On Tuesday, Zach Kram of ESPN wrote an article on every NBA team’s biggest roster mistake since 2020. He also ranked them by how damaging they were for the team. Finishing in the middle of the pack was the Timberwolves, who Kram ranked as making the 16th-most damaging. Their biggest roster mistake was trading for D'Angelo Russell in February of 2020.
Timberwolves traded for D'Angelo Russell in 2020
During the 2019-20 season, the Wolves were nowhere near playoff contention. At the trade deadline, they owned a record of just 15-35. Clearly possessing a record with that would normally make a team a seller, instead, Minnesota made a deal where they gave up a first round pick.
On February 6, 2020, the Timberwolves acquired point guard D’Angelo Russell from the Golden State Warriors (also received Jacob Evans and Omari Spellman). In exchange, they gave up 2014 first overall pick Andrew Wiggins, a 2021 first round pick (became Jonathan Kuminga), and a 2021 second round pick (Golden State later traded that pick).
In his first full season for Minnesota (2020-21), the Wolves were once again nowhere near a playoff team. They took a step forward though in 2021-22 in what was Anthony Edwards’ second year in the league. The Timberwolves finished 46-36, good for seventh in the Western Conference. Minnesota defeated the Clippers in the Play-In Tournament, securing a spot in the playoffs as the seventh seed.
In the opening round, the Wolves took on the Grizzlies. Minnesota was eliminated in six games, and it was far from Russell’s finest work during the series. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged just 12 points and only shot 33.3% from the field. Remarkably, he made less than 30% of his two-point tries (12-41, 29.3%). He never made more than 42.9% of his field goal tries in any of the six outings, and had three games shooting 27.3% or worse.
Russell was traded at the 2023 trade deadline to the Lakers. Meanwhile, Wiggins played a large role in helping the Warriors win the 2022 NBA Finals (Kuminga also won a ring, but played a lesser role).
Trading for Russell eventually did help out the franchise
While Russell’s tenure with Minnesota might be best remembered for that ugly 2022 playoff performance, he did eventually bring back two important pieces to the Wolves. The 2023 trade to the Lakers was actually a three-team deal. From the Jazz, they added both Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Both of those players were a large part of Minnesota’s last two seasons that ended in them reaching the Western Conference finals. Conley has been the team’s starting point guard while Alexander-Walker came off the bench to average 22.2 minutes over the past two postseasons.