The Minnesota Timberwolves will have plenty of difficult roster decisions this off-season. Of course, the team wisely eliminated the elephant in the room, opting to trade the expiring contract of PG D’Angelo Russell with less than 30 games remaining in the season, and taking on PG Mike Conley through the 2023-24 NBA season, a far more affordable SG Nickeil Alexander-Walker through the end of the 2022-23 NBA season.
But there will always be regrets. the wishful moments of what would have, could have, should have scenarios that bring doubts to the minds of Minnesota Timberwolves fans. Will the Timberwolves regret giving up on D’Angelo Russell? From the reports that surfaced after the trade, it was necessary simply for the locker room chemistry. But that raises an important concern. Have the Minnesota Timberwolves bailed on a promising player too soon?
Before any research began, we know the answer to that question is yes. But after we began digging, we found nine players the Minnesota Timberwolves gave up on too soon. Here they are, and let us know what you think:
Number IX: Walker Kessler
When the Minnesota Timberwolves chose center Walker Kessler in the 2022 NBA Draft with the 22nd overall pick, nobody got the memo that he would be packaged as part of a five-player four-pick trade to acquire center Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz. In fact, the trade happened so quickly that the Timberwolves had to cancel plans to have Kessler compete on their NBA Summer League team at point-blank range.
Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly was hired by the Minnesota Timberwolves’ new ownership group due, in part, to his reputation as an NBA Draft whisperer. That is, he has an uncanny knack for finding the golden needles in the NBA Draft haystacks, and there is evidence that Walker Kessler is one such player. In fact, Walker Kessler has been playing so well for the Utah Jazz that he is already getting the reputation as the ‘one who got away.‘
He already is scoring an average of 8.7 points per game, and hauling in 8.4 rebounds per game. Those numbers will only improve rapidly in the future. The 7-foot-1 245-pound center was an unexpected selection for the Timberwolves at 22, but now, he already appears to be a bargain who may have gotten away.
Number VIII: Andrew Wiggins
There is still a bad taste in the mouth of Minnesota Timberwolves fans over the performance and subsequent trade of G/F Andrew Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the first overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. Wiggins was so enamored by NBA teams, that multiple fanbases openly lobbied their teams to tank with mottos like “Winless for Wiggins,” in the season before the draft.
On draft night, the Minnesota Timberwolves acquired Andrew Wiggins, Thaddeus Young, and Anthony Bennett, and traded away PF Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Luc Mbah a Moute to the Philadelphia 76ers. The belief at the time was that PF Kevin Love was a true NBA elite player, but he was surrounded by a roster that would never help him get to an NBA Championship. We’ll talk more about that very soon.
With Andrew Wiggins on the roster, and the addition of center Karl-Anthony Towns the following year, you would expect that the Timberwolves would be in the pole position for the NBA playoffs with two consecutive number-one picks on the roster, but that never really developed. It was not until the Timberwolves added the passionate Jimmy Butler in the 2017-18 NBA season that the team finally made the NBA Playoffs. But after Butler left the team, the Timberwolves sank once more.
The Minnesota Timberwolves became frustrated with Andrew Wiggins, a forward who seemed to fall far short of his promise and plateau long before he achieved his potential. And so, the Minnesota Timberwolves engaged in a trade with the Golden State Warriors to acquire D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans, and Omari Spellman for Andrew Wiggins, a 2021 first-round pick (Top-3 protected), and a 2021 second-round pick.
That trade has since been called a historic fleecing, and in some ways that is a harsh but partially accurate description. In hindsight, Wiggins and Russell were equivalent enough even at the time of the trade to be worth a player-for-player exchange. Since that trade, Wiggins has dramatically improved secondary aspects of his game like perimeter shooting and effort on defense. The Timberwolves wanted more from Wiggins, and there was more to give. He simply refused to give it to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Number VII: Donyell Marshall
The Minnesota Timberwolves selected forward Donyell Marshall with the fourth overall pick of the 1994 NBA Draft, but only played him 40 games that season before putting him on the trade block. The Timberwolves parlayed just acquired Marshall into a trade with the Golden State Warriors that netted veteran forward Tom Gugliotta.
There is no doubt that Gugliotta’s next 3+ seasons with the Timberwolves worked out well. In fact, his next four seasons were arguably some of the best of Gugliotta’s career. But at the turn of the century, Guglotta’s production plummeted. By that time he was well beyond the reach of the Timberwolves, as he was competing for the Phoenix Suns.
But what of Marshall? He was still taking a licking and kept on ticking. His productive years extended well into the 2005-06 NBA season. All the while, his perimeter shooting continued to improve, topping 40 percent from the 2003-04 NBA season and holding that incredible shooting through the following 2004-05 season.
