Minnesota Timberwolves: Top 3 Wolves moments of the 2019-20 season
By Josh Tyler
Minnesota Timberwolves: Top 3 Wolves moments of the 2019-20 season
3. The trade deadline
On Feb. 5, the Minnesota Timberwolves had a record of 15-35, including two double-digit losing streaks, one of 11 games and the other reaching 13.
Put simply, the Wolves needed change and they needed it bad.
On Feb. 6, president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas made a move that essentially flipped the course of the Minnesota Timberwolves, leaving just two players from the previous season in Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Okogie.
Prior to the deadline, the Timberwolves traded away mainstays such as Andrew Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng, plus a few relatively new Wolves in Robert Covington, Shabazz Napier, Keita Bates-Diop, Jordan Bell, and Noah Vonleh.
In return, the Wolves added D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez, James Johnson, and the Nets’ 2020 protected first-round draft pick. They also added a few fringe players who are still with the team, including former first-round picks Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans III, as well as Evan Turner’s massive expiring contract.
Betting on the Nets winning a few games in Orlando, Rosas will have walked away from these Woj bombs with two draft picks in the 2020 NBA Draft and pairing a generational talent in Karl-Anthony Towns with a long-time friend and star player D’Angelo Russell.
Both Russell and Towns were All-Stars in 2019, and both players are just 24 years old. Talk about a promising young core.
Not many could have predicted the production that Beasley, Hernangomez, and Johnson gave in the final half of the season, but they set a solid foundation for years to come playing alongside Towns, Russell, and Okogie.