The Timberwolves signed three players on Friday, and two of them are fighting for the same open roster spot. They could not be much more different.
KJ Martin is a 25-year-old forward with five NBA seasons behind him. Drew Timme is a 26-year-old big man who has spent two years moving between the G League, a late-season contract in Brooklyn and a two-way deal with the Lakers. Both signed training camp contracts, and both are here to compete for the 15th spot on the roster.
I’d give it to Timme. Martin has the better NBA resume, and it isn’t particularly close. But the Wolves don’t need another athletic forward. They need a big man who can play, and that’s the one thing Timme is.
The math behind the 15th spot
Minnesota has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Trey Lyles on a partially guaranteed minimum deal. That leaves one standard roster spot open.
The Wolves can’t spend much to fill it. They’re about $4.5 million under the second apron and hard-capped there, so whoever gets the spot is getting a minimum contract. You can see every contract on the books in our roster guide.
The two-way route is closed too, at least for now. All three two-way spots belong to Rocco Zikarsky, Zyon Pullin and Enrique Freeman. Timme is still eligible for a two-way deal, but Martin isn’t, because he has too many years of NBA service. For Martin, it’s the 15th spot or nothing.
The case for KJ Martin
Martin has done this at the NBA level. He played 309 games across five seasons with Houston, the Clippers, Philadelphia and Utah, averaging 8.6 points and 4.0 rebounds on 54.5% shooting, per Basketball Reference.
He’s a 6-6 forward who plays above the rim, runs the floor and finishes. On a good night, he’s the kind of energy player a contender brings in for 10 minutes and doesn’t have to run a single play for.
The concerns are just as clear. Martin spent last season playing in China, so this is a comeback attempt. He’s a career 32.9% shooter from three, and he made 67.3% of his free throws. On a roster built around LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, a forward who doesn’t space the floor has to earn his minutes with defense and rebounding.
The bigger problem is fit. Martin is another 6-6 wing-forward on a team that already has Jaden McDaniels, Jonathan Kuminga, Cody Williams and Jaylen Clark. He’d be the fifth player in line for the same minutes.
The case for Drew Timme
Timme’s NBA numbers depend on the minutes he got. He played 27 games for the Lakers last season on a two-way deal and averaged 3.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in 8.7 minutes. But when Brooklyn gave him real playing time at the end of the 2024-25 season, he averaged 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 28.2 minutes over nine games, per Basketball Reference.
His G League numbers are bigger still. In 24 games for the South Bay Lakers, he averaged 23.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.9 assists and made the All-NBA G League second team. He’s also Gonzaga’s all-time leading scorer, so the scoring touch isn’t new.
The part that matters for Minnesota is his size. Timme is 6-9, and the Wolves are short on bigs. Naz Reid and Julius Randle left in the Ball trade. Behind Rudy Gobert, the only true center is Joan Beringer, who played 7.9 minutes a night as a rookie. Lyles can play some center, but he’s a stretch big on a one-year minimum deal, not a backup plan you want to lean on for 82 games.
Timme isn’t a rim protector, and nobody should expect him to anchor a defense. But he can catch in the post, pass out of it and score, and 4.9 assists a game in the G League says he can make the reads that keep an offense moving. As the fourth big on the depth chart, that’s exactly the job.
My call
The Wolves’ roster has a shape, and it’s short on one thing: size. Martin makes the team deeper at a position that’s already crowded. Timme covers the one spot that could hurt them in January, when Gobert rests or somebody gets hurt.
There’s a middle path worth watching too. Because Timme is still two-way eligible, Minnesota could open a two-way spot, keep him that way and leave the 15th spot open for later in the season. That would keep flexibility under the hard cap without losing him.
Either way, Timme is the better answer to the question this roster actually has.
Who else is in camp
Timme and Martin aren’t the only new names. Norchad Omier, the third player who signed on Friday, spent part of last season on a two-way deal with the Clippers and made the G League All-Rookie team. Guard Antonio Reeves, who averaged 17.1 points in 35 G League games after a two-way season with Charlotte, signed a camp deal on Thursday.
A day earlier, the Wolves waived Nate Santos and Payton Sandfort, who had signed camp deals on Wednesday. Both are expected to land with the Iowa Wolves in the G League.
Media day is Monday, and these are the five questions I want answered there. The backup center job is one of them, and now we know who’s auditioning for it.