The Minnesota Timberwolves have the good fortune to have a front office that is not content to stand pat on previous trades. After the Timberwolves traded for former Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert before the 2022-23 NBA season, the Timberwolves were right back at it when the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline arrived.
While the Gobert trade felt a bit rough along the edges at first, Minnesota Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly smoothed things out remarkably well by exchanging disgruntled PG D’Angelo Russell in favor of more suitable players in veteran PG Mike Conley Jr., SG Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and three future second-round draft picks.
The Timberwolves front office won’t hesitate to course-correct if something feels off. That may be with an unexpected move that will shake up the entire roster, or simply a tweak to the roster like balancing weights on an automobile tire.
So what may trigger such a move? Well, the cause could be as simple as a player not achieving their expected level of production for the team. It could be a falloff in a player’s ability to sustain their career averages. Or it could simply come down to the fact that the Timberwolves’ outlay of cash to players exceeds what the team is realizing in terms of production on the basketball court.
The Timberwolves front office may be proactive when it comes to their involvement with setting, tweaking, and resetting the Timberwolves roster. But no Timberwolves personnel executive is omniscient. They take the best option available, hope it works out, observe the results, and then plan the next moves to improve the roster some more. Sometimes it all works out for the best, but other times it simply does not.
Which players may be at even the slightest risk of moving on at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline? Here are four who could be traded if things do not work out as expected: