Syracuse Basketball: Tyus Battle finds home with Minnesota Timberwolves

Former Syracuse basketball star Tyus Battle has signed on with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Here are all the juicy details and how he fits.

Shortly after learning that former Syracuse basketball standout Oshae Brissett had inked a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, we now have more good news to share.

Senior Writer for The Athletic Jon Krawczynski shared that Tyus Battle is signing an undrafted free agent deal.

Interesting to note Oshae has joined the Clippers’ NBA Summer League squad, while Battle’s contract seems somewhat more stable as an undrafted free agent.

Both players weren’t taken in the 2019 NBA Draft. That’s the first time in 20 years we’ve witnessed back-to-back NBA Drafts go by without seeing a SU player taken.

While Battle worked out for a variety of NBA teams during the offseason process, it just didn’t feel the same as last year. After completing his sophomore campaign, Battle was invited to the NBA Combine and his perceived draft stock was “late first, early second.”

Tyus decided that wasn’t good enough and that he wanted to return to the Orange for his junior season to try and improve his stock.

While apparently his stock decreased looking at what happened, Tyus actually showed a lot of improvement. In his sophomore year, he was forced to shoot early and often because he didn’t have a ton of talent or depth around him. Which resulted in poor efficiency (39 percent from the field), but some spectacular numbers in the process (averaged over 19 points per game, good for third in the ACC).

While this past season, Tyus had more depth and more talent around him. So in theory he would be able to take fewer shots, but of higher quality. He did increase his field goal percentage (43 percent) but was forced to play out of position due to his backcourt mate Frank Howard’s offseason injury.

That took an obvious toll on Tyus and affected his game all year. But according to NBA scouts we spoke with seeing Tyus playing point guard actually helped his stock.

"With one source saying, “the more you can do, the more attractive you’re. Seeing Tyus play the point may have caused some issues during the season, but he’ll be better for it in the long run.”"

Some more specifics on the Tyus Battle contract, here’s a “Woj bomb” for you: “Syracuse’s Tyus Battle has agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with Minnesota.”

What the hell does that mean? Well, we did some digging (CBA FAQs):

"“If a standard NBA contract includes an attachment called Exhibit 10, the team receives the right to convert the contract to a Two-Way contract. Whether or not an eligible contract includes an Exhibit 10 is a matter of negotiation between the player and team. To be eligible to contain an Exhibit 10, a contract must be for one season at the minimum salary, with no bonuses of any kind (other than an optional Exhibit 10 bonus), and no compensation protection.An Exhibit 10 bonus can pay the player from $5,000 to $50,000 if the player is waived by his NBA team, signs with the G-League is assigned to the NBA team’s G-League affiliate, and stays there at least 60 days. A team can only add an Exhibit 10 bonus if the team actually has a G-League affiliate team. Exhibit 10 can also specify a Conversion Protection Amount between $5,000 and $50,000, which becomes compensation protection if the contract is converted to a Two-Way contract. If a contract contains an Exhibit 10 bonus it must also contain a Conversion Protection Amount in the same amount.”"

Which in lamens terms means he has signed a variation of a two-way contract. It’s not a ton of money (minimum), but it allows the Timberwolves to retain his rights if/when he’s sent to the G-League. It’s just an incentive to stay here in the NBA developing as opposed to going overseas, per Seth Goldberg.