Free agency starts this weekend, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are quickly emerging as one of the league’s most talked about teams.
In case you hadn’t heard, the Minnesota Timberwolves are up to something.
Don’t take it from us. Take it from the flurry of whispers surrounding the teams, and Karl-Anthony Towns‘ recruiting efforts, and the sheer intrigue surrounding the operation being run by new president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas.
For the most part, we’ve all known that the Wolves are big game hunting for quite some time; they were first linked to D’Angelo Russell nearly three weeks ago. Then, just last weekend, the Russell noise ramped back up.
Now, we have another podcast featuring ESPN’s Zach Lowe, who was also part of last week’s rumor, that specifically calls out the Timberwolves as one of the league’s busiest and most intriguing teams heading into Sunday night’s free agency period.
What made this week’s comments most unique, however, was that they were made on Philadelphia 76ers’ guard J.J. Redick‘s podcast on The Ringer, and Redick seconded Lowe’s thoughts.
Please listen to the above-linked podcast, but if you feel so inclined to jump to the Wolves-related portion, it starts around the 44-minute mark. Basically, Lowe states that the Wolves are “up to something” and that they’re also “up to lots of things.” He mentions the Russell rumor, as well as that nobody is sure how they’ll create the cap space necessary to convince the All-Star to come to Minnesota.
Lowe also says that he spoke with somebody in the league who is “really smart” that thinks that the Wolves will not only trade Wiggins but that they’ll manage to either pull off a neutral trade or that there’s a chance they may actually win a Wiggins trade this summer — a sentence that has always felt possible but now seems to be a real, tangible thing that could happen.
Lastly, Redick chimed in to say that he’s heard that Towns has been holding meetings with potential free agent fits as well, which is a positive sign for several reasons.
There’s also this from Friday afternoon from Keith Smith, a contributor at a few different outlets including Yahoo and Real GM.
Really, really curious to see what the Wolves are planning here. They're doing something, just unclear what. But you don't make these moves without having a plan in mind.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 28, 2019
The obvious answer is that they’re planning to trade either Gorgui Dieng or Jeff Teague and think they’ll have enough room to sign Russell to an offer sheet. Or, Tobias Harris could be the target, as has been discussed on this particular Timberwolves blog.
There’s also a possibility that there’s a trade lined up for Andrew Wiggins. The next question is, which team would actually give up assets to put themselves under the thumb of Wiggins’ deal. Sacramento? Maybe. Chicago? Perhaps. Charlotte, depending on what happens with their pending free agents? Possible.
Get ready. There will undoubtedly be plenty of additional rumors that see the light of day throughout the weekend.
Suffice it to say that if the Wolves are able to pull something significant off in the next 72 hours or so, it will be quite impressive.