Report: Austin Rivers agrees to one-year deal with Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves just added some guard depth and a little perimeter defense.

The Timberwolves have agreed to a deal with Austin Rivers, a story broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Rivers himself essentially confirmed he is headed to Minnesota.

Been wanting to live in Minneapolis since mighty ducks! Where Charlie Conway at?…let’s link.

— Austin Rivers (@AustinRivers25) July 15, 2022

This is a one-year deal for the league minimum.

Rivers will be entering his 11th NBA season. He played last season in Denver — not so coincidentally for new Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly — where he averaged 6 points a night in 22 minutes off the bench (he did start 18 games). However, Rivers biggest contributions to the Nuggets were on the defensive end, which will get him run on the Timberwolves as well.

With the Nuggets getting healthy, they didn’t need the bench depth, but the Timberwolves surrendered some depth in the Rudy Gobert trade and Rivers help fill that gap.