Between the start of the 2019-20 season and the trade deadline in February of 2020, the Minnesota Timberwolves made four separate trades, with three of them going down in the span of fewer than two days.
On draft night in November and the three days following, the Wolves completed another three trades.
To put it lightly, President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas likes to deal, and he’s said multiple times that his roster is far from a finished product. While it’s not exactly a controversial statement coming from the man who assembled the team with the league’s worst record, it’s notable nonetheless.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Pros and cons to making a deal at the NBA Trade Deadline
Still, this is a team with two max contracts (Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell), a backup point guard making $17 million, a recently-signed starter making an average of $15 million over the next two years, and this year’s No. 1 draft pick.
Oh, and the Wolves don’t currently hold any selections in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft. Rosas cashed in those chips to land Russell at last year’s deadline.
Given that information, one might assume that it’s the profile of a contender. Or, a fringe playoff contender at the very least. Alas, the Wolves sit at 10-33 and at the bottom of the standings.
Minnesota’s roster is in a weird spot. It’s one-part win-now and two-parts young and up-and-coming. Sure, Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels are high-ceiling prospects and would fetch a sizable return in a trade. But can the league’s worst team justify sending out two exciting young rookies for an older, supposedly “win-now” piece?
The most difficult piece of the whole thing is that Towns and Russell have shared the floor for exactly five games in nearly 14 months of being on the same roster. Add Beasley to that equation, and it’s extremely difficult to discern exactly how well the Wolves’ three best players fit together and how high their true ceiling might reach.
It’s up to Rosas to figure that out, and because of the lingering ambiguity around the existing roster, things could go in one of many directions. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of an active Wolves front office.