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

Reason I: He’s red hot right now

Okay, so far you’ve heard some lukewarm reasons. But here is one that is red-hot. D’Angelo Russell has been red-hot of late. You will have a tough time replacing the offense that D’Lo has been generating in the month of December 2022. How good is he?

For the month of December, Russell has been averaging:
24.1 points / 2.0 rebounds / 5.1 assists / 0.3 blocks / 0.9 steals / 56.3 FG% / 48.2 3P% / 88.9 FT% / and making 3.9 of 8.0 three-point shots.

That’s almost double his scoring up to that point in the season. And whether or not you already knew this, you don’t trade away one of your hottest players at a time when the team needs everything he is putting on the basketball court to win.

His latest month is the same production that he was performing with the Golden State Warriors before the Timberwolves traded for him. The guy is playing incredibly well right now, and it’s infectious.  The Timberwolves were desperate for three-point shooters. But since D’Lo has been hitting almost everything from the perimeter, other players have begun to take their shots as well. Austin Rivers is suddenly hitting. And Naz Reid is dropping treys now too.

If the Timberwolves did not have Russell’s offense to count on right now, they would still be below .500 and would be in a far less enviable position to find ways to get back on track. As it is, this team is on a three-game winning streak and faces a very difficult six games through the end of this month.

Trading is never punitive. You trade a player in the hopes of getting something better, of greater value, in return. Nothing I have read so far reads better than a salary dump for the Timberwolves. And there is no foundation for making a change just to make a change.  In the end, there are no reasons to trade a key contributor.

Let’s tap the brakes on those Timberwolves rumors about trading D’Lo for now. Perhaps this old adage says it best:

If you are always trying to get away from something, you never get anywhere.