The Wolves are finalizing a three-year contract with forward Chase Budinger this afternoon.
Reached in California and asked if he has a done deal, Budinger just said, "Well, kind of. Really, really close."
Yahoo!Sports Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news and said it's worth $16 million.
USA Today's Sam Amick reported the third year is a player option that gives Budinger the choice to become a free agent after two years.
It's a big raise for a guy who made $942,000 last season on the last year of his original rookie contract.
This agreement SHOULD NOT affect that $7 million-plus the Wolves have put away to sign a shooting guard such as J.J. Redick, O.J. Mayo or Kevin Martin.
The Wolves will have to make that move first, though, when the NBA moratorium passes and teams can start signing players on July 10 and then file new contracts for Budinger and Nikola Pekovic. That's because teams can exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own players, but they have to fit Redick or Mayo's new contract until the $58 million-ish cap.
