Moneyball, T-Wolf Style

It's no secret the Timberwolves are terrible this season and we all know why - not enough KG and way too much Kevin McHale. That makes for boring analysis, so I thought I'd complicate things and take a look at the payroll.

As it stands, the Wolve's payroll is just over $68 million. Of that $68 million, $17.2 million is the buyouts for contracts of Juwan Howard ($6.9M), Troy Hudson ($4.7M), Eddie Griffen ($2.9M), Beno Udrith ($1.7M) and Wayne Simien ($1M).

And then there are the big six contracts - contracts for players who represent nothing but bench filler.

Theo Ratliff ($11.7) - To his credit, Theo exists to have his contract expire and he's doing it brilliantly!
Antoine Walker ($8.3M) - Sort of like Ratiff but will require two years to expire. Maybe just maybe Walker will bring some value to a contending team next year who will be willing go give the Wolves an expiring contract and a pick.
Marko Jaric ($6M) - Worst contract ever, it goes on another four years and goes up to $7.6M!
Greg Buckner ($3.7M) - Nice guy and worth having over Trenton Hassel's contract - but simply a bench guy will collect checks for four years while riding the bench.
Michael Doleac ($3.1M) - Like a cheap version of Ratliff, he exists to have his contract expire.
Mark Madson ($2.4M) - Nice guy, but the third center off the bench. Fairly cheap space filler but could easily lose position to a half million dollar second round pick.

These contracts total $35.3 million. Combined with the buyout, $52.5 million of the $68 million payroll is for useless or non-roster players. 77% of the payroll goes to dead weight while only $15.3M goes towards useful players.

Things do get better next year as some of these contracts disappear and Al Jefferson gets a $10M raise. I'll bet donuts to dollars that the Wolves record improves as the six contracts disappear. Possibly a future post on how they could speed this along.