Marshall would end his NBA career of 15 seasons by competing for eight teams. So it’s safe to say that he lived his NBA life out of a suitcase. Still, the Timberwolves cashed in one of the better perimeter shooters of his time for a high-volume scorer. There were surely occasions when Marshall’s presence on the Timberwolves roster would have been quite positive.
Number VI: Lauri Markannen
The Minnesota Timberwolves draft the 7-foot-0 240-pound center Lauri Markennen with the seventh overall pick of the 2017 NBA Draft. But thanks to a trade, he would never don a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey. Instead, he would join teammate, third-year veteran guard Zach Levine, and second-year point guard, Kris Dunn as a package deal that was dealt to the Chicago Bulls for guard Jimmy Butler and center Justin Patton.
The prize for the Timberwolves in the deal was clearly passionate Jimmy Butler, but much like Walker Kessler mentioned earlier, the Timberwolves’ willingness to trade away such a promising young rookie center would come back to haunt them again. At the time, the Timberwolves appeared to be set at the center position with Karl-Anthony Towns, who was already putting up an average that was well over 20+ points per game.
But as the Timberwolves would learn later, KAT cannot do it alone. Their thinking was that if the team could add the firey Butler, this team would make it to the NBA Playoffs and once there, anything might happen.
The Timberwolves did make the playoffs, but the cost of doing so cost them a promising NBA center who is now coming into his own. Now in his sixth NBA season, he is scoring a phenomenal 25.4 points per game. To rub salt into the wound, he has a career 37.2 percent from the perimeter and is besting that with a 40.2 percent clip from long range this season.
While he is by no means a rim protector at the level of Rudy Gobert, his sudden spike for the Utah Jazz shows that sometimes patience is the secret sauce to unlocking the true potential of an NBA player.
Number V: Kevin Love
Imagine if the Minnesota Timberwolves were able to line up Karl-Anthony Towns and Kevin Love on the same basketball court wearing the same journeys? It just so happened that the two elite NBA players missed one another by just two seasons. Oh, what might have been?
Actually, it very likely was the aftershocks of the trade that sent PF Kevin Love to the Cleveland Cavaliers that set the wheels in motion that cause the Timberwolves from a record of 40-42 in his final season to a dismal record of 16-66 the following season. But it was the struggles of that 2014-15 season that positioned the Timberwolves for the top overall pick and brought Karl-Anthony Towns to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The trade took place at the direction of LeBron James, who announced that he was opting out of returning to the Miami Heat and would return to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But that came with conditions that required the Cavaliers to assemble a ‘Big 3,’ a term applied to NBA veterans who compete among the top 10 percent at their position in the NBA.
While the Timberwolves ran a risk (as it seems they often do) by trading away a star player in Kevin Love, their return was a pretty significant haul. Not only did the Timberwolves land the top player in the draft Andrew Wiggins, but they also landed a reclamation project in the 2013 NBA Draft’s top pick Anthony Bennett and a productive veteran in Thaddeus Young.
Love has gone on to play 10 more seasons, nine with the Cavaliers, and finally has landed with the Miami Heat to finish out the 2022-23 NBA season. While he would never replicate the 2013-14 season that he put up for the Minnesota Timberwolves, his steady production, and long-range marksmanship remain a tough loss for the Timberwolves’ roster.
Number IV: Jimmy Butler
The Minnesota Timberwolves benefitted from two partial seasons of wing Jimmy Butler. While his career was only a very short chapter on the Minnesota Timberwolves roster, his impact on this team and the fan base can still be felt.
Butler was not a quiet tow-the-line type of player. He is a passionate firestorm, a player who loves to turn up the heat on his opponents, his teammates, his coaches, but most of all, on himself. It seemed that the hotter the moment, the bigger the stage, and the more oppressive the pressure, the better Jimmy Butler performed.
Butler was the catalyst that elevated the 2017-18 season to a 47-35 record and an appearance in the NBA playoffs. But he was due to be paid, and the Minnesota Timberwolves simply did not free up the right amount of salary cap space to make the offer that Butler expected. When that happened, Butler when from a firestorm on the basketball court to a firestorm in the locker room.
When a player like Jimmy Butler starts to distrust an NBA team’s front office, then things go downhill pretty quickly. In his own words:
"“Now, first of all, I have a for-real problem with authority. When somebody’s telling me what to do as a grown man, I have a problem with it. So now you done lit the match, but ain’t nothin’ on fire yet. You just lit the match.- per Jimmy Butler as interviewed on the J.J. Redick podcast"
From that moment, the only option for the Minnesota Timberwolves at that point was to execute a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. But as has been the case of the Timberwolves, trading a star often depletes the roster, and the Timberwolves are left with a less productive team in the aftermath.
