Dunking With Wolves
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A conversation about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade deadline

By Brendan Hedtke

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - NOVEMBER 8: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves greets D'Angelo Russell #0 of the Golden State Warriors during pregame warmups on November 8, 2019 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - NOVEMBER 8: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves greets D'Angelo Russell #0 of the Golden State Warriors during pregame warmups on November 8, 2019 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – FEBRUARY 08: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves looks on during the game against the Los Angeles Clippers. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /

It’s time for a step back and a thorough conversation about everything that happened in the past week in the world of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

As it turned out, Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas kept his aggressive approach throughout the week leading up to Thursday’s trade deadline.

A whirlwind of reports had Wolves fans hopeful of landing D’Angelo Russell until ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that trade talks between Golden State and Minnesota had stalled. Rosas still went through with a trade to send Robert Covington to Houston along with a number of other players heading out the door, which garnered mixed feelings from Wolves fans.

Just when hope seemed to be all but gone, the seemingly endless silence was broken when it was reported that Minnesota and Golden State had agreed to a deal to exchange Andrew Wiggins, a 2021 top-3 protected first-round pick, and a 2021 second-round pick for D’Angelo Russell, Omari Spellman, and Jacob Evans III.

If you’re looking for a series of thoughts on all things trade deadline, we have plenty of options for you, from the initial reaction to individual player analysis to an overall deadline recap.

This week, Jack Borman and I discussed our feelings about all of the action and talked about what it all means for the Timberwolves going forward.

Here’s how two of Dunking With Wolves’ contributors view the blockbuster decisions through their eyes.

Brendan Hedtke (@b_hedtkenba): With all the craziness of the past few days, how are you feeling right now? I know I’m a little confused and still trying to understand everything that has transpired. After reports of the trade talks being seemingly done Tuesday night and no murmurs throughout Thursday before the deadline, were you surprised that the trade actually went through to acquire Russell?

Jack Borman (@jrborman13): Now that the Wolves’ digital and social media squad put out some incredible content to make things officially official, I feel awesome. The Wolves haven’t had an impact point guard since Sam Cassell in 2003-04 and Russell certainly ends that 16-year drought. We can finally have fun watching Timberwolves basketball again and, as basic as it sounds, that is something that cannot be understated here. What a 24-hour turnaround we have had from watching the Wolves play layup line defense against the worst team in the Association, to having an incredibly bright (offensive) future.

The radio silence seemed very odd to me, considering I believed that one, Golden State’s front office wanted to evade the luxury tax (trading Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III was not going to get the job done), and two, that Russell’s value was not going to be higher than it was just before the deadline today. I figured that the silence meant both sides were working on a deal amicably.

Woj and Shams are used very meticulously by front offices. All the leaks we saw definitely came from the Golden State side (especially that talks “broke off”) as a plot to inflate D-Lo’s value. Once the leaks stopped coming, I figured that Bob Myers had a change of heart. And boy did he ever.

Does acquiring Russell change your view of the trade machine masterpiece from Rosas and Gupta late Tuesday night?

BH: The Russell hype video they put out was amazing…

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