Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 trade ideas for solid players on tanking teams

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – NOVEMBER 21: Tyus Jones #1 of the Minnesota Timberwolves warms up prior to the game against the Denver Nuggets on November 21, 2018 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 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Minnesota Timberwolves are stuck with a .500 record of 13-13 and are hoping to climb higher than the 10th seed in the western conference standings.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have won 6 out of their past 8 games and are coming off a 105-113 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

The hype of Derrick Rose and the Wolves’ defense took a backseat to the starting five of the Blazers, who totaled 91 points shooting an outstanding 53.5 percent from the field.

Rose ended up making 9 out of his questionable 25 shots taken in that game, and Karl-Anthony Towns allowed Jusuf Nurkic to dismantle all bigs in the post with 22 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals.

While this game lays out as an outlier on the stat sheet since the Jimmy Butler trade was made, it’s still important to note that the Wolves are glaringly missing a scorer off the bench to help keep the offense afloat.

Slotting Rose into the starting lineup (Robert Covington was out) did allow Josh Okogie to show up with a solid game off the bench, but the Wolves are objectively one asset away from completing this potential playoff roster.

While there hasn’t been a load of trade buzz surrounding the NBA as of late, there are enough teams looking to tank that they could unload one of their favorable bench assets for a lesser player and a draft pick.

To understand where the Wolves stand with potential moves, just look at what the Milwaukee Bucks gave up for a solid back up in George Hill, trading away John Henson and Matthew Dellavedova for the talented guard.

The Cavs obviously lost that trade, but did that so they could cement a losing season and hope for a high lottery pick (politically correct tanking).

The only pieces of the Wolves’ team that could feasibly be moved without disrupting the natural flow of the new roster with Robert Covington and Dario Saric, would be to trade guys who have flown under expectations, or to move guys who have inflated playing time like Gorgui Dieng or Tyus Jones (although Jones is a better asset than Dieng).

The obvious untouchable is Karl-Anthony Towns. However, I think it’s safe to say that Derrick Rose and Andrew Wiggins are safe too, because the Wolves’ aren’t in the market for a superstar, but they could be for a solid 6th-8th man.

Our first trade begins with a well-known guard out of Cleveland – for better or worse. Moreover, these trade ideas aren’t in any specific order, but I do have one or two players that would fit this roster very well.

All of these trades have been through the ESPN trade machine and are being sent to lottery-hopeful teams looking to tank this season.

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