No one can say for sure if the myriad moves Timberwolves boss Flip Saunders has made will result in a dramatically improved product this season at Target Center.

Chase Budinger, however, likes what he sees.

“We definitely should be a playoff team,” Budinger said from his home in San Diego during a conference call Saturday. “We’re going to be an exciting team to watch.”

That would be a large step; Minnesota has not reached the NBA playoffs since 2004. In fact, the Wolves’ highest winning percentage in the past eight seasons was .402 in 2005-06.

But Budinger, who turned down a larger offer elsewhere to sign a three-year, $16 million deal with the Wolves last week, said the strings Saunders has pulled since taking over as president of basketball operations early this summer have been all the right ones for a team coached by Rick Adelman.

“We added the necessary shooting this year,” Budinger said. “I think with the way Rick Adelman’s system is, and the people we have, it will be tough for teams to guard us.”

Insert a little defense into the mix, he added, and the Wolves will be a winner.

It’s no coincidence that Budinger’s return is one reason for optimism. After he missed most of the past season because of knee surgery, he says he’s mostly healthy and excited about returning to the court. The leg needs strengthening, he said, but the indications are positive.

“I’m able to jump and dunk again,” he said.

Budinger, 25, also is the kind of shooter the Wolves missed while going 31-51 last season. The 6-foot-7 swingman played just 24 games of what he felt would be a breakout season for him a year ago, averaging 9.4 points before suffering a meniscus tear. He also expects help in the shooting department from Kevin Martin, a former teammate at Houston who came to Minnesota as part of a trade with Oklahoma City and Milwaukee.

The two played two-plus seasons together with the Rockets, so it was a friendly reunion when Budinger and Martin, 30, crossed paths in Minneapolis last week while finalizing their contracts.

“It’s funny, the first thing he said to me was, ‘Come on, Chase, you know I wasn’t going to come anywhere else other than Minnesota,’ ” Budinger said. “The thing about Kevin is he likes to be comfortable, and when he’s comfortable, that’s when he’s at his best. And that’s going to be what he gets with Rick Adelman.”

Adelman’s presence and Saunders’ desire to re-sign Budinger were major reasons he passed up other offers, he said. Saunders informed Budinger several times that keeping him and restricted free agent Nikola Pekovic were priorities, even though his time was consumed while he worked to sign draft picks Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, who signed Saturday, and acquire Martin, forward Corey Brewer and center Ronny Turiaf.

Budinger noted with a laugh that teammates might consider him “cheap,” but money wasn’t the key factor surrounding his return to Minnesota. He did get $16 million but said equally important is that he can grow with the Timberwolves as they become a playoff team.

“It really wasn’t too hard a decision for me,” he said. “They were always saying they wanted me back.”

Although injuries to Budinger, all-star Kevin Love and others destroyed the Wolves’ hopes last season, Budinger envisions a different outcome this season.

“When we’re healthy,” he said, “we’re extremely, extremely good.”

Health, in Budinger’s mind, begins with his own.

“I want to come back and show everybody the kind of player I’m capable of being,” he said.

Follow Bruce Brothers at twitter.com/BBfromPiPress.