2012 free agents, cap space, and... (an odyssey into the Timberwolves 2012 off season)

With Our Beloved Puppies in the midst of yet another 0-April effort, and with whispers of Papa Glen wanting to do little more than sprinkle some magic Team Adelman dust on Wes Johnson, and with David Kahn continuing to insist that the singular move is jussssssst round the next corner, and with the team currently holding a single draft pick in the 2nd round (the 59th), let's take a combined look at what is actually available to the squad in terms of cap space and potential free agents.

Much more below the fold.

Let's start with figuring out just how much money they have to work with in free agency.

(Green = qualifying offer, red = team option)

Piecing together information from Sham Sports, HoopsHype, news articles and the rookie salary scales of the past few years, we can see that if all team and player options were picked up for the 2012/13 season, the Wolves would be on the hook for just over $70 million spread over 14 players.

With rosters set at 15 and the cap expected to be in the neighborhood of $58-60 million, this doesn't exactly leave a lot of wiggle room. Clearly the Wolves will have to decline some of these options.

Not picking up the qualifying offers for Michael Beasley and Anthony Randolph brings down the total to $58.1 mil and 12 players. This gives the team essentially zero room to work with under the cap. They still need to clear some space.

Brad Miller has said he will retire after the season. Taking away his team option brings the totals down to $53 million and 11 players. This is probably the baseline of what fans should expect from the squad over the summer. It would be enough for them to sign a modest 4 for $4 Kahn special while leaving enough room for...well, this is where things will get weird.

As we have seen with the recent outbreak of injuries, filling a roster is both a financial and physical matter. Yes, cap space is, in theory, great. However, you also need enough bodies at each position to field a functional team, let alone a competitive one.

Let's say that the Wolves decline Martell Webster's team option. This gets them to $47.3 mil over 10 contracts. This should give them roughly $10-12 mil of usable cap space on the open market. Sounds great, right? Well, they're certainly not going to spend it in one spot and trot out a roster of 11 players + D-League filler, right?

Declining Webster's option leaves them with Wes Johnson as the only able-bodied 3. JJ Barea, Luke Ridnour, Wayne Ellington, and Malcolm Lee would be the quasi 2s. That's 1/2 of the 10 contract roster wrapped up in kind-of-sort-of wingish bad production. Something else clearly needs to be done. (Seriously, let the fact that 1/2 of the potential 10 contract roster is composed of players who are neither true starting points or true starting 2 guards sink in for a moment.)

Let's talk about amnestying Darko. What would this do for the team? First, it would get them down to $42.1 mil and 9 contracts. It would also leave them with Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic as the only players on the roster who could play center. Chalk up another need for the team.

At this point the comical mismanagement of this roster and franchise should be obvious. With alllllll the draft picks, and with alllll the supposed cap space, and with allll the mana from heaven, the Wolves are, 3 years into the Kahn era, still looking at a massively unbalanced roster with 2 McHale guys, a load of Kahn quasi 2 guards (Ridnour, Ellington, Lee, Barea), and the Golden Goose, who is currently injured. That's what they have to be stripped down to if the talk of cap space is to mean anything. Why?

Let's say the team goes the Darko route. With that status quo in place they will have $42 mil over 8 players in 13/14. Who is the missing player from the previous 9? Nikola Pekovic. If the Wolves are lucky, they can pencil in a fat $10 mil into that spot, bringing them to $52 mil and 9 players. That's $52 mil with up to 6 roster spots to fill. This would typically be the time of the rebuild where the owner would be asked to pay a little extra to keep a promising young team together after they show signs of winning.

Anywho, here are the team's basic cap space options this off-season:

1. Not extending QO to Randolph and Beasley = roughly $58 mil and 12 roster spots. Cap space = estimated $0-2 million.
2. Not extending QO to Randolph and Beasley + retiring Brad Miller = roughly $53 mil and 11 roster spots. Cap space = estimated $5-7 million.
3. Not extending QO to Randolph and Beasley + retiring Brad Miller + not picking up Webster's option = roughly $47 mil and 10 roster spots. Cap space = estimated $11-13 million.
4. Not extending QO to Randolph and Beasley + retiring Brad Miller + not picking up Webster's option + amnestying Darko = roughly $42 mil and 9 roster spots. Cap space = estimated $16-18 million.

Phoenix: $26 mil under the cap

Cleveland: $26 mil under the cap

Portland: $23 mil under the cap

Boston: $22 mil under the cap

Indiana: $21 mil under the cap

NOLA: $20 mil under the cap

Charlotte: $14.9 mil under the cap

Wizards: $600,000 k under the cap with enough to get to $23 mil if they amnesty Lewis

76ers: $2.1 mil under the cap with enough amnesty to get to $20

Dallas: $3.4 mil with enough to get up to 11 mil with amnesty and close to 20 with a trade.

(h/t to Madison Dan-- this is a list of SG, SF, and PG free agents)

And the restricteds:

• Ryan Anderson
• Jason Thompson
• Roy Hibbert
• JaVale McGee