Ranking the Minnesota Timberwolves’ top trade chips
By Ben Beecken
Ranking the Minnesota Timberwolves’ top trade chips: Josh Okogie
No. 5: Josh Okogie
As much as Minnesota Timberwolves fans love Josh Okogie, he still hasn’t been a consistent enough of an offensive performer to solidify himself as a starting-caliber NBA player.
Don’t miss the fact that he still has value — he’s on this list for a reason. But Okogie is best cast as a guy who can guard an opponent’s best guard or wing for 15 to 20 minutes per game and provide energy off the bench.
Okogie is a plus defender, but he hasn’t consistently locked down star players. He can switch onto 1 through 3 but his 6-foot-4 height limits him a bit with bigger wings and forwards.
Offensively, Okogie is dynamic in transition but doesn’t create for others. As good as he is at finishing through contact at the rim, he can be out of control at times and doesn’t always make the best decisions in the open court.
But don’t forget that he just turned 22 years old. The energy and defensive smarts that he plays with can’t easily be taught, and those factors, combined with his athleticism and willingness to do whatever the team asks of him give him value — especially at just $2.77 million next year and a team option for $4.27 million the following year.
The only reason he isn’t higher on this list is that he hasn’t been able to shoot threes (just 27.4 percent on 3-point attempts for his career and he regressed to 26.6 percent in 2019-20), and that makes Okogie somewhat two-dimensional: a high-energy, solid defender and a great transition player.
On a playoff team, Okogie is probably a fringe rotation player, pulling down somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes per game depending on matchups. That lands him at No. 5 on this list, and it would be a mild surprise if Okogie is moved this offseason.