MINNEAPOLIS-It looked like a good first summer for the Tom Thibodeau-Scott Layden front office.
Thibodeau, the Timberwolves' president of basketball operations, and Layden, the general manager, signed three veterans - forward Jordan Hill, center Cole Aldrich and wing Brandon Rush - to relatively cheap deals in a market that threw cash around like it was nothing.
Hill, Aldrich and Rush were all solid players who contributed to winning teams at their previous stops. Paired with Minnesota's young core, these three veterans would give the Wolves the type of blend that can help smooth the transition to a new coach and system and help Minnesota win games sooner rather than later.
Instead, the Wolves are 11-26 through 37 games. So what happened?
Well, don't ask the veterans. They're not playing.
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Aldrich is playing 11.6 minutes a game, his lowest mark since the 2013-14 season. He hasn't played in three of Minnesota's past 10 games and hasn't played 10 minutes in any game during that span.
Rush's 10.9 minutes a game is the second-lowest mark of his nine-year career. He has played in just 13 games this season, including a 1 minute, 40 second stint in Minnesota's loss to Utah on Saturday.
Then there's Hill, who has played in only five games, with his only significant playing time coming on Christmas Day, when he played 18:36 in Minnesota's loss to Oklahoma City after not playing in six consecutive games.
All of this while all five of Minnesota's starters are in the top 60 in the league in minutes per game, all averaging north of 31 minutes.
"It's tough," Hill said in early December. "But what can I do but show support to my team and try to be a veteran and try to stay professional, wait until my time is called and just go out there and do the best I can."
Rush isn't surprised by his lack of playing time. The rotation cemented itself while he was out with a toe injury. That's why he tried to come back early from the injury, only to reinjure the toe. By the time he was good to play, Shabazz Muhammad had established himself as the backup wing and Rush had found himself a rather permanent spot on the pine.
"It's hard to break a rotation like that when you've got guys that are playing really well at that minutes," Rush said.
It's not that the veterans aren't contributing when they're playing. Although the sample sizes aren't large, Hill has the best net rating on the Wolves' roster, with Minnesota outscoring its opponents by 8.3 points per 100 possessions when he's on the floor. Rush has the third-best net rating, right behind Tyus Jones. Aldrich is eighth.
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Thibodeau said he's getting what he had hoped to out of the free-agent acquisitions.
"The thing is, when you put your team together, you need everybody," Thibodeau said. "And if someone's not in the rotation, what they have to do is they have to provide help in practice and staying ready, and then you never know how the season unfolds, whether it's an injury or if someone goes down with an illness, that person gets that opportunity has to get in there and get the job done."
