Will the Timberwolves make a trade before deadline?

The NBA Trade Deadline will be upon us later in the week, and the Timberwolves have been rumored to be shopping a significant portion of the current roster.

What are the odds that they’ll actually pull the trigger on a trade, and if so, which players are mostly likely to be traded and for whom?

Monday was a day spent navigating through a couple of Ricky Rubio trade rumors that seemed dubious at best but nonetheless started a Twitter-wide frenzy. We also touched on the rumors that surfaced between Thursday and Sunday evening, regarding the likes of Shabazz Muhammad, Kevin Martin, and Shabazz Muhammad.

The Rubio-to-New York rumors were started by Frank Isola at the New York Daily News as noted above, but there was also an Indiana Pacers rumor at one point, capped by this doozy from much-maligned ESPN NBA reporter Chris Broussard.

The Martin thing is a no-brainer and has been discussed here since December, and while this is the first time we’ve actually heard Adreian Payne‘s name connected to an actual rumor, it also isn’t a surprise. He hasn’t contributed when he’s played and turns 25 years old on Friday despite only being in the second year of his rookie contract. He’ll likely be tough to trade.

The Miles Plumlee bit, while new, doesn’t seem to make much sense. He’s a solid backup center who is generally being under-utilized in Milwaukee, but he’s also already 27 years old and would only make sense from a depth perspective on a contending team. Unless the Wolves are sold on Gorgui Dieng playing solely power forward alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, in which case Plumlee would take the backup minutes at the five-spot.

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If it’s a Payne-for-Plumlee swap, well, I can’t see the Bucks doing that. But that’s also about the only scenario this would work.

Trading Kevin Martin, on the other hand, makes a ton of sense. The largest road block is, of course, the sheer size of his salary. The Wolves best bet is finding a fringe playoff team with pressure to make the top-eight in the conference that will take on the contract in exchange for expiring deals and perhaps a second-round pick.

Or, here’s an idea. Not that this makes a ton of sense for anyone other than swapping expiring contracts, you never know. It’d ultimately be a net-positive for the Wolves, as Greivis Vasquez is a solid enough backup point guard and the Wolves are currently short on big men with Kevin Garnett and Nikola Pekovic both out. It solves all of the items in Broussard’s tweet, save for the Rubio nonsense.

At any rate, I’d put the likelihood of a Wolves trade this week at around 40 percent. They’re going to try hard to move Martin and get something, anything of value in return. They won’t be trading Rubio, and they likely won’t find takers for Payne.

The wild card that would be a semi-surprise trade candidate is Muhammad; it’s more likely than not that he isn’t moved, but he’s also a player with upside that may not fit the Wolves’ rotation moving forward if Dieng is playing the four with Wiggins at the three and LaVine at the two. That shift isn’t favorable for Bazz, and he’s struggled mightily over the past few weeks.

Next: Ricky Rubio Made 'Readily Available' by Timberwolves?

Stay tuned to Dunking With Wolves this week. We’ll have rumors, updates, analysis, and developing stories as we inch closer to Thursday’s deadline.