Minnesota Timberwolves trade Teague and Graham to Atlanta for Crabbe
By Andrew Ites
The Minnesota Timberwolves opened the NBA’s trade season by sending Jeff Teague back to Atlanta along with Treveon Graham while getting Allan Crabbe in return.
The main question surrounding the Minnesota Timberwolves entering the final few weeks before the NBA trade deadline was whether they would be buyers or sellers in the trade market.
Even after this trade to Atlanta, I don’t think we have a clear answer to that question.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news on Thursday morning adding one sentence of analysis on the deal saying, “Hawks get a backup for Trae Young.”
The Wolves and Hawks essentially ended up swapping expiring deals as Jeff Teague and Allen Crabbe‘s contracts are both done after this season, and Treveon Graham‘s two-year deal is also set to expire at the end of the year.
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Allen Crabbe hasn’t been a super consistent piece of Atlanta’s rotation as they’ve been playing their young wings, Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter, ahead of him.
Crabbe is a career 38.9% three-point shooter, so he should add some much-needed spacing to the Wolves’ rotation even though Teague had been one of the better outside shooters on the team this season.
Crabbe is still only 27 years old though, so Gersson Rosas could consider re-signing him to a much less lucrative deal this offseason to be a solid veteran three-and-D wing off the bench in the future.
This trade also opens the door for Shabazz Napier to play an even more prominent role as he’s earned an increase in playing time with his recent surge of strong play.
Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic also pointed out that this deal opens up a roster spot for the Wolves, but it’s difficult to predict what Minnesota wants to do with that flexibility.
They could choose to bring up one of their young guards from the G League like Jaylen Nowell or Jordan McLaughlin, or they could be setting themselves up to make another deal where they bring in one more player than they send out.
Next. Could the Timberwolves land D'Angelo Russell in a three-team deal?. dark
We will have another article discussing that decision shortly as the Wolves have officially shown that they are open for business this trade season.