Timberwolves Rumors: What Philadelphia could offer for Robert Covington
By Andrew Ites
The latest of many Timberwolves rumors leading up to the trade deadline involves a potential return to Philadelphia for Robert Covington.
The slew of Timberwolves rumors has been hard to keep up with this trade season.
One of the more realistic rumors involves a potential Robert Covington trade as many of the league’s top contenders are looking to add a veteran three-and-D wing to bolster their roster for a postseason run.
Covington’s combination of outside shooting and fierce defense from the wing position makes him a fit on nearly every team in the league, including the team that traded him to Minnesota just over a year ago.
RoCo was a central piece of the deal that sent Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia last November, but Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer is reporting that the Sixers have inquired about Covington’s availability ahead of the trade deadline.
O’Connor reported last month that RoCo is available for a trade, but he also mentioned that the price may be too high for Philadelphia to pull the trigger.
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According to the ESPN Trade Machine, a deal that sends Covington to Philadelphia while the Timberwolves get Mike Scott and Matisse Thybulle in return works financially, and Minnesota would have to be pretty happy with that trade.
However, O’Connor reports that Philadelphia is “reluctant” to trade away Thybulle in the middle of a very impressive rookie campaign.
A more likely trade would probably involve Mike Scott and Zhaire Smith, who is just 20 years old but has been fairly unimpressive in the G League. In that deal, the Sixers would probably have to send Minnesota a future first round pick in 2021 to get them to agree to the trade.
That deal is much less compelling from the Wolves’ perspective considering Philly’s pick will probably be a late one, and they’d likely have a better offer on the table considering the interest that Covington is drawing across the entire league.
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If the Timberwolves’ front office can convince Philadelphia to put Thybulle in the deal without having to give up any major assets of their own outside of Covington, then this would be a home run trade. If they can’t, Minnesota should probably hang up the phone and try to get a better deal from one of the other contenders who could use RoCo’s immensely valuable skillset.