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Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 best trades of the 2010’s decade

By Jack Borman

PHILADELPHIA - JANUARY 04: Tayshaun Prince #12, Andrew Wiggins #22, Kevin Garnett #21 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves huddle up. Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA - JANUARY 04: Tayshaun Prince #12, Andrew Wiggins #22, Kevin Garnett #21 and Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves huddle up. Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Timberwolves, Robert Covington, Jarrett Culver
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: DECEMBER 23: Golden State Warriors’ D’Angelo Russell #0 and Minnesota Timberwolves’ Robert Covington #33 and Jarrett Culver #23 watch as the ball goes out of bounds. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/The East Bay Times via Getty Images) /

Number 3 – Lord Covington arrives in all his glory

Robert Covington is the best thing to happen to the Wolves in a while. From the day he arrived in Minneapolis, RoCo brought infectious energy, positivity, defensive intensity and great two-way play to the Timberwolves lineup.

When Covington was in the Wolves’ lineup last season, they had the second-best team Net Rating in the entire NBA – in large part because of how he elevated the team on the defensive end of the floor. However, through his 14.5 points, 5 boards, and career-high 3.4 stocks per game, as well as his 37.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc brought, Covington brought extra life to an offense that was all kinds of out of sorts after the infamous Jimmy Butler practice on Oct. 10, 2018.

While Covington may currently find his name swirling in trade rumors, this franchise adores him, as do Wolves faithful. Unlike Butler, he does everything he can to elevate those around him, is extremely unselfish, and most importantly, is an A+ teammate that Karl-Anthony Towns loves.

Another underrated part of this deal was the acquisition of Dario Saric. While Dario’s time here did not work out the way he or the Wolves wanted it to, his being flipped the next offseason enabled Minnesota to move up and select Jarrett Culver last June.

Despite the mutual feeling that he was a poor fit in the Wolves’ offense, Saric produced the second-best offensive season of his career, including a terrific 38.3 percent 3-point shooting mark, and a career-high 45.4 shooting from the floor.

Although it was ultimately best for him to move on, he and the Wolves very well may have been better with one another. The Wolves desperately need a true stretch big while the Serbian big man is having by far the worst season of his NBA career and has been in and out of Monty Williams‘ rotation.

Minnesota won this trade by a mile. It essentially became the Sixers trading Covington and Culver for three-fourths of a season of Jimmy Butler and hitching an enormous maximum financial wagon to Tobias Harris. If you would have told Glen Taylor (or whomever in the Wolves front office) that the aftermath of the trade would play out how it has, they would have taken that outcome every single time.