If you think that the Minnesota Timberwolves are simply out of ammunition as the team rallies to negotiate trades, then you haven’t been paying much attention to the Timberwolves’ savvy President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly. Even as the team may be short of tradeable draft picks, the team continues to boast leverage over a number of intriguing players. One such interesting young player is NBA free agent Jaylen Nowell.
Nowell is a young shooting guard who has enjoyed steady progress so far in his four-year NBA career. In the 2023-23 NBA season, he appeared in 65 games (a career high) and averaged 19.3 MPG, 10.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.0 APG, and 0.6 SPG. While those are pretty solid numbers, Nowell is a shooting guard who struggled to sink shots from the perimeter last season. In fact, his three-point shooting accuracy fell from 39.4 percent in 2021-22, to just 28.9 percent in 2022-23.
As far as the Minnesota Timberwolves, that simply does not cut it and creates an unlikely probability of the Timberwolves extending him. But that does not mean that the Timberwolves are burning that bridge.
Latest NBA Rumors: Nowell on a sign-and-trade?
In the latest round of NBA Rumors, Hoops Hype NBA Insider and analyst Mike Scotto reports that the Timberwolves are ‘open to sign-and-trade possibilities’ regarding SG Jaylen Nowell. He goes on to name both the Utah Jazz and the San Antonio Spurs as two teams that are expected to have significant interest in Nowell.
Curiously, we named the Jazz and Spurs as teams who could express interest in Jaylen Nowell, as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder, in our feature article about Nowell and free agency. Now it seems that speculation is gaining plenty of traction.
Nowell would be an ideal addition to any NBA team with a young roster and a need for a player who can be counted on to put points on the scoreboard. While Nowell is not considered a fundamental piece to an NBA Championship roster, at 23 years old he still has plenty of time to develop into a rotational player on the right roster.
And best of all, he is already a double-digit scorer who has yet to see his best NBA season. Nowell could be a fine addition to the right NBA roster. And now it seems as though the Minnesota Timberwolves are more than happy to facilitate that into existence, for a fee.