The Minnesota Timberwolves have invested a lot in this version of the team being a good one. The historic haul of players and picks sent to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert means this year and each to follow is all-in to compete.
Anthony Edwards has had an up-and-down start to his career, but his star talent is undeniable, and there is no path to a contending Timberwolves team that doesn’t include Edwards making the leap. Karl-Anthony Towns can’t be traded until the summer, and this team can’t move Gobert.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have to make a change, and the trade candidate is clear.
That leaves D’Angelo Russell as the top trade candidate for the Wolves to make a change. He seems well-liked by his teammates and plays hard, but his combination of shaky shooting and poor defense makes point guard the obvious place for an upgrade. Can Minnesota trade Russell and get back a point guard that helps them more now?
The answer might lie in South Beach, as reported by Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. The Wolves have struggled this season, but so have the Miami Heat, who only in the last few weeks have climbed above .500 and sit at 23-20. Could the two teams swap point guards in a way that helps both out? Let’s take a closer look.
Building out Timberwolves’ swap of Russell and Lowry
Kyle Lowry hasn’t had the impact on the Miami Heat that the team hoped for, but he still brings a lot to the table and has championship experience that the current Timberwolves roster can’t claim. He is under contract for another season, which means the Wolves would get a year and a half to evaluate his fit alongside Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Here’s what a deal could look like:
D’Angelo Russell makes slightly more than Lowry, so this deal also brings back Dewayne Dedmon to balance things out. He can serve as center insurance while Karl-Anthony Towns is out, or he can be waived to seek a new team on the buyout market.
For the Miami Heat, doing this deal means getting younger and finding another starter who lines up with the Tyler Herro / Bam Adebayo timeline. Russell is on an expiring contract, so the Heat would have the flexibility to either re-sign him or let him walk and use the cap flexibility elsewhere. Having cap space in Miami is a very different proposition than having it in Minnesota.
Would this swap help the Timberwolves?
The Minnesota Timberwolves rank 19th in offensive rating and 15th in defensive rating. Adding Kyle Lowry could potentially make a difference in both areas, as he is a better fit offensively with the rest of the core and he has always been a galvanizing force defensively for his teams.
On offense, Minnesota is best served by the ball being in the hands of either Anthony Edwards or Karl-Anthony Towns. That doesn’t mean D’Angelo Russell’s creation is bad, but he can’t run a heliocentric system around his creation when his teammates are even better with the ball. Yet move Russell off the ball and his value craters, even with the effort he has put into improving his shot.
Kyle Lowry has made a career of thriving off of other lead creators, whether that was DeMar DeRozan, Kawhi Leonard, or Jimmy Butler. He is a career 36.7 percent 3-point shooter who has hit a number of big shots. He is also not afraid to set screens or cut off-ball. He would help the Wolves’ offense flow better.
Defensively, Lowry is a ballhawk who knows just when to swipe at the ball for a steal or drop into a passing lane to disrupt a pass. He is also one of the league’s premier charge-takers, and that kind of defensive energy is infectious. The Wolves lost Patrick Beverley and his leadership on that end; getting Lowry would help to bring that back.
Would this trade help the Timberwolves? Yes, it would, especially for this year and next. After that, the erosions into Kyle Lowry’s game that we have seen thus far would likely grow too great, but for now, he has the experience and the game to help both sides of the ball just work better. This is a deal the Wolves should at least consider.