Dunking With Wolves
Fansided

Timberwolves Rumor: Clippers offered Griffin for Towns

By Ben Beecken

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - NOVEMBER 12: Blake Griffin #32 of the Los Angeles Clippers shares a hug with Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves after the game on November 12, 2016 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - NOVEMBER 12: Blake Griffin #32 of the Los Angeles Clippers shares a hug with Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves after the game on November 12, 2016 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders is reporting that the Los Angeles Clippers called the Timberwolves to offer Blake Griffin as the centerpiece in a potential deal for Karl-Anthony Towns.

Team A offers a really, really good player to Team B in exchange for a 22-year-old superstar. Team B hangs up the phone before even discussing other players that would make the financials work, which weren’t close in the first place.

Something like this probably happens all the time the NBA, so is this really news? Not really, admittedly, but let’s talk about it anyways.

Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders reported the story late on Friday night, and outside of Griffin and Towns, he tells his readers that no other players were even discussed. Griffin, of course, just signed a massive extension and the Clippers entered into a quasi-rebuild over the summer.

First thing’s first: Blake Griffin is still a very good player. He’s scored over 20 points per game in seven of his eight seasons including the current one, and he continues to add elements to his game, launching more 3-pointers than ever before this season and hitting on 34.3 percent of them — respectable given his history as a shooter and the dearth of talent that’s been on the floor with him thus far this season.

He’s also in his age-28 season and is owed $171 million dollars on his new deal, but hasn’t played in more than 67 games since the 2013-14 season and hasn’t made an All-Star team since 2014-15.

Does Griffin still have some upside remaining? Sure, probably, but it’s almost surely nowhere near where Towns is as of today — especially if KAT’s defensive improvement over the past few weeks is here to stay. Towns is a superior rebounder and shooter and is a better post-scorer, too. Passing and defense are probably the closest aspects of their respective games, but that’s about it.

The Clippers don’t even have anything else on their roster that would be even remotely appealing to the Timberwolves, unless somehow DeAndre Jordan was included. In that case, the salaries would probably be impossible to match — Jeff Teague and Gorgui Dieng would need to be part of such a deal — and it would basically make the Wolves a less-synergistic version of the Clippers from the past few years, but with Jimmy Butler instead of Chris Paul.

It’s almost crazy that Doc Rivers even bothered to try and hoodwink old friend and former top assistant Tom Thibodeau with this potential trade. It’s also staggering that this is ‘news’, other than the fact that now NBA Twitter is sharing a hearty chuckle at the expense of Doc and the Clippers.

Next: How the Timberwolves improved their defense

The whole thing is bonkers, and any more words than what you’ve just read is probably too much.