A conversation about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ trade deadline

BH (cont.): It is very interesting that we have a couple of those ‘non-max’ large salaries on the books. It’s nice that both Crabbe and Turner will be off the book for next season, though I would not mind resigning Crabbe to a smaller deal. It really is a refreshing feeling to have options, even if the free agency market this summer is “underwhelming”. For a team like Minnesota, this may be a year that they can sign some high quality role players as many other teams will be gearing up to have large cap space for the loaded 2021 free agency.

I think the players that were acquired in the massive Covington trade are all very intriguing.

What really must have persuaded Myers was the daunting repeater tax penalties that they were facing. I believe the penalty would have been above $100 million, which even for billionaires is a hefty amount to pay. Rosas showed all of us that he is aggressive, but not willing to overpay for talent.

Realistically, I am unsure how much Russell helps the team improve for the rest of the year, but he definitely will make watching games way more fun. Tickets will be sold, Saturday should be sold out. The most intriguing part is seeing Towns play next to a high quality point guard. When has that ever happened? Hint: It hasn’t. The best point guard that played next to Town was who? Jeff Teague? Ricky Rubio? That’s a travesty for a player that has top ten potential in the NBA and is considered as the best offensive big man in the league.

I cannot wait to see how that works out. Especially with Russell, who has off the court chemistry with Towns that should transfer over to the court.

Before we go too far away from Covington, I have a final question. Obviously, Covington is an All-NBA caliber defender, but it seemed that his impact did not transfer to the rest of the team. The Wolves had some good defenders with Covington and still it was not enough until there was a decent rim protector in Gorgui Dieng manning the middle in Towns’ absence.

I have seen many fans saying that the Minnesota’s defense will suffer without Covington, but it suffered with him as well. Do you think that Covington’s defense was not the answer for the Wolves and it will all ultimately fall on rim protection, specifically from Towns? How much worse do you think the defense will get without Covington?

Not meant to be a knock on Covington, because we all know and appreciate how savvy of a defender he is, I’m just wondering if wing defense isn’t the answer for this team.

JB: I completely agree on Crabbe. From everything I’ve heard, he’s a lights-out shooter in practice and his career numbers seem to confirm how well it has transferred to game action. I think it will just be a matter of whether he’s able to stay healthy long enough to stick around and contribute on a regular basis. He is still just 27 after all. I think the Wolves will fill in nicely around the margins with the exceptions available to them this summer, but probably don’t have the juice to go out and get someone that will play more than 15 or 20 minutes a night. It’s hard to do with such little money in today’s NBA when you are not a team like the Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, etc.

As for Bob Myers, I bet there was a mandate to avoid the tax from ownership. they will undoubtedly be back in the tax next season, so avoiding what could have been a $150 million-plus tax bill next summer was a big win for them. Keep an eye on what the Bay Area media has to say about this deal, as well. I wonder if there were some extra motives behind the Warriors initiating the final iteration of the deal.

Shams Charania reported that Bob Myers, not Gersson Rosas, was the one to reinitiate talks after Wednesday’s embarrassment at Target Center. Whether teammates were not big fans of his, or he did not fit their long-term plans, or some combination of the two, Golden State gave up their leverage pretty quickly and I would not be surprised to see a negative firestorm about Russell from Warriors fans, players, and media members.

Towns has not had a point guard in the last three seasons that can effectively get him the ball in his spots and has still put up mind-boggling numbers for a young center in the NBA. At the very least, Russell will deliver the ball to KAT in the post, on the pop, on the roll, and around the rim. He will be a train wreck on defense, but at least the offensive fit is hand-in-glove caliber and his shooting has really taken a huge step forward this year. The former Buckeye is shooting a career-high 37.4 percent from deep on 9.7 attempts per game. That is masterful efficiency with crazy volume. That will undoubtedly translate to Minnesota.

Let’s talk a bit more about Covington…