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:
IV: Mike Conley Jr
While veteran PG Mike Conley Jr. checked all of the boxes when he arrived at the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline, his successor is not currently identified on the Timberwolves roster. That could pose a problem, as the Timberwolves have certainly invested in an NBA playoff-caliber team for the long haul.
But what of veteran point guard Mike Conley Jr.? While he possesses nearly all of the traits that the team needs now, how long will he be able to compete at such a high level? And if the Timberwolves do identify a willing NBA team who is willing to trade away a younger point guard to the Timberwolves at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, what wisdom is there in having two starting point guards on the team?
In planning for possible trade scenarios, it’s simply naive to expect that an NBA team would be willing to trade a young and promising point guard to the Minnesota Timberwolves to pair up with All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards, without getting something of value in return. Right now, that value could include veteran point guard Mike Conley Jr.
But let’s travel another path of logic. The Minnesota Timberwolves proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the point guard role is very important to this team. When former point guard, D’Angelo Russell, balked at performing his role, the team traded him at the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline. So what will the team do if Conley fails to deliver to expectations in the point guard role this season?
Nobody would be the least bit surprised if the Timberwolves tackle upgrading the point guard position once more. While the least likely of all possible trade scenarios listed here, it is still a possibility. But other trade scenarios are more likely. Such as . . .
III: Jordan McLaughlin
While not exactly a huge shockwave, the Timberwolves are in a race against time to lock down a succession plan for the starting point guard position, and backup point guard Jordan McLaughlin is on the sink-or-swim seat this season.
Things would be far clearer this season if McLaughlin had taken the initiative and outplayed veteran PG D’Angelo Russell last season. But that never happened. Instead, McLaughlin was more of a no-show, as injuries limited him to competing in just 43 games over the course of the 2022-23 NBA season. And while he did suit up for those 43 games, and actually played more minutes (15.8 MPG) than the previous season (14.5 MPG), his production dropped across the board.
And that was the final year of his rookie contract when everything is supposed to ‘click,’ and the likelihood of signing a new multi-year contract adds a great deal of financial incentive to put up career-high numbers. In short, the list of underwhelming factors that line up against the Minnesota Timberwolves pursuing a long-term relationship with PG Jordan McLaughlin continues to grow.
And yet, the team brought him back for one more season.
That wasn’t a mistake. It is simply a parachute for the Timberwolves roster in case something unexpectedly happens to their starting PG Mike Conley Jr., and the team begins to dive into an unexpected and unwelcome losing streak. McLaughlin would be expected to step up and handle the team’s point guard duties until a more permanent solution could be found.
But that situation only develops if:
- I – Mike Conley Jr. is injured or fails to play to expectations
- II – Newly added combination guard Shake Milton does not show any potential to become the Timberwolves backup point guard
- III – Reserve PG Jordan McLaughlin rebounds this season (pun intended) and proves himself to be worthy of assuming that starting point guard role
Otherwise, why have him? Of course, any perception of little value on the Timberwolves roster makes him unlikely to be included in any trade package at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline. But he could be a complementary piece to balance out salary exchanges. Still, there are players who are more likely to be traded. Such as . . .
II: Shake Milton
The Minnesota Timberwolves have a great ‘feel’ for other NBA players, and it’s quite clear that they feel that young combination guard Shake Milton could play a major role in the future of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Entering his sixth season in the NBA, Milton has exclusively competed for the Philadelphia 76ers to this point in his career. And while he has been primarily a player who has come in from the bench, he had been tasked with filling in for injured teammates, starting 45 games for the Sixers over five seasons. Over that time, he has been listed as a shooting guard.
But don’t the Timberwolves have plenty of those? From starting SG Anthony Edwards to Nickeil Alexander-Walker, to Wendell Moore Jr., and finally to rookie SG Jaylen Clark, the Timberwolves are swimming in shooting guards.
That is why I believe that the Minnesota Timberwolves truly see point guard potential in Shake Milton. Now the question is, does he see point guard potential in himself? I think that the answer to that question is yes. Yes, he does.
When reviewing his 2022-23 NBA season game logs, there was a stretch when he averaged more than 25 minutes per game: From Game 11 vs. the Milwaukee Bucks to Game 20 vs. the Houston Rockets. Over that span of games, he averaged 19.6 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game, and 5.8 assists per game. So how does that span compare to the Timberwolves stats from the 2022-23 season?
- D’Angelo Russell – 6.2 assists per game
- (Projected) Shake Milton – 5.8 assists per game
- Mike Conley Jr. – 5.0 assists per game
- Kyle Anderson – 4.9 assists per game
- Jordan McLaughlin – 3.4 assists per game
Of course, that is how Shake Milton projects in the Minnesota Timberwolves roster. What happens if he fails to deliver to those projections?
Well, as we noted, the Timberwolves simply have a glut of shooting guards, which is exactly what a non-point guard Shake Milton becomes to the Timberwolves. With rookie Jaylen Clark healing up and looking for playing time right around the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, the Timberwolves will want to vacate some minutes in the rotation to give Clark a shot at seeing some action.
If Shake Milton fails to deliver, the Timberwolves could put him on the trade block. But there is one more player who has even been named by ESPN analysts as a name to watch at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline. And he is . . .
I: Karl-Anthony Towns
Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star veteran power forward Karl-Anthony Towns has to be one of the most frequently named players in NBA Rumors right now, almost as frequently as Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard. The thing is that Lillard has demanded a trade, and Towns has not. In fact, Karl-Anthony Towns has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to play for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
No matter.NBA Insiders at ESPN have already publicly gone on record to name the Minnesota Timberwolves as the team to watch at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, and Karl-Anthony Towns as the player most likely to be on the move when the trade deadline arrives.
As much as nobody welcomes another round of NBA rumors, Minnesota Timberwolves rumors, or new trade scenarios that somehow project Minnesota Timberwolves PF Karl-Anthony Towns packing his bags and flying off to some new NBA team, a bullseye is already painted on his back and it’s simply a fact of life that NBA analysts are competing to speculate on what the inevitable new team and trade package will look like.
You see, it’s now a given that Towns will be on the move. The persistence of NBA rumors is merely to guess what the details might be when (not if) that happens. In the end, that is a pretty hefty presumption.
While it’s true that Towns has lost his luster of late, appearing in only 29 games and regressing in his production across the spectrum of measurable statistics, his current value in various NBA Trade scenarios, to the Minnesota Timberwolves and to the NBA at large has become grossly undervalued. When he is hot, Karl-Anthony Towns’ performance can single-handedly change the outcome of a game.
Right now, Towns is red hot for Team Dominican Republic. It’s no coincidence that Team Dominican Republic is red hot as well.
As multiple Minnesota Timberwolves players rediscover their passion for playing basketball on the international stage in the 2023 FIBA World Cup competition, perhaps none are benefitting more and deserve to do so more than Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns. Somehow, over the course of his accomplished NBA career, he has evolved into an NBA anti-hero.
Does he deserve that? I don’t think so. He is a passionate player who lets that passion show on the basketball court. But if he truly is traded at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, as so many now expect to happen, I hope that his new NBA team appreciates that about him.