 million over the current salary cap for next season and and just under $20 million from surpassing the first apron. 

Collins earned over $26.5 million this past season with the Clippers and even though he experienced a down year with career-lows in both average rebounds and assists and his lowest points per game average since his rookie year, the prospect of Collins taking a significant enough discount to keep the Timberwolves in the first apron looks like a long shot. 

How Should Minnesota Proceed?

He would have been a nice replacement for Naz Reid at power forward, but if the Timberwolves are intent on staying in the first apron, he doesn't look to be a plausible option for Minnesota. 

That leaves the Timberwolves in a precarious position. They do need to find a way to replace Reid and free agency would be the best way to do so, but if they want to make multiple moves in the remainder of the offseason, they'll have to be far more creative with their deals and it likely puts the prospect of a higher-profile free agent out of the question. 

The improvements they've made to their backcourt certainly outweigh the headache they now have to deal with in free agency, but it does raise questions about how they'll handle the rest of free agency. 

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