As the draft approaches, Timberwolves fans are rubbing their hands together in eager anticipation that this wheeling-and-dealing front office will find a way to maneuver and leverage their position atop the draft to acquire another star player.
Visions of Ben Simmons, Devin Booker or Jrue Holiday are dancing in their heads. Pulling off a deal of that magnitude could only be classified as a long shot at this point, but as amateur GMs feverishly play the “who says no” game with the ESPN trