Minnesota Timberwolves: How could Wolves acquire D’Angelo Russell?

Could D’Angelo Russell be a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves next month? Absolutely. But Gersson Rosas and the Wolves front office have some work to do.

Earlier this week, Dunking With Wolves’ Ben Beecken discussed the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ interest in Brooklyn Nets restricted free agent D’Angelo Russell.

If Wolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and his staff could land D-Lo, it would be a major splash for a Timberwolves franchise looking to add a secondary scorer and playmaker next to franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns.

Let’s start with some good news.

On Thursday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Nets made a trade ahead of free agency.

This move signals that the Nets are going all-in on top free agents this summer and will likely result in Russell playing for another team next season.

With two max slots, one would expect the Nets to sign-and-trade the fifth-year point guard from Ohio State in order to get value out of his departure, rather than just renouncing his rights as a restricted free agent, which would make him an unrestricted free agent.

However, if Minnesota wants to acquire the All-Star PG this summer, a few things need to happen first.

As it currently stands, the Wolves are looking at a practical value of -$4.5M in cap space, per Spotrac.com. Here is a snapshot of the notable contracts currently on the books for the Wolves next season:

Andrew Wiggins: $27.50M
Karl-Anthony Towns: $27.25M
Jeff Teague: $19M
Gorgui Dieng: $16.23M

This figure does not take into account the team’s 2019-20 cap holds, including Taj Gibson’s $18.2 million value, Jerryd Bayless‘ ludicrous hold of $16.2 million, or Tyus Jones‘ $7.32 million hold to name a few.

Let’s run through an outline of the steps the Wolves must take in order to land Russell.