Trade D’Angelo Russell? 3 reasons to tap the brakes on that . . .

Reason II: Tough to lead Timberwolves roster

No point guard would be peaking this soon in the season trying to herd the cats of this roster just yet. As you may recall, the Minnesota Timberwolves have undergone another major overhaul of their roster, their second in the past three seasons. Making matters worse, the absence of Rudy Gobert (knee injury) and Karl-Anthony Towns (illness) negated the team’s efforts to get the starting five on the same basketball court.

It was not until the final preseason game that the Timberwolves starting five players were even on the same basketball court at the same time. And then, the season started and the team designated D’Angelo Russell as the field general, the guy whose role was to call the plays, see the entire floor, and ensure that the basketball ended up in the hands of the open shooter.

That was not even a great plan on paper. Russell was only suited to play on the same court as Rudy Gobert in theory, and the pair struggled to optimize the other’s strongest skills. Dishing out assists became problematic for Russell, and Karl-Anthony Towns became the primary distributor to teammate Gobert.

When KAT fell to injury, the team turned to power forward Kyle Anderson to distribute the basketball. That seemed to help the team, as not only was Anderson quite capable of playing the role of point forward, but that allowed D’Angelo Russell to focus on his own game, which had suffered in the first month of the 2022-23 NBA season. Russell is still capable of bringing the basketball up and finding and getting the basketball to the right shooter. But the process of learning and leading the Timberwolves’ new faces is a tough challenge and will take time to master.