Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 worst draft trades

2.  Roy for Foye.

When looking back on the 2006 NBA draft class, there aren’t many players who stand out as having stellar careers.  However, The Minnesota Timberwolves drafted one of the few that would go on to show immense talent in the league.

With the sixth overall pick in the 2006 draft , Brandon Roy fell right into the Timberwolves lap.

Kevin McHale and the Timberwolves couldn’t have asked for a better gift.  The Timberwolves were two years removed from the playoffs and the franchise star Kevin Garnett desperately needed a running mate.

With an obvious need for a playmaker who could score alongside KG, the Timberwolves made Brandon Roy the newest addition in hopes for a return to relevance.

However, before the draft night was over in 2006 the Timberwolves would land themselves on this list with an awful trade.  Insert Randy Foye into the conversation and you can start to get the full picture here.

On the surface, one could see why this move would make sense for the front office.  Randy Foye was a solid scoring option out of college and there didn’t seem to be too much of a drop off in talent from Roy.

Historically though a swap of Brandon Roy to the Portland Trailblazers for Randy Foye would go on to hurt the Timberwolves badly.  Randy Foye posted an average of 13 points per game over his three years in Minnesota.  Although this doesn’t sound all that bad, the guy he was traded for went on to win rookie of the year and look like a superstar in the following years.

Brandon Roy spent five years with Portland averaging 19 points per game and making the all-star game three times.  Roy also helped lead the Trailblazers back to the playoffs before falling victim to degenerative knee issues which would cut his career short.

The overall problem here is that the front office failed Kevin Garnett one last time.  It proved to be one of the last failures that KG could endure before he was shipped off to Boston.