MINNEAPOLIS -- It's a fact only the most forthcoming of them will fully admit, but the Timberwolves' roster isn't the optimal setting for veterans right now. They may indeed relish the role of nurturing the young guys, but basketball players don't get to the NBA by merely mentoring.
They're competitors. They want to win. And they want to have a hand in it.
"It's tough. It's a different situation for me, too," said wing Chase Budinger, in his sixth year in the league. "I haven't been on a team like this. It's a learning curve for me, too, of just trying to help these youngsters as much as I can."
When it comes to assessing which experienced player has been the most affected by the Wolves' rebuilding youth movement, Budinger has to be somewhere near the top of the list. He began the year trapped among an abundance of shooting guards and small forwards, and only through the Corey Brewer trade earlier this month has Budinger begun receiving more playing time.
It's at best irritating for a 26-year-old whose prime years to date have been lost due to injury. The increased minutes have helped, but Budinger is far from serving as the sharpshooting, game-changing swingman some though he could be when the Pistons drafted him in the second round in 2009 and immediately traded him to Houston.
"Everybody knows that Chase can shoot the ball," coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders said. "It's just a matter of getting easy (looks), being a little more relaxed, a little bit looser."
But the end of an NBA bench is a prime spot for tightening up, both in the legs and between the ears.
When the season began, Budinger was behind Kevin Martin, Andrew Wiggins and Corey Brewer in Saunders' wing rotation. When Martin and fellow starters Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic went down with injuries, Saunders conceded the season and began focusing solely on the future -- more Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad on the wing.
Not until the Wolves dealt Brewer to Houston on Dec. 19 in a three-team trade did Budinger's latest window of opportunity come open. Even that's watered down by the fact 3-point ace Troy Daniels came to Minnesota in the deal.
Before the trade, Budinger averaged 12 minutes per game in 20 appearances. In five games since then, he's played 23.6 minutes per game, averaging 9.8 points on 50 percent shooting and connecting on 42.9 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Even in such a small sample size, the results have been mixed. On Dec. 19 and Dec. 21 against Boston and Indiana, Budinger showed shades of the scoring threat former coach Rick Adelman coveted. He scored 19 points the night Brewer was traded and had 13 more two days later at home.
"It feels good to finally be able to knock down some shots, definitely," Budinger said after the Pacers game.
But the past three games, he's gone 6-for-18 from the floor. As Saunders noted, shooting is Budinger's greatest asset, and when he's not doing that efficiently, it's hard to justify much floor time for him.
"Because of the way I play, I play off of others," Budinger said. "I don't really force shots. I just take what the defense gives me, and when I have more minutes, I'll be able to get more open shots and have better percentages that way. When I don't, it's tougher for me to do things out there."
But on a team that's focused on developing Wiggins and friends for the future, that's not necessarily Budinger's place, Saunders said.
"Every player believes that," said Saunders, whose club wraps up a four-game road trip Tuesday night at Utah. "But hey, sometimes you're not in that role. You have different roles that you have to abide by and you have to accept."
For Budinger, that was much easier when Adelman was here. The now-retired, corner-offense guru persuaded Minnesota to trade for Budinger in 2012 and to re-sign him in 2013 free agency.
But two injuries to the same meniscus in his left knee and ankle problems late last season have cost Budinger 100 games the past two seasons.
Frequently mentioned in trade rumors since last January's deadline, Budinger has a player option for next year, the last in a three-season, $15 million deal. His future with the team -- and the team's interest in retaining him moving forward -- remains unclear.
Whether his career keeps him here or takes him elsewhere, the next few months are crucial. If Budinger can string some solid performances together, he becomes a more attractive trade option or free-agent prospect if he opts out. The Wolves, of course, could choose to re-sign him, too.
Any scenario would likely be more desirable than the one in which Budinger finds himself now.
"Chase has been hurt for two years," Saunders said. "I always say, when a player comes back, it takes him a year from when he's back playing to really see where he's going to be. He was hurt basically all last year and never really got in any kind of flow, so we might not really know where he's at for another two months.
"Where he's at (then), that's probably where he's going to be."
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