Can the Minnesota Timberwolves build on their 2021-22 season?

Trading away good players for questionable fits

You may have thought that reuniting Rose with former teammate Jimmy Butler would be a win and create even more synergy than their separate stats would lead you to believe. But that is not how this one played out. After their playoff appearance, Jimmy Butler and the Minnesota Timberwolves began to encounter a bit of… friction.

And so, whenever personality clashes appear, sometimes the easiest choice is simply to ship the unhappy player off to another team and make him their problem. So the turmoil compelled the team to trade star Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Dario Saric, Robert Covington, Jarryd Bayless, and a 2022 second-round pick.

The trade did not really help either team. Meanwhile, the players acquired in the trade from the 76ers did not deliver nearly what was hoped for, or even expected.  For the Philadelphia 76ers, the team would struggle with his aggressive personality. He pushed his teammates harder than they preferred. So the team chose to go with the combination of Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons, and let Butler find his way in free agency.

Butler would eventually sign on with the Miami Heat.

Meanwhile, Dario Saric who was a solid complementary player for Karl Anthony Towns would regress on his own individual contributions. He would eventually be traded to the Phoenix Suns, packaged with the Timberwolves’ 2019 11th overall pick to the Phoenix Suns for the sixth overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft. That pick would be used to select shooting guard Jarrett Culver.

Sorry, I brought that one up. The results of that draft pick were, disappointing.