Is there a franchise in the National Basketball Association that is as badly ran and organized as the Minnesota Timberwolves? Personally, I think a move like this could help generate some buzz against around the Twin Cities – in a state and in a metropolitan area dominated by hockey this time of year.
If you go back into the existence of the organization in the NBA, there’s not a lot to be proud of if you’re a Wolves fan. Sure, there’s the great run the Timberwolves had back in the early 2000s, before they met Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers – but what else does the team have to look back upon and consider to be a great team in years past? Kevin Garnett was dealt for scrubs that set the team further back – Kevin Love yielded a Andrew Wiggins, who has been nothing short of disappointing in his young NBA career by far.
When news speculated around the league where the Minnesota Timberwolves were in trade talks with Houston & Atlanta in an effort to potentially bring D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota – I was intrigued – and here’s why. The Wolves currently sit 14th in the Western Conference, about ten games back of the upstart Memphis Grizzlies. It is likely that the Golden State Warriors will be headed for the lottery – and with that, they likely are willing to wheel and deal to acquire more draft capital. Enter the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota also sits on the cusp of another lottery pick as well – but this comes at a great time of packaging Andrew Wiggins in a deal as well. Maybe a change of scenery is what Wiggins needs to reach his utmost potential in this league, and the Timberwolves land the point guard that they desperately need, seeing as unmotivated Jeff Teague departed for Atlanta. But in order for this to happen, some dominoes need to fall first:
Adrian Wojnarowski wrote in his piece that the Timberwolves, Rockets, and Hawks would need to somehow and someway negotiate a three-team deal, where Robert Covington heads from Minnesota to Houston, Clint Capela skips east from Houston to Atlanta, and somehow, two (2) first-round picks and an expiring contract heads north to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Who could that expiring contract be? Even trying the NBA Trade Machine makes things a little tricky, especially when it comes to acquiring picks:
Would something like this work? It’s tough to say without acquiring picks. It’s also known that there are multiple other suitors who value Clint Capela. For me, it’s hard to picture a team with both Stephen Curry & D’Angelo Russell on it – it’s best that the Warriors get value now for what they can with the assets they have. I’m not big on the next crop of prospects in next season’s NBA Draft, and all the Timberwolves do is draft them and just be disappointed by the lack of productivity. Give them to a team that would need them in order to rebuild – you’ve been rebuilding for years – ship them west.
But man, talk about the possibilities. If Karl-Anthony Towns was paired with D’Angelo Russell, wouldn’t that be a fun duo to watch in the future? – especially if the two developed chemistry and the team continued to put pieces around the two stars? Granted, the Western Conference is always tough, but one can only dream… Trade Deadline is Thursday, so let’s get weird.
