Even in Round 2, Lakers D’Angelo Russell: “Timberwolves held me back”

Timberwoles trade for D’Angelo Russell

The Minnesota Timberwolves were not out of the picture by a long shot. While the team had tried and failed to acquire D’Angelo Russell from the Brooklyn Nets, this team was extremely motivated to get him. DLo was a very good friend to Minnesota Timberwolves’ lone star, Karl-Anthony Towns,  The Timberwolves were convinced that the team would lose Towns to free agency without leverage. Russell, and his friendship with Towns, was that leverage.

"“This is where I am right now, so I’m going to make the best of it … while I’m here.” – D’Angelo Russell after being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves as per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski"

D’Angelo Russell has been an NBA nomad, a player who had never played for the same city for more than two years. Despite all of that history, the Minnesota Timberwolves believed in the player, and in themselves, enough to envision a long-standing relationship with Russell.

On the move again

What was the narrative behind the Warriors’ trading of  D’Angelo Russell on this occasion?

"“The Warriors, as much as anything with this move, gave up on Russell. Seven months after they contorted the entire franchise into a pretzel to get him, five months after he showed up to camp, the Warriors abandoned The Russell Project. They were so eager to get rid of him that they are embracing a player considered to be on one of the worst contracts in the league.” – As reported per Bleacher Report’s Joseph Zucker"

While it left the Minnesota Timberwolves wide open to criticism, the team did land D’Angelo Russell finally. That could have been the end of it. Well, should have been. But the Minnesota Timberwolves, as eager as this team was to land Russell, would not be any more immune to his antics than any other team who he played for previously, as we shall see.