Number III: Kevin Garnett
There will always be a bit of smoldering rage whenever Minnesota Timberwolves fans talk about “The Trade.” Kevin Garnett was revered by the fans, as a true NBA professional who was not only an incredible player, but an incredible presence in the Timberwolves locker room, as well as an indomitable leader on the basketball court.
During his tenure with the team, the Minnesota Timberwolves had an unbelievable run of eight consecutive NBA Playoff appearances. When that streak came to a hard halt, the ever-competitive Garnett wanted the team to make an effort to improve the roster and return to the playoffs, but that would not happen in his remaining time with the Timberwolves.
Instead, the team would continue to get maximum production with Garnett, but the team would continue to lose ground to other teams. That set the stage for the villainous Boston Celtics to strike. They amassed a package of picks and players that looked irresistible on paper, so irresistible that the Minnesota Timberwolves consented. The belief on the Minnesota Timberwolves side was that Garnett had a couple of playing years.
Garnett would go on to compete for eight more seasons in the NBA, six seasons with the Boston Celtics before finally finishing out his NBA career with two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets. He will always be revered by Minnesota Timberwolves fans. Unfortunately, he had to change his zip code to win an NBA Championship.
Number II: Brandon Roy
If you think that Minnesota Timberwolves fans are a bit squeamish whenever the team is involved in a trade on NBA Draft night, there are plenty of reasons for it. When the 2006 NBA Draft arrived the Minnesota Timberwolves held the sixth overall pick. While that is not typically a spot for a team to select a franchise player, the Timberwolves were desperate to add a player who would move the needle and complement the incredible play of Keven Garnett.
And then Brandon Roy fell into the Timberwolves’ lap. The Timberwolves could not have had any better luck… until. That’s right, you guessed it. The Minnesota Timberwolves unwisely had a pre-draft trade arrangement set up with the Houston Rockets. The Rockets would trade a serviceable veteran shooting guard, Luther Head, and Randy Foye, who the Rockets would select with the eighth overall pick.
But the Portland Trail Blazers, who had their hearts set on Brandon Roy at the seventh overall pick, thwarted that telegraphed strategy by selecting Randy Foye at seven. That forced the Timberwolves to abandon their pre-scripted trade with the Rockets and were instead compelled to trade Roy for Foye and some cash. It was clearly a panic move by the Timberwolves, and the Trail Blazers shrewdly landed the guy that they had wanted all along.
Roy would flash brightly in his short NBA career. Roy would win NBA Rookie of the Year honors and then would excel for the Portland Trail Blazers for four more seasons. Ultimately though, debilitating injuries in both knees would eventually end his NBA career prematurely. He would sign with the Minnesota Timberwolves for one season before retiring from basketball for good.
Number I: Zach Lavine
There are many Timberwolves front office mistakes to choose from to make this list. But in assessing the ins and outs of each player, and the circumstances involved, some of the cause and effect of huge gaffes can be forgiven because there was some logic and rationale to support the decision. Whether it was the lack of information available about a drafted rookie who had never played for the team, or the inevitable question that must be answered about every NBA player:
“How long can he keep this up?” the answer has enough uncertainty to introduce enough speculation and guesswork to make it a bit of bad luck.
But when the Minnesota Timberwolves had the benefit of witnessing three seasons of play from the very versatile Zach Lavine and still included him in a package that included rookie Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn for Chicago Bulls Jimmy Butler, shame on them.
What really stings is the fact that the Timberwolves ended up trading away a ton of value for Butler, and got to the NBA Playoffs, but thanks to poorly-handled contract negotiations, the team traded away Butler the following season. Butler was a rental, Lavine was the real deal all by himself, and the Timberwolves were far too willing to trade him away.
Lavine has only become the leading scorer for the Chicago Bulls, and it began in the 2018-19 NBA season, the season in which the Timberwolves got just 10 games out of Jimmy Butler. Hey, we can rationalize the fact that the Timberwolves simply did not have enough to go on the likes of Walker Kessler, Lauri Markkanen, or even Brandon Roy. But there is no excuse for the willingness of the team to deal away Zach Lavine. He was a huge contributor to the team, and the team was improving rapidly.
Yes, Jimmy Butler put the Minnesota Timberwolves over the top, but for one season. In the end, the team had an opportunity to show some resolve and patience but squandered one more future NBA All-Star in a misguided attempt to improve the team.