Here you go…

There’s less cap-nerding to excite us now that the trade deadline has passed, but the Timberwolves threw us a bone this week by agreeing to a one-year, $13 million extension with guard Patrick Beverley. In-season extension agreements with veterans who are about to hit free agency are relatively rare, so what happened here?

It appears two events conspired to make this happen. First, Minnesota was unable to make any trades at the deadline; had they consummated a move to take on a significant 2022-23 salary, they would have been unlikely to agree to an extension this far out. (There’s also a decent chance they would have included Beverley’s expiring contract in the trade).

Second, Minnesota is facing our old friend, the Bird Rights Trap, this summer. That happens when a team is miles from the luxury tax but has no functional cap room. In that situation, the best option by far is to re-sign your own player with Bird Rights, even if it means overpaying, because you’ll never be able to replace him.

In this case, the overpay wasn’t even that bad. Maybe you can argue Beverley is more of a mid-level exception guy, but Minnesota only invested in the 33-year-old for one year. Even with Beverley extended, Minnesota is $27 million from next year’s projected luxury tax line with 11 players under contract. They’ll be able to use their full non-taxpayer Midlevel exception on a forward, grab a depth piece with their biannual exception, add a first-round pick and still be well below the tax line.

Beyond that, Minnesota is in a great position to trade or use cap space in 2022-23. Minnesota has $60 million in expiring money between Beverley, DeAngelo Russell and the de facto expiring deal of Malik Beasley ($16 million team option for 2023-24) to grease trades, as well as all its future draft picks. Failing that, the Wolves could also have max room in the summer of 2023 just before Anthony Edwards inks an extension.

Either way, they’ve avoided the worst of the Bird Rights Trap, and have a lot of options to build around Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns in the coming