The Timberwolves are getting their big. Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic reported on Wednesday that Minnesota is signing Johni Broome to a two-way contract, and his post gave the reason in one line: “Wolves like his size at 6-10, 250ish.”
I like the move. A week ago I argued the Wolves should spend the open two-way spot on frontcourt size after Norchad Omier picked Cleveland, and Broome is exactly that kind of player. But nobody should get carried away by the college résumé. Broome’s job in Minnesota is to rebound and defend for 12 minutes on the nights Rudy Gobert can’t play, and his rebounding in 18 regular-season G League games last season was ordinary. That’s the number I’ll watch.
How Broome got here
As of Wednesday night, the NBA’s player movement log didn’t list the signing yet.
Philadelphia took Broome 35th overall in the 2025 draft, per Basketball Reference. He played 11 NBA games as a rookie, at 5.0 minutes a night, and scored 10 points all season on 16.7% shooting. The 76ers sent him to the Clippers for cash on July 28. The Clippers waived him on September 24. Milwaukee signed him to an Exhibit 10 deal on October 5 and waived him before the season started.
There’s an injury in there, too. On February 21, Broome tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee during a Delaware Blue Coats game against the Maine Celtics, Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported the next day. He had surgery on the knee a week later, Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice reported. Three teams have moved on from him since.
The résumé the Wolves are buying
The reason anyone still calls is what Broome did at Auburn. In 2024-25 he averaged 18.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists, with 76 blocks in 36 games, per Sports Reference. He was a consensus All-American, SEC Player of the Year, Sporting News Player of the Year and won the NABC’s Pete Newell Big Man award. Before Auburn, he was the Ohio Valley Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year at Morehead State.
He’s a big who passes and protects the rim, and he’s 24, older and more physically ready than a typical two-way project. Basketball Reference lists him at 6-9 and 244 pounds, a shade under Krawczynski’s description. Either way, he’s built to bang with NBA centers for short stretches, which is all the job asks.
The number that worries me
In 18 regular-season games for Delaware last season, Broome averaged 22.9 points, 3.6 assists and 1.4 blocks in 33.2 minutes, per Basketball Reference’s G League page. That’s a lot of scoring. It came with 8.0 rebounds and a total rebound rate of 12.6%, meaning he grabbed about one in eight available boards while on the floor. For a center playing 33 minutes against G League competition, that’s thin.
Minnesota has enough scorers. He shot 30.9% on 5.2 three-point attempts a game, and he isn’t going to get plays run for him on a team with LaMelo Ball and Ayo Dosunmu handling the ball. The Wolves need the Auburn rebounder.
There’s an early hint he can be that player again. In two games for the Wisconsin Herd this fall, after his release from Milwaukee, Broome averaged 11.5 rebounds and 4.0 offensive rebounds in 26 minutes, with a total rebound rate of 27.4%. That’s a tiny sample, and it’s the right direction eight months after knee surgery.
Why the Wolves need a fourth big
Look at what happened the last time the Wolves were short. On October 31 in San Antonio, Gobert sat with back spasms, per the AP recap on ESPN, and the Basketball Reference box score lists Rocco Zikarsky as inactive too. Joan Beringer played 34 minutes and 28 seconds with five fouls. Trey Lyles went 16:46 without a rebound. The Spurs won the boards 49-38 and the game 121-111, and I wrote then that the glass was the problem.
The Wolves are 8-3 now, but the frontcourt hasn’t changed. Gobert, who is 34, is averaging 29.9 minutes in his 10 games, per Basketball Reference. Beringer is at 16.4 minutes and 1.5 fouls a game, a big step up from his four-foul preseason opener, but he’s 20. Lyles takes 3.1 of his 4.6 shots a game from three, so he’s there to space the floor. Zikarsky, the 7-3 two-way center, has played two minutes all season.
What I’d do with him
Broome should sit ahead of Zikarsky as the emergency center right away. Zikarsky is 20 and a long-term project. Broome is the better bet to survive 12 minutes against an NBA frontcourt this month, and the Wolves should treat the two two-way bigs that way.
A two-way deal fits. It keeps the open 15th standard roster spot free, since Minnesota carries 14 standard contracts, per Basketball Reference, and two-way players sit on top of the standard roster, per the G League’s rules page. He can still be called up on the nights Gobert or Beringer can’t go.
The rest of the time, he should be in Iowa playing big minutes, and the Wolves should judge him on one thing. If his rebounding looks like the Wisconsin games and his 10.8 a game at Auburn in 2024-25, he’s a real backup center by the spring, and the full 2026-27 Wolves roster has room for that. If it looks like Delaware, he’s a scorer the Wolves don’t need.
The Mavericks come to Target Center on Thursday, and Cooper Flagg will test the Wolves’ interior. Broome won’t matter in that one. He’ll matter on the next night Gobert isn’t there, and his rebounding in Iowa between now and then will tell us whether he’s ready.