3 reasons why Timberwolves won 3-team trade, and why so few get it

Okay, you’ve had an overnight sleep to let all of the dust settle over the Minnesota Timberwolves’ involvement in a three-team trade that ignited a flurry of other NBA Trades. The LA Lakers boast D’Angelo Russell, Malk Beasley, and Jarred Vanderbilt to go with ex-Timberwolves and current Lakers player Patrick Beverley.

There are quite a few pieces to unpack in this trade. If you want the full details of the trade, you can click this link here:  But in the interest of time, let’s summarize the pieces once more for you here.  So each team in this trade will receive:

Minnesota Timberwolves

PG Mike Conley Jr.
SG Nickell Alexander-Walker
2024 2nd-round pick (lesser of Memphis or Washington picks)
2025 2nd-round pick Utah
2026 2nd-round pick Utah

Our instant reaction:
The Timberwolves knew that the ever-widening gap between the team’s budget and the salary demands of D’Angelo Russell was not going to fade away, and that posed quite a problem for the team’s front office which faces the difficult challenge of extending both SG Anthony Edwards and SF Jaden McDaniels in the offseason. Losing DLo to free agency would have lost that salary placeholder for the team, and yielded the Timberwolves nothing.

There are two ways to judge this move: checkers or chess. On the checkers’ front, the move is a push. The Timberwolves do not necessarily improve at the position, with the exception of Conley having two seasons on his current contract. But for the chess grandmasters, this was an excellent trade. The Timberwolves added the best point guard to optimize the offense of center Rudy Gobert, the team adds a young wing shooter who can drain treys, and the team grabs three draft picks in the second round of future NBA Drafts which give President Tim Connelly three chances to land a significant player for the Timberwolves in the future.

Our Grade: A-

LA Lakers

PG D’Angelo Russell
SG Malik Beasley
PF Jarred Vanderbilt

There is no way to discuss the Lakers’ version of this three-team trade without pointing to the obvious. This was an out-and-out salary dump of PG Russell Westbrook, a player who does not fit the Lakers organization and who has worn out his welcome there.  The fact that they got rid of Westbrook’s crippling contract with just one future first-round pick is pretty humorous, as plenty are fawning over the Jazz as making out like bandits.

The Lakers dumped Westbrook’s salary for the cost of one future first-round pick and picked up three young rotational pieces that are promising additions to the roster, as well as convertible assets in future NBA seasons as well if things do not work out. The trick is trying to set reasonable expectations for the Lakers’ new roster additions. Will they deliver a playoff berth instantly? That is the expectation, but at 25-30 with just 27 games to go, the Lakers will need to string victories together pretty quickly. D’Angelo Russell’s contract expires at the end of the 2022-23 NBA season, and he was clearly the crown jewel of this trade for the Lakers. That is not a lot of time for him to deliver.

Our Grade: B-

Utah Jazz

PG Russell Westbrook (likely to be bought out)
C Damian Jones
SG Juan Toscano-Anderson
2027 1st round pick (Top-4 protection) LA Lakers

Okay, I swear that I’m not a hater. But let’s take a hard look at the Utah Jazz side of this equation objectively. Salary dumps are common in the NBA, and the cost of dumping an oppressive or constrictive salary has typically been a first-round pick.  And lo and behold, that is what the deal adds up to. But the Jazz did not stop there.

For that single first-round pick in 2027, the Jazz organization had to cough up two second-round picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves, one in 2025 and 2026 respectively. And the team had to part ways with quite productive players in SG Malik Beasley and PF Jarred Vanderbilt, both of whom had been mentioned in recent NBA rumors as worthy of a late first-round pick apiece, and certainly of a first-round pick as a package deal. Neither player received in this trade is projected to be a significant contributor down the road. The crown jewel of this trade for the Utah Jazz is the Lakers’ 2027 first-round pick that may or may not deliver a starter for the Jazz. Unless you are clearly cheering for an NBA team to tank, there is not enough to crack a smile about in this deal for the Jazz.

Our Grade: C-

Other instant grades

How have other NBA websites graded the transaction? Well, there is a lot to say about the trade, but you have to understand that there is a major market bias to many of the NBA sports media, and with that, the collective opinions will steer more positively to the LA Lakers than to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Let’s take a look so you can see what I mean:

The Athletic

The Athletic have a good perspective and as a result, are not pulled to please the masses by skewing their objectivity.

Their Instant grades are:
Timberwolves: A-
Jazz: B+
Lakers: B

CBS Sports

CBS Sports was less enamored with the Lakers and Timberwolves pieces, but they adored the Utah Jazz return.  Sam Quinn, the author of the instant analysis, completely glosses over the fact that the major component of this trade is the salary dump of Russell Westbrook by the Lakers. He sees that Lakers’ 2027 first-round pick as an almost certainty to land in the Top-10, a precarious presumption.  And he assesses 0 value to the three second-round draft picks that the Timberwolves got in the deal.

Their Instant grades are:
Timberwolves: C-
Jazz: A+
Lakers: C+

SB Nation

SB Nation did not get impressed much either, but they certainly did fawn over the LA Lakers in this trade. They see the young additions to the Lakers roster as immediate upgrades across the board, and their flowery praise suggests that the Lakers are on the cusp of winning 20 of their final 27 games as a result. We’ll see.

But the problem with their assessment shows plainly when they turn to the Timberwolves part of the trade. They graded the Timberwolves exclusively on the Conley for DLo swap. Of course, without understanding the Timberwolves’ roster complexity, it’s easy to be critical.

Their Instant grades are:
Timberwolves: C+
Jazz: B
Lakers: A+

USA Today

USA Today was a bit less critical, but they gave the Timberwolves the least grade of the bunch. The Jazz ended up with the top grade, which is almost humorous considering the fact that they received one first-round pick in 2027, and had to give up two solid players and two second-round picks to get it. And here’s the best part. If the Lakers’ 2027 first-round pick falls within the Top-4, the Jazz must settle for a 2027 second-round pick. For a huge salary dump? Um, that’s not an A grade in my book

Their Instant grades are:
Timberwolves: B-
Jazz: A
Lakers: B+

3 reasons why Timberwolves win this trade

Okay, so the mainstream media has been a bit critical of the three-team trade in terms of what the Minnesota Timberwolves were able to get in return. But isn’t that the way it often goes? We distill complex situations into simple terms, and then base opinions on the simplest points. It’s almost as though mainstream media has adopted Twitter’s 140-word limit on comprehending the intricacies of this trade, and that skews the positive reactions to the simplest conditions.

Reason III: Financial flexibility

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ financial flexibility remains intact and may have improved a bit. That is due to the fact that the Timberwolves, like all NBA teams, have limited funds to spend on players. And so, the goal for any NBA roster build is: Acquire three elite players, Pay three elite players, and assemble the most cost-effective roster around those players. For the Minnesota Timberwolves, those three players are Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Anthony Edwards.

The Timberwolves were unlikely to meet the salary expectations of PG D’Angelo Russell. But that had more ramifications than just losing the player. In the NBA, teams who hold the player’s rights (transferred only to be traded from the original drafting team) have more financial flexibility. If DLo hit free agency, the Timberwolves would not only lose DLo but the ability to compensate a player at DLo’s level. By trading him, the Timberwolves will have that same financial flexibility with new PG Mike Conley Jr.

Reason II: Optimize this roster

Only the Timberwolves improved their entire roster as a result of this trade. PG Mike Conley has strong ties to Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert thanks to their time together with the Utah Jazz.  But he also played alongside Kyle Anderson as their careers overlapped on the Memphis Grizzlies. Those ties are key to getting the Timberwolves roster back on track.

Let’s be quite honest. As soon as an NBA player is traded, much of what that player used to do and to be will change as well. NBA teams, like all professional sports that involve teams, do not run their schemes the same way. It’s the way a player meshes with the philosophies of the coaching staff and teammates that truly dictates the success or failure of any trade.

But if we focus exclusively on the D’Angelo Russell for Mike Conley Jr. swap, what do we find? We see that the Timberwolves have left points on the court because players have struggled to incorporate Rudy Gobert effectively into the offense. With so many other injuries, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch threw up his arms in exasperation and declared that for now, Gobert was to focus on rebounds and blocking shots.

Gobert’s offense is back on the menu now, and the Timberwolves should be able to resume building better team fundamentals.

Reason I: Three draft picks

The Timberwolves just recouped three future draft picks, one second-round pick from the LA Lakers and two second-round picks from the Utah Jazz. No, they are not first-round picks. But it’s the type of stake that the Minnesota Timbewolves so desperately need.

Why? Merely check out the now outdated What are the Minnesota Timberwolves future draft picks? article. For a quick summary, Here is how this deal changes the Timberwolves’ draft resources.

• Year          Draft Picks            New Additions
  2023        NYK 2nd-round    None
  2024        MIN 1st-round     Lesser 2nd-round pick from WAS or MEM
  2025        None                       Utah 2nd round pick
  2026        Min or Utah 1st    Utah 2nd-round pick
  2nd rd lesser of MIA, IND, or SAS
  2027        None
  2028        MIN 1st-round
  MIN 2nd-round
  2029        MIN 2nd-round

The Timberwolves grow the number of draft picks in their safe deposit box from seven to ten. While no individual draft pick may move the needle for the Timbewolves much, the aggregate effect of improving the available number of draft picks by nearly 50 percent is indeed significant for the Timbewolves.

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, the devil is in the details, and the quick-hitting NBA media seldom digs down far enough to even realize what a gold mine of information they are glossing over. However you feel about the trade, keep in mind that the Minnesota Timberwolves faced an even more alarming future by doing nothing. That being said, the best projections for D’Angelo Russell I had read to this point was a player-for-player swap.

The Timberwolves landed two players and three draft picks. The downside for the Utah Jazz is the fact that they may end up for two insignificant players and a 2027 second-round draft pick at the cost of absorbing Russell Westbrook’s oppressive salary and trading away two young promising players in the process. The LA Lakers believe that they have landed three difference-makers. But as much as I respect the combined talents of D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley, I think it’s a very tall order to expect them to turn the Lakers’ season around.

How are you feeling this morning? Stay tuned, because the NBA Trade Deadline is rapidly approaching . . .