Minnesota Timberwolves trade Ricky Rubio, gain minimal cap space

The Minnesota Timberwolves re-acquired Ricky Rubio during the 2020 NBA Draft. Now, on the night of the 2021 NBA Draft, Rubio is no longer a member of the Wolves.

A few hours before this year’s edition of the draft, the Wolves shipped Rubio to Cleveland in exchange for Taurean Prince, a 2022 second-round pick, and cash.

Minnesota Timberwolves trade Ricky Rubio, gain minimal cap space

Ricky Rubio was always a candidate to be traded this offseason, given his expiring contract and on-court value as one of the better backup point guards in the league.

It happened much more quickly than expected, however, with the Wolves sending Rubio to Cleveland for veteran forward Taurean Prince.

The trade was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but Woj didn’t get all the details correct, initially reporting that the Wolves were sending a 2022 second-round pick and cash to Cleveland.

It was corrected by The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski, however, and this appears to be the final structure of the deal.

The move saves the Wolves a little under $5 million, which could be important as they continue to look to make major moves to add to the core of Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, and D’Angelo Russell.

The next move could come as soon as tonight during the draft, or it may not be until free agency starts on Monday. But it is coming.

Krawczynski noted this on Twitter shortly after the move.

If Prince doesn’t move on and remains with the Wolves, he would fit the roster — at least in theory.

Prince can play both forward spots and is a career 37 percent 3-point shooter but shot 39 percent or greater from deep in two of the last three seasons. But he’s a bit of an overrated defender and doesn’t have a track record of being a worthy rotation player on good teams.

In a vacuum, there’s an easy argument to make that Rubio is a better player. Swapping expiring deals and only saving a little more than $4 million while picking up a future second-round is questionable, especially considering the sudden glut of 3s and 4s on the roster while Russell is the only point guard under contract.

It’s difficult to truly judge this trade until we find out what happens next. But what we do know is that the Wolves have a titch more flexibility in terms of cap space when the day bgan.