After an uncertain offseason, Eric Paschall happy to be with Timberwolves

Eric Paschall played with the reserves in the second half of the Timberwolves' first preseason game at Miami on Tuesday night.

The fourth-year player from Villanova has spent his career with Golden State and Utah, but after those first three years, Paschall was considering giving up basketball. That he's in a uniform at all with an NBA team is a bit of a surprise for Paschall given where his mind was a few months ago.

To hear Paschall tell it at the team media day earlier this month, he was ready to call it quits.

"It was just a lot, you know what I'm saying?" Paschall said. "I feel like mentally I wasn't in the greatest place. Just tired. I was like, 'I might just stop playing basketball.' "

Paschall said the free agency process took a toll on his mental health, and it was hard for him to deal with his phone not ringing like he thought it should have.

"You see the other players getting picked up, you're not getting a call. You're calling your agent every day," Paschall said. "So I was at a point where I was like I might walk away."

There were a few people who helped Paschall through that difficult time. One was his friend Donovan Mitchell. The Cavaliers guard and Paschall were longtime friends before they played together with the Jazz last season. Like others Paschall knew around the league, Mitchell was encouraging Paschall to not give up on his basketball career.

"Donovan was actually in my ear damn near every day," Paschall said. " … I had a lot of good people in my corner. And had to have a lot of tough conversations, but I'm glad I had them."

Within the Wolves organization, Paschall had Dell Demps, the former New Orleans general manager and Utah assistant coach whom Tim Connelly brought in to the Wolves front office this summer.

The Wolves had one of their two two-way contract slots open, and instead of using one on a rookie without any NBA experience, the team opted to offer Paschall one of them.

Paschall has played in 158 games and averaged 9.8 points per game.

He posted his best numbers in his rookie season with Golden State in a season Klay Thompson was still recovering from a torn knee ligament and Stephen Curry suffered a wrist injury that caused him to miss all but five games. Paschall averaged 14 points and 4.6 rebounds that season.

Paschall — who scored one point in 13 minutes against the Heat and did not play Thursday against the Lakers in Las Vegas — saw an opportunity in Minnesota, and that was one reason he signed with the Wolves, but he had another reason to do so.

"If I stopped playing, what the hell was I going to do?" Paschall said with a laugh. "That was the real question. Like I didn't know what I was going to do. I was like, damn, I don't even got no plan.

"… It was just like you know what, I'm still in the prime years — I'm 25 years old. But that just proves mental health is real. Some days were good, some days were bad."

Paschall's year in Utah gave him a chance to play up close with new Wolves center Rudy Gobert, and he offered a preview of what Gobert would bring.

"A lot of blocks," Paschall said. "Man, playing with him last year, it's funny, like, you'll see somebody drive to the hole so hard and Rudy will step up, next thing you know they're dribbling the ball out. That's his effect."

As for Paschall, he's seeing where this year in Minnesota might take him, both on the court and off.

"It wasn't really the easiest decision. Had to have a lot of tough conversations about it," he said. "But I feel like I'm in a pretty good place now. Pretty happy that I'm here."