Report: Timberwolves ready to move on from Jaylen Nowell, who’s being linked to Mavericks

After four seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, shooting guard Jaylen Nowell is likely going to find himself with a new team in the 2023-24 campaign.

His time with the Wolves is coming to an end, according to a report, and it sounds like the Dallas Mavericks are one team to keep an eye on for the 24-year-old.

“No, he’s not coming back to the Wolves,” Timberwolves insider Darren Wolfson said of Nowell. “There’s a mutual understanding that, ‘Hey, time for Jaylen to move on.’ But here’s a new team in on Jaylen Nowell: the Dallas Mavericks. They need to create some roster flexibility, they are looking into doing some stuff is the word and it may not come to fruition. But Jaylen Nowell is on Dallas’ radar. The Nowell camp is still also awaiting finality on the Damian Lillard situation.”

Nowell has spent his entire career with the Wolves since being drafted by them in 2019. He’s an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

The former second-round selection averaged 10.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in the 2022-23 season while shooting 44.8 percent from the field. He knocked down just 28.9 percent of his 3-point attempts, but it’s worth noting that he shot 39.4 percent from deep in the 2021-22 season, so he’s a capable shooter.

Although the NBA world seems largely focused on the trade situations involving Lillard and James Harden, there are still some quality free agents on the board. Players like Christian Wood, P.J. Washington and Kelly Oubre Jr. are all still available, and Nowell is certainly one of the better free agents remaining as well.

All of those players are capable of helping teams around the NBA. It’s perhaps a bit unusual for there to be so many productive players still up for grabs at this stage of the summer, but that’s the way the 2023 offseason has gone around the league.

The Washington native will certainly land somewhere, and if it ends up being Dallas, he’ll get a chance to join a team that’s a bit of a wild card heading into the 2023-24 season. Although the Mavericks have the talent (in players like Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving) to be a problem in the Western Conference, their star backcourt is going to have to prove that it’s viable before folks start buying in.

Nowell, who has come off the bench in 181 of his 184 career games in the regular season, would bring depth to Dallas and perhaps lengthen the team’s rotation. Time will tell what his future holds in the NBA.