A conversation about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade deadline
BH (cont.): … I had finally convinced myself that I’d have to be prepared for another summer of D-Lo speculation. I grabbed my phone and saw a tweet that said “Rosas did the thing” and I knew immediately what that “thing” was.
I think it’s interesting to look at the Robert Covington trade now. The first question I asked myself was, why couldn’t we have kept him if we didn’t use that first to send to Golden State? But it seems that we could have kept him to help with defense.I’m assuming it has to do with creating cap space for the summer. Maybe you can answer how that affects the cap situation going forward.
How good of deal do you think Rosas got?
JB: I’m going to miss Robert Covington. He and Josh Okogie are my favorite Wolves of the last five years. Both bring it every night with all-out energy and hustle on both ends. But with that said, I think shipping Rosas to Houston was ultimately the right move.
First, he has an injury history with that right knee that kept Golden State from wanting him in any deal and, second, he still has two years of team control after this one on a team-friendly deal, and third, other teams around the league definitely got the sense that he wasn’t a part of Minnesota’s long-term plans. All of that points to his trade value being at its peak now, versus after an injury or when there is less time a potential suitor could have him on a team-friendly deal for.
I think Rosas came into this season with an assumption that he would move RoCo, whether or not he was able to bring in Russell this week, in order to maximize a positive asset rather than primarily to create some available money. However, the Wolves will get some financial flexibility as a result of shipping Covington to Houston and getting Turner’s large expiring contract ($18.6 million). Assuming Turner is bought out or let go this summer, the Wolves gain about $7.3 million in cap space but still be firmly in the red overall.
It is rare that a team has two superstars on max deals, while also possessing two massive expiring contracts like Crabbe ($18.5 million) and Turner. If you assume Beasley gets paid $10 million per year this summer, Hernangomez accepts his qualifying offer of $4.6 million, and we retain Jarred Vanderbilt, the Wolves will be looking at total savings from this week at around $25.8 million.
Before the draft, we would be looking at roughly $6.3 million in cap space. Minnesota will likely eat a tax bill close to $5 million this year, so they will have a taxpayer’s mid-level exception (projected to be right around $6 million for next year) to go with the room mid-level exception of nearly $5 million this summer. So overall, there will be plenty of options.
As for Rosas’s performance, this was a perfect game. He turned the worst mistakes of the Thibs front office (Andrew Wiggins max, Gorgui Dieng deal) into Russell and James Johnson, while also acquiring underrated talent that was buried in a deep Denver rotation in Malik Beasley and Juan Hernangomez, in addition taking a flyer on a guy like Vanderbilt, who is just 20 years old and an unreal rebounder and athlete. There’s a lot to work with there.
The best part of this was that Rosas wasn’t intimidated by Bob Myers leaking everything under the sun to Shams and Woj. He called Myers’s bluff and probably said, “Good luck with that contract and finding a deal better than what I’m offering right now”, and then turned around and got a ton of value out of RoCo, and ended up having the leverage in talks with Golden State by the end of things. I still just can’t believe he pulled off what he did. What do you think?
What are you most excited about with what Russell brings to the table, and what are you going to be most intrigued to follow as the rest of the season plays out?
BH: It would make sense that Covington’s value is about at its peak and I agree that Rosas had the idea to trade him regardless…