NBA News: Minnesota Timberwolves interested in signing Luol Deng & Joakim Noah
What's the story?
According to reports, the Minnesota Timberwolves are interested in veterans and former Chicago Bulls' players - Luol Deng and Joakim Noah.
In case you didn't know
While the latter is still under contract, Deng became a free agent after he agreed to a buyout with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week. Noah, however, still has 2 years to go on his current contract with the New York Knicks (4-years, $72 million).
Heart of the matter
Jon Krawczynski, a senior writer for the Athletic covering the Timberwolves, was the first to report this and re-iterate it when Deng and the Lakers agreed to a buyout.
This is what Jon had reported earlier in June of 2018 about the Timberwolves interest in the duo: “The Wolves will also monitor the situations for Joakim Noah and Luol Deng down the road. Both former Bulls are candidates to be bought out of their big deals and the Wolves would certainly consider bringing one of them in on a minimum deal down the road.”
Is Tom Thibodeau, the President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the team, creating the Timber-BULLS in Minnesota?
If we were to assume that Deng and Noah were signed up by the Timberwolves eventually, they would be the fifth former Bulls' player (under Thibodeau's coaching) to be signed by the Minnesota franchise (again under Thibodeau's coaching) after Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, and Taj Gibson since the summer of 2017.
Author's Take
Of course, the Bulls angle will be played out given Thibodeau's position with the Timberwolves franchise and his relationship with the players that are linked with his new team in Minnesota. However, only Deng really seems like a good basketball fit here because Noah would only add to an already deep frontcourt for the Timberwolves - Karl-Anthony Towns, Gibson, Anthony Tolliver and Gorgui Dieng.