NBA Rumors: Timberwolves trade scenarios kick in after fisticuffs finale

More melodramatic overreactions

There is no shortage of disappointment in the Minnesota Timberwolves. Still, that only served as fertile ground to plant doubt in the Timberwolves’ strategy, to serve up a future that is more of the same, and then to shine the light of a new dawn for this team while touting the virtues of zany trade scenarios. The Timberwolves could make amends for a suspect trade in the past by willingly making another very suspect and zany trade.  How does that fix anything?

Justifying these zany trade scenarios was aided by articles that have decided that 20 games in the 2022-23 NBA season are more than a large enough sample to claim that Rudy Gobert cannot play on the same Timberwolves roster as Karl-Anthony Towns.

SB Nation penned a disappointing hit piece that had the audacity to name the Rudy Gobert trade as an All-Time disaster, less than a season after the trade was made. Talk about melodramatic overreactions . . .

Come on, that feels like it’s crossing the line, doesn’t it?

Exhaust all trade options

But it did result in even closer scrutiny. NBA analysts and pundits had sicked the dogs on the Minnesota Timberwolves now, which meant that they would not rest until all trade scenarios involving parting ways with either Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns had been completely exhausted this offseason.

The flaw in nearly all of the trades proferred so far is the premise that the Minnesota Timberwolves must do something. In truth, the wisest strategy is simply to run it back in 2023-24. Why?

The best way to add value to the Minnesota Timberwolves is to prove so many skeptics wrong. Even if another season of Towns-Gobert does not result in an NBA Championship, it’s clear that neither Gobert nor Towns are prizes in terms of value right now. But if the Timberwolves can get full seasons out of both players next season, and they perform at or better than their career averages, then we are talking about a good time to test the trade market.

It’s clear that the Timberwolves will focus on building around young shooting guard Anthony Edwards going forward. But that does not automatically mean that the Timberwolves will demolish the value of veterans who are currently on the roster along the way.