Minnesota Timberwolves: 15 best trades in franchise history

5. Randy Foye and Mike Miller to Washington for Oleksiy Pecherov, Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas and a 2009 first-round pick.

Trading assets when their price is high can be a smart way to build your team. Especially when a player declines sharply after the trade.

That was the case with Randy Foye. Minnesota agreed to trade him, along with Mike Miller, to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Oleksiy Pecherov, Darius Songaila, Etan Thomas and a 2009 first-round pick.

Foye, who was also a part of the awful deal for Brandon Roy on draft night in 2006, was coming out of a season which saw him score a career-high 16.3 points per game.  That remained his career-high as he saw his playing time and points per game decline sharply throughout the rest of his career. What’s even sweeter is Foye bolted for Los Angeles after one season.

Miller was perhaps the opposite of Foye. He just had the worst year of his career from a points per game perspective. He, like Foye, only played one year in Washington before bolting to a beach, this one in Miami.

The trio of Pecherov, Songaila and Thomas only played 44 games combined for the Wolves, as Thomas and Songaila were traded in separate deals that same summer.

The big haul in the trade was the 2009 draft pick. It ended up being the fifth overall and Ricky Rubio was selected. Rubio went on to have one of the best careers, and most criticized, of any player in franchise history. He ranks second in steals, second in assists, fifth in win shares and fifth in value over replacement player.

Giving up two players on the decline for a fifth overall pick and future passing expert is a very good deal in my eyes.