The Minnesota Timberwolves were active at the NBA Trade Deadline, as the team needed to get their house in order. Clearly, the extent to just much of the Timberwolves’ roster struggled never truly broke to the public. The Timberwolves’ rumors that surfaced throughout the season detailed contract negotiations that found themselves on the back burner.
At one point, those rumors suggested that at one point, D’Angelo Rusell’s group ‘leaked’ word that he was willing to take a pay cut to stay with the Timberwolves. At other times, word was that the Timberwolves were focused on extension talks with other players including Naz Reid and Jaylen Nowell.
‘Connelly never wanted to extend him’
But after D’Angelo Russell has been traded, Darren ‘Doogie’ Wolfson shared on The Scoop podcast that Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, had soured on extending D’Angelo Russell, all but ensuring that the team would trade DLo at the trade deadline:
"“Now that Russell is gone, he’s in L.A., just know this: Tim Connelly never wanted to extend the pending free agent,” Wolfson reported on The Scoop podcast"
The Timberwolves rumors were reported on The Scoop, and you can check it out for yourself in the embedded podcast below:
If you want to get a video on the story, here is a link to a video podcast as well.
While there was no screaming and shouting in the Timberwolves’ locker room, D’Angelo Russell was not quiet about his unhappiness with Gobert. Rather than work with Gobert to reinforce their chemistry, the truth is that DLo put the burden of making everything work on Gobert, and let everyone know it. We had already reported how uncomfortable Russell made Gobert feel on the basketball court. That is just appalling for a starting point guard.
Don’t discount those 3 second-round draft picks
Clearly, the driving force for the three-team trade that involved the Utah Jazz and the Minnesota Timberwolves was the LA Lakers. Tensions between the Lakers and veteran PG Russell Westbrook had boiled over, and the Lakers needed to change their roster drastically. The Timberwolves were easy to add to the mix because it’s clear that the Timberwolves’ trade of D’Angelo Russell was inevitable.
The Timberwolves ended up surrendering a player who created a less-than-happy locker room for center Rudy Gobert and emerged with a point guard who has incredible chemistry with Gobert, a promising new shooting guard who holds a solid perimeter shot.
Timberwolves’ Draft Whisperer reloads for future drafts
As a bonus, the Timberwolves also added three additional second-round future draft picks, which could prove to be quite valuable in the hands of Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly. Of course, Connelly has earned the reputation of ‘draft whisperer’ as he has a knack for hitting even in the second round of the NBA Draft.
What could the Timberwolves realistically expect? Well, after examining the Minnesota Timberwolves’ future NBA Draft picks, we see that the team will have a least one second-round pick in every draft for the next seven drafts with the exception of the 2027 NBA Draft. That could change, as the Timberwolves currently hold one first-round draft pick and two second-round draft picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, and the team could make a trade to acquire a draft pick in 2027 by offering up a 2026 pick.
Did the LA Lakers get snookered?
While many have ruled the Minnesota Timberwolves as emerging with the lesser trade package from the trade, I believe that the Timberwolves won the trade and listed multiple reasons why. Conversely, as the LA Lakers have since learned that the Timberwolves did not intend to extend D’Angelo Russell, their latest report indicates that they have already begun to regret the decision. Why?
It’s clear that the Lakers wanted D’Angelo Russell on their roster. But if he was already about to become a free agent in 2023, would the Lakers have made that trade? The Lakers traded their 2027 NBA Draft lightly protected first-round draft pick in this trade, a pick that they have treated like gold bullion before making this trade.
DLo returns to the Lakers
The Lakers have welcomed D’Angelo Russell, and rightfully so. He is just 26 years old, and the Lakers believe that he has his best NBA playing days in front of him. But contrast that with the fact that the Minnesota Timberwolves’ rumors now indicate that the team was not interested in bringing him back. The reason can be explained by how cold DLo was to teammate Rudy Gobert. This is not the first locker room controversy that D’Angelo Russell was connected to.
Lakers fans no doubt recall the last chapter of D’Angelo Russell’s career with the Lakers, the feud that developed between Russell and rookie Nick Young, which led to both players leaving the team. The hope in trading for him is that those locker room issues are in his distant past. But, that was not the case in the 2022-23 season for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Perhaps DLo, like leopards, cannot change their spots after all?