Minnesota Timberwolves Should Consider A Major Trade Deadline Shakeup

The Minnesota Timberwolves are not having a good week.

On Tuesday, they blew a 15-point third-quarter lead and lost to a Utah Jazz team without Lauri Markkanen. Two nights later, they jumped out to an early 14-point lead against the Chicago Bulls before sputtering down the stretch and losing 120-115. That was the Wolves’ fourth straight loss, which sent them tumbling to the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.

The good news is that the Wolves are nowhere near falling out of the postseason conversation. They’re still 7.5 games ahead of the 11th-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, and the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors just lost star forward Jimmy Butler for the season. Even if the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers eventually jump the Wolves, they’re unlikely to drop lower than ninth in the West at worst.

The bad news is that the Wolves have the NBA’s fourth-highest payroll and are fresh off back-to-back appearances in the Western Conference Finals. They’re roughly $3.6 million below the second apron, so they do still have the ability to aggregate two smaller contracts in a trade for a bigger salary, but they can’t take back more salary than they send out in any deal since they’re well over the first apron.

The Wolves aren’t likely to overreact to a pair of bad losses, particularly since the two before it came on a back-to-back against the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. They’ve already beaten the Spurs twice this season, including a furious fourth-quarter rally in mid-January, and they’re 1-1 against the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

However, these recent losses have exposed a few key cracks in the Timberwolves’ foundation. With OKC, Houston, San Antonio and the Denver Nuggets all battling for top-four seeds in the West, the Wolves are facing an uphill battle to go on another deep playoff run, which could raise some bigger-picture questions for them moving forward.

What Do The Wolves Need?

The Wolves can rest easy in knowing they’ve already pulled off the hardest part of assembling a championship contender: getting a bona fide superstar in place. Anthony Edwards is averaging a career-high 29.6 points on 49.6% shooting (including 40.6% percent from deep) to go with 5.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 3.5 made threes, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game this season. Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić is the only other player in the NBA who’s currently putting up similar numbers.

Jaden McDaniels, who’s been a three-and-D wing for most of his NBA career, has also taken a notable offensive leap this season. He still isn’t a high-volume scorer, but he’s averaging a career-high 15.1 points per game while shooting 51.6% overall. He’s also still playing the type of impactful defense that he’s become known for in recent years.

The rest of the Wolves’ starting five is playing well, too. Julius Randle is averaging a well-rounded 22.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. Donte DiVincenzo is putting up a career-high 4.3 assists per game to go with 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.0 threes. And Rudy Gobert remains one of the league’s most stifling rim protectors.

That group has played 900 possessions together this season and has a net rating of plus-8.9, which ranks in the 70th percentile leaguewide among all lineups. The problems start to arise once the Wolves turn to their bench.

Naz Reid, whom the Wolves signed to a five-year, $125 million contract this past offseason, is scoring a career-high 14.6 points per game. However, they aren’t getting consistent contributions from anyone else. They’re 22nd leaguewide with only 33.0 points per game out of their reserves, and that includes Reid.

The Wolves traded their fully unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round swap (top-one protected) on the night of the 2024 NBA draft to the San Antonio Spurs for the No. 8 overall pick, which they used to select Rob Dillingham. The Kentucky product is averaging only 3.6 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 9.8 minutes per game this season. Suffice it to say, the Spurs look like they got the far better end of that deal at the moment.

Minnesota swung that deal for Dillingham as a creative way to get around the team-building restrictions of the aprons. That left the Wolves without any tradable first-round picks moving forward, though. They already owe their 2027 first-rounder to the Utah Jazz or Phoenix Suns and their 2029 pick to either Utah or the Charlotte Hornets. They also owe a swap in 2026, although they can still offer first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030.

Joan Beringer, their first-round pick from this past year’s draft, has shown promising flashes as a rookie at times, but he’s playing sparingly. Terrence Shannon Jr., who had a standout two-year college career at Illinois, hasn’t made that same type of impact in the NBA. And backup point guard Mike Conley turned 38 in mid-October and appears to have reached the end of his useful NBA life cycle.

Ideally, the Wolves would bolster their bench with another scorer between now and the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline. The question is how.

What Moves Should The Wolves Consider?

Edwards ($45.6 million) is presumably off-limits for anything short of a Dončić-esque blockbuster. If the Wolves aren’t open to moving any of Gobert ($35.0 million), Randle ($30.9 million) or McDaniels ($24.4 million), all of whom are under contract through at least 2026-27, that could limit their chances of adding another major impact piece.

Reid ($21.6 million) and DiVincenzo ($12.0 million) give the Wolves a few mid-sized contracts to play with, provided that they’re willing to dangle either player. Otherwise, Conley ($10.8 million) and Dillingham ($6.6 million) figure to be the two contracts they’re open to ditching if only to trim their hefty luxury-tax bill.

In December, longtime NBA insider Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that the Wolves had “checked in” on Chicago Bulls guard Coby Williams and “conducted some diligence” on Charlotte Hornets guard Collin Sexton, both of whom could fill a major need for them. According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Minnesota also “inquired” about fellow Bulls guards Ayo Dosunmu and Tre Jones.

Of that quartet, Dosunmu would be the easiest to acquire from a salary perspective, while Jones is a close second. Dosunmu is on a $7.5 million expiring contract, while Jones is earning $8.0 million this season, $8.0 million next year and has a $8.0 million team option in his contract for 2027-28. White is on a $12.9 million expiring deal, while Sexton is on a nearly $19.0 million expiring.

If the Bulls don’t move all three of those guards and opt to buy one out after the trade deadline instead, the Wolves would be allowed to sign any of them off the buyout market since all three are earning less than the $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception. However, if Charlotte buys out Sexton, the Wolves would need to figure out how to dip below the first apron—which would require them to shed roughly $8.3 million in salary—since teams above the first apron can’t sign bought-out players who were previously earning more than the NTMLE.

The Wolves might be thinking even bigger, though. In early January, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported they have “actively explored the trade market across the league in search of a potential starting point guard upgrade.” The Atlanta Hawks already traded Trae Young to the Washington Wizards, but would the Timberwolves consider buying relatively low on Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant ($39.4 million) or LaMelo Ball ($38.0 million)? Even if they were interested, they’d have to include at least one of Gobert, Randle, McDaniels or Reid for salary-matching purposes.

Even if the Timberwolves pull themselves out of their recent swoon, the odds are against them earning a third straight trip to the Western Conference Finals. That could make them consider a larger-scale shakeup in the next two weeks.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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