Josh Green's Importance to Timberwolves Goes Well Beyond Trade Throw-In

Tim Connelly still remembers the impact Josh Green had for the Dallas Mavericks in 2024, when they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in five Western Conference Finals games.

Green wasn’t one of the Mavericks who terrorized the Wolves as Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, and Dereck Lively II did. No, Green was in the background of all that. But he was far from a fly on the wall.

Green averaged 3.6 points in 18.8 minutes in that series. But he was +23, playing like the scrappy, do-it-all, reliable competitor every championship-level team has. That is the type of player Connelly probably still remembers. The type of player he values greatly. And that is the type of player that the Timberwolves will need to start this season.

Connelly places a high premium on winning, high-basketball-IQ players. Entering this offseason, he knew those types of players are usually already on winning teams and hard to poach. But Connelly has one of those guys himself in Donte DiVincenzo, whom he acquired from the New York Knicks in the Karl-Anthony Towns trade two years ago.

The precedent, and replacing DiVincenzo's drive

The Wolves view DiVincenzo as an indispensable part of what they are building. Not just because of his high-volume 3-point shooting ability, but because of everything else he excels at that leads to winning.

“I think people just see shooting with Donte,” Connelly told the media during his exit interview in May. “But really, it’s his toughness and competitive spirit that will be most missed.”

Minnesota will be without DiVincenzo for most of the 2026-27 season as he rehabs from a torn Achilles tendon he suffered in the first round of the playoffs against the Denver Nuggets.

DiVincenzo was one of four NBA players to start all 82 regular-season games last year. He supplied the Timberwolves with relentless grit and passion that the rest of the team frequently lacked as they collectively struggled through maturity issues.

Connelly knew they had to replace that aspect of DiVincenzo’s game this season, but he also knew doing so would be difficult. DiVincenzo was off-limits in trade talks this summer for the same reason why players like him are hard to find in the open market.

However, by looping Green and his $14.7 million salary into the LaMelo Ball blockbuster trade to make the outgoing salaries match up, the Wolves are bringing in a player with the never-ceasing winning attitude that will help mitigate DiVincenzo’s absence.

“From day one, just trying to bring as many winning plays,” Green said during his introductory interview last week. “At the end of the day, I love winning. So just kind of trying to figure it out and be ready to go from day one.”

Last season, Green, 25, played in 58 games for the Charlotte Hornets. He averaged 4.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists, and 0.6 steals on 45.9% from the floor (3.1 attempts) and 42% from deep (2.4 attempts) in 15.7 minutes.

Those stats do not live up to Green’s $15 million price tag, especially for a Timberwolves team that only has $3.9 million in cap space below the second apron, which they are hard-capped to stay under. Many speculated that Minnesota would look to reroute Green elsewhere to bring a similarly priced power forward to add more size to Chris Finch’s starting lineup.

However, now that the trade bringing him here is finalized, if the Timberwolves were to trade Green again, they could not attach another player to that deal until early September.

Therefore, it is far more likely that he begins the season playing under Finch — a coach who loves hard-nosed defense like Green — than landing on a new team.

“He’s a guy that has a skillset that plugs in easily alongside a lot of different lineup combinations,” Finch said regarding Green’s fit with the Wolves. “Versatility in defense; being able to guard across multiple positions. An innate toughness that he has. Just kind of another experienced guy but still young enough to augment a young core.”

Where Green fits in the rotation

At 6-foot-6, Green has the size to play forward and guard bigger players. He also has the experience of doing so. With Dallas in 2023-24, Green played 72% of his minutes at small forward and 21% at power forward, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Filling a similar role now is still something Green believes he can do.

"I think that's one of my strengths, being able to plug in and be able to do that offensively and defensively,” Green said when asked about playing power forward for the Timberwolves. “So really, whatever is asked of me, I'll be ready to go."

Because Finch doesn’t necessarily see Jaden McDaniels starting at power forward this season, he could look to insert Green into the starting lineup, which would then form a rotation filled with length that could look like this:

Starters:

LaMelo Ball — 6’7”
Anthony Edwards — 6’4”
Jaden McDaniels — 6’10”
Josh Green — 6’6”
Rudy Gobert — 7’1”

Bench:

Ayo Dosunmu — 6’4”
Terrence Shannon Jr. — 6’6”
Bones Hyland — 6’2”
Joan Beringer — 6’11”
Jaylen Clark — 6’3” (should Finch expand past a nine-man rotation. If not, Clark would likely have a situational role.)

Green would give Minnesota’s starting five a three-and-D wing who has shot near or over 40% on catch-and-shoot threes in each of the past four seasons. That would greatly help open the floor up around Ball, Edwards, and McDaniels. He would make the easily overlooked, scrappy, winning plays that DiVincenzo usually provides while giving Finch more optionality of how to deploy McDaniels defensively. Replacing Green with Dosunmu would also better balance the on-ball scoring in Finch’s rotation.

But even if he doesn’t start, Green will still help patch the hole that DiVincenzo leaves behind. The hole that seemed like it would be difficult for Connelly to find the right sealant for this offseason.

Perhaps closer to the February deadline, with Green’s trade restriction lifted and DiVincenzo getting closer to returning, the Wolves will look to flip Green’s expiring contract into some more legitimate size to help them in the playoffs, should that prove to be a big need during the season.

But for the time being, Green will help fill in for DiVincenzo by being the same versatile driver of winning that he was against the Timberwolves in the Conference Finals two years ago.

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