4. Bye-bye Wiggins, hello (KAT's friend) D-Lo
Yet another trade that felt like it had to occur at the time. Andrew Wiggins performed well in Minnesota but never ascended to stardom as once projected. The athletic forward won Rookie of the Year, averaged 23.6 points per game in a season, and proved to be extremely durable. However, his athleticism didn't translate to defense, he didn't offer much besides scoring, and his efficiency metrics were always substandard.
The Wolves decided to pull the plug on the Wiggins experiment in 2020. Minnesota sent out Wiggins, a 2021 first-rounder, and a 2022 second-rounder in exchange for D'Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans, and Omari Spellman. The first-rounder eventually turned into up-and-coming swingman Jonathan Kuminga.
Surely a shake-up was needed in Minnesota following another porous campaign with Wiggins as the secondary scorer. Nevertheless, Russell wasn't the answer, and giving up a first-rounder was compulsive. In hindsight, the Wolves could've kept Wiggins and added another top-10 pick to a core of the former Jayhawk and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Instead of taking another swing at the draft, the Wolves felt it was best to pair Russell, a playmaking guard, with Towns. Additionally, Russell and Towns were well-known friends who entered the NBA at the same time in 2015.
Ultimately, the Russell-Towns pairing didn't move the needle. Over Russell's four years in Minnesota, the Wolves won 85 games and lost 88. Fortunately for the Wolves, as the losses piled up, so did the high draft slots. Minnesota eventually selected Anthony Edwards first and shipped Russell out in exchange for Mike Conley. The rest is history.