Minnesota Timberwolves: Reevaluating the Robert Covington trade

The Minnesota Timberwolves still hold the best value from this trade

In a vacuum, it can still be argued that Robert Covington is still a better player than Malik Beasley at this stage in their respective careers.

He’s a better defender, both one-on-one and within a team concept. He’s not quite as good of a shooter, but he’s still above average from deep and has unlimited range. Covington is also a better rebounder and can play both the 3 and the 4, while Beasley is basically locked into the shooting guard position.

But Beasley is six years younger, and after re-signing last offseason, is under contract for two years longer than Covington.

Beasley is also a higher-ceiling, higher-volume offensive player. In 51 games in a Timberwolves uniform, Beasley has averaged 19.9 points per game on 40.6 percent 3-point shooting and 44.9 percent from the field.

The Wolves can either choose to keep Beasley as a sharpshooting complement to Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, and Anthony Edwards, or they can include him as part of a trade for a superstar-caliber player.

The only other players involved in the trade who are still on NBA rosters are Vanderbilt and Bates-Diop, and there is no question that the former has more value; he recently re-signed with the Wolves on a three-year pact and has a shot at being the opening night starting power forward.

Hernangomez has been traded twice this offseason and the 2021 first-round pick that the Wolves received was included in a larger deal on draft night in 2020.

Let’s dig in on both of those transactions and take a look at what the Wolves’ final haul was from this mega-trade.