Should the Timberwolves buy or stay put at the trade deadline?

The Minnesota Timberwolves are hitting their stride these past few weeks, sitting fourth in the West with a 29-16 record. With the trade deadline on Feb. 8, should they buy or stay put?

This season has been incredible thus far for the Timberwolves. And it feels weird writing that as its been a rough 13 years. The Wolves are on pace for 50 wins — something they haven’t been able to do since the Kevin Garnett era.

It gets even better: the Wolves are a game behind the San Antonio Spurs for the third spot in the West. At this point, I never thought I’d ever live to see the Wolves that close to the great Spurs.

By the looks of how things have played for this club, it appears they do in fact have a real chance at reaching the Western Conference Finals. Of course, to get to that point, they would most likely have to face either the Golden State Warriors or the Houston Rockets.

We can dream … can’t we?

The way that Jimmy Butler has been playing, combined with the improvement of both Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, has been vital to Minnesota’s success. But the question will be, can they sustain that long enough to make a deep run in the playoffs with their current roster? Despite looking like a solid team, they also want to be careful and not make any moves that could alter any future plans.

The Wolves should only consider making any moves if they believe that it will better position themselves in the future. To make a move for one season is not worth the risk of hurting the next few seasons. In the interest of the future, the Wolves should only consider a trade if the offer is too good to pass up on, or again, if it helps the future. Their biggest needs are bench scoring, depth, and 3-point shooting.

There’s just one problem: the Wolves’ don’t have many assets to trade away. More than likely, the assets the Wolves would be willing to part with could possibly be Gorgui Dieng, Cole Aldrich, the 2018 lottery protected first-round pick from the Thunder, Shabazz Muhammad, and possibly Nemanja Bjelica.

None of those are great trade pieces, but they aren’t bad whatsoever. Dieng has been a solid player each year, but his decline in production has been due to his new role off the bench. Aldrich would be hard to move because of his ugly contract — but, certainly movable if the offer is sweetened with say, the lottery-protected pick.

Muhammad and Bjelica are on contract years. So, any team willing to make a move for them will certainly be only done if they believe they can re-sign them in the offseason. But, as the trade deadline is coming up, it’s important for Minnesota to be cautious and only make a move it helps the future out.

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There’s no need to speed up the process and jeopardize any long-term success, and I wouldn’t expect Tom Thibodeau to do that over the next few weeks — especially with how well the team is playing.