Ex-teammates Nikola Vucevic and Serge Ibaka can find a new home together with the Minnesota Timberwolves. They actually played quite well together side-by-side in Orlando, but the Wolves won’t necessarily pair them up too much due to Karl-Anthony Towns’ high minutes.
Why get two big man that do seemingly the same thing?
It let’s you change up the roster and adjust to different opponents. Vucevic and Ibaka both shoot the ball extremely well from the arc, as well as play great defense on the block, moreover they are just savvy veterans.
You could potentially switch Towns with either of these guys between the four and the five at any point in the game, it makes for a very interesting team in a league dominated by guards.
More importantly, the Timberwolves need scoring off the bench. The additions of Anthony Tolliver and the two rookies Josh Okogie and Keita Bates-Diop will probably help, but these two veterans can do a lot off the bench for the Wolves – no matter who gets the bench spot.
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Either of them could be a sixth man of the year if used correctly off the bench.
The two players that can benefit most by this move would be guards Tyus Jones and Derrick Rose; Removing the offensive pressure of scoring when having two bigs who can do anything on the floor offensively will smooth the offense up when you have two slashing/passing guards.
Overall, this trade could entice Butler to stay with the Timberwolves because it vastly improves on Taj Gibson and Gorgui Dieng. If the move doesn’t work out, Vucevic is a free agent next summer, and Ibaka will be gone in the 2020 summer.
This is simple for me, hopefully it’s something Tom Thibodeau and Scott Layden can think about.