Timberwolves Rumors: Trade for Russell possible, Ford mock

Chad Ford of ESPN is at it again, buoying hopes of some NBA fans while dashing others’ in the days leading up to the draft — and the Timberwolves are central to this year’s hottest rumors.

Ford released his latest Mock Draft, Version 9.0 (Insider), early on Saturday morning. This time around, there were actually a few fairly significant changes, especially in the top-10.

LSU’s Ben Simmons and Duke’s Brandon Ingram have been predicted to be picked 1-2, and generally in that order, for some time now. In past weeks, however, Ford has slotted Providence’s Kris Dunn and even Washington’s Marquese Chriss to the Boston Celtics at #3.

But in Mock Draft 9.0, California’s Jaylen Brown rocketed up the draft board, all the way to the third selection. The athletic wing has largely been mocked late in the top-10 and generally no earlier than Denver at #7.

Ford also adds that there are no fewer than five players in play for the Celtics at #3, and they’re still trying as hard as they can to package the selection in a trade. But sliding Brown all the way up is somewhat surprising nonetheless.

Ford still has Chriss going to Phoenix at #4, and Dunn is there for the taking for Minnesota at #5. That means that they would select the defensive-minded, 22 year-old point guard Dunn over Kentucky’s Jamal Murray and Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield — the best two pure shooters in the draft, plus Dragan Bender, the top stretch-four on the board.

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It would be an odd selection, as we’ve covered here at length, as Dunn’s skill set duplicates Ricky Rubio‘s while the team still lacks shooting and, depending on what you think of Gorgui Dieng as a power forward long term, a starting four.

The other big news of the day, also coming from Ford, stems from a segment he did on television, transcribed here by CBS’ James Herbert and for your reading pleasure below.

"“I think we all assume that Ingram’s going to be the guy at No. 2, but they’ve brought in Marquese Chriss, they’ve taken a long look at him,” Ford said in a SportsCenterappearance. “They’ve brought in Dragan Bender, Jaylen Brown, and while I still believe that it will be Ingram at No. 2, the Lakers have explored other options. And again I think the concern with Ingram is his lack of strength and how NBA-ready he’s going to be because of that. I think more likely the Lakers are trying to pick up another pick in this draft in the top five and the guy that they have that they can shop is D’Angelo Russell, a guy who was their No. 2 pick in the draft last year but burned some bridges in the locker room.”"

Indeed, the Lakers are apparently already considering trading last year’s #2 draft pick, D’Angelo Russell, largely due to his, um, oversharing of a locker room discussion involving teammate Nick Young via social media.

Setting aside the error made by Russell, the idea of landing such a talent is extremely intriguing. After Karl-Anthony Towns, Russell was many folks’ second-best prospect in the 2015 draft, including yours truly.

He struggled to play in the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant-dominant offense, and understandably so. Russell was also forced to play 86 percent of his minutes at point guard, according to Basketball-Reference.com, whereas he’s probably a better fit as a secondary, creative ball-handler.

The former Ohio State guard came on late in the year and ultimately shot a decent 35.1 percent from beyond the arc as a rookie with a true shooting percentage of 50.7 and an effective field goal percentage of 47.8 over the course of 48 starts and 80 total appearances.

Russell would certainly be a devastating third option in a three-guard rotation with Rubio and Zach LaVine in a Timberwolves uniform. The Lakers, of course, would require something in addition to the #5 pick, and if I’m the Wolves, I’d offer anyone outside of the Rubio-LaVine-Andrew Wiggins-Towns foursome to get it done.

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Unlikely? Extremely. But a viable outcome, given the Lakers’ apparent desperation and the Wolves’ apparent lust for more ball-handlers? Absolutely.