Gomes' deal completes Wolves' priority list

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: July 30, 2008 - 7:55 AM

Timberwolves forward Ryan Gomes' new contract will keep him stocked with diapers and with the team for at least two seasons and as many as the next five.

A month after he and his wife, Danielle, welcomed their first child, Gomes on Friday agreed with the team on a contract he signed Tuesday.

The team announced his signing at Farview Recreation Center in north Minneapolis, where he and his Hoops for Heart Health Foundation donated a heart defibrillator last winter. The contract guarantees him $7.3 million -- $3.5 million this coming season, $3.8 million in 2009-2010 -- for the next two seasons.

The Wolves have the option to renew the contract after the second and third seasons; Gomes has the option after the fourth. The team's option starting in two seasons could allow it to clear additional salary-cap space for a potentially bountiful free-agent class in 2010.

It will approach a $22 million deal if Gomes plays all five seasons.

Gomes, one of five players acquired from Boston in the Kevin Garnett trade made a year ago Thursday, completes a series of signings that also brought Craig Smith and Sebastian Telfair back to the Wolves.

Gomes, a former second-round draft pick who turns 26 on Sept. 1, became a restricted free agent on July 1 and the Wolves had the right to match any offer he received from another team. It never came to that. "It hasn't been a long, long process, but to me it was long enough," Gomes said.

Wolves Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale called himself "thrilled" to complete all three signings he deemed the team's No. 1 priority after it completed a midnight trade on draft night that brought Kevin Love and Mike Miller.

He praised Gomes' character, intelligence and versatility and said his return to the team will give coach Randy Wittman the option to play Gomes alongside Love and Al Jefferson in a big frontcourt or with Love and Miller in a downsized front court.

"With one substitution, you can go from a big power team to a quick attack team," McHale said. "It just gives you a lot of versatility. That's what we liked about him. Smart players who are versatile can do so much."

Gomes played all 82 games last season for the first time in his three-year NBA career. He started 74 games, including the last 58 and averaged 12.6 points and 5.8 rebounds for a team that won 22 games, 17 of them in the season's final 43 games.

"We're really not too young anymore," Gomes said. "We've been two, three, four, five years in the league. Now it's time to make that jump and get into the playoffs. ... With this group, if we are together four, five, six years, this can be something very, very special, something Minnesota has been waiting to see."