Minnesota Timberwolves: Is Jeff Teague an attractive trade target for NBA teams?

Among players on the Minnesota Timberwolves roster, Jeff Teague might be their best trade chip to use in the 2019 offseason.

Jeff Teague in my opinion is an extremely attractive trade piece for the Minnesota Timberwolves to utilize this summer. At 30 years old, he is still capable of being a solid starting point guard at the NBA level.

Teague, a one-time NBA All-Star, had been healthy his entire career before last year. Coming into the 2018-19 season, he had played in 65 or more games in every season of his ten year NBA career. That streak came to and end last season, in which he played in only 42 games due to various different injuries.

After making $19 million last season, Teague had a player option worth $19 million as well for the 2019-20 season, in the final year of his contract. To no surprise after having a down, injury-ridden season, Teague opted into this final year of his deal, knowing he wouldn’t get near that amount of money on the open market.

While some Timberwolves fans view this as a negative thing, it could certainly be a positive thing for the organization. When healthy, Teague was an extremely effective point guard for the team, regardless of the money he was being paid.

Last season, Teague averaged 12.1 points and 8.2 assists per game. He is also a career 35.6 percent 3-point shooter.

If the Minnesota Timberwolves keep Teague around this offseason, he will certainly be a useful starter if he can remain healthy. In fact, he was instrumental in Minnesota making the playoffs in the 2017-18 season as their starting point guard.

On the other hand, if the Timberwolves decide to attempt to trade Teague, he may be valuable enough to a team that the return would be nice.

There are two reasons Teague is an attractive trade target for many NBA teams. For one, there are several teams who are looking for a starting point guard. On top of that, almost every team could use a backup point guard that produces as much as Teague does to run the second unit.

The second reason Teague is extremely attractive is because he has a very large expiring contract. Every offseason, there are a couple of NBA teams that are willing to take on contracts like Teague’s, even if they don’t plan on playing them in an important role.

These teams are rather looking for cap space the following offseason. Last offseason, we saw this with the trades involving Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, whose contracts were both bought out shortly after solely to create a large chunk of cap room the following summer.

If the Minnesota Timberwolves can find a trade partner who sees both sides of this argument of Jeff Teague being an attractive trade target, they could acquire a future pick or a young player in return. A team that needs a temporary point guard as well as cap room next summer would find Teague to be a perfect fit.

Regardless, even if Jeff Teague is on the roster to start the season, he will still be extremely useful in Minnesota’s attempt to make the playoffs once again. Keep an eye on Teague as a trade target for these same reasons at the 2020 NBA Trade Deadline as well. If he ends up playing the entirety of the 2019-20 season in Minnesota, they will receive the benefit of cap space next offseason.