On Friday, the Minnesota Timberwolves have officially announced two new additions to their training camp roster, center Kleon Penn and, more notably, Nick Wiggins, the older brother of second-year Timberwolves small forward Andrew Wiggins.
Prior to the announcement, the two players' inclusion to the team's lineup was first reported by Basketball Insiders' Eric Pincus, who said that Wiggins and Penn both signed non-guaranteed summer contracts with Minnesota.
Appearing in three games for the Timberwolves in the 2015 summer-league, the 6-foot-6-inch-tall Wiggins averaged 4.0 points in 11 minutes per contest. He is a product of Wichita State University who he spent parts of the previous last season with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA's D-League. While in Idaho, he delivered an average of 9.8 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.
After going undrafted in the 2014 NBA draft, Nick joined the Sacramento Kings for the 2014 NBA Summer League. On July 2014, the player inked a one-year deal with Germany's Tigers Tübingen of the "Basketball Bundesliga," the European country's highest level professional basketball league.
As many fans know, he is the older brother of Andrew Wiggins, who was the first overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2014 NBA draft. It made the younger Wiggins the second Canadian to be taken number one overall in the draft. He went on to become the recipient of the NBA Rookie of the Year award for the 2014-15 season.
Meanwhile, 29-year-old center Kleon Penn began his career with H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in the British Virgin Islands. While there, he averaged a double-double and eight blocked shots in the eight-game season all while recording a triple-double in a single game.
Penn transferred to McNeese State University at Louisiana in 2006. During his second year, he led the conference and ranked fourth in the nation. The 6-foot-11-inch center also set a single season school record for blocked shots after ending up with 117 for an average of 4.0 per game.
The new Timberwolves center recently played in 45 games with the Vaqueros de Bayamon in Puerto Rico, and averaged 4.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 18.4 minutes per match. Penn also won Virgin won a gold medal in June with the Virgin Islands during the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships.
The addition of Wiggins and Penn bring the team's roster to 19 players. The Minnesota Timberwolves is currently being led by interim coach Sam Mitchell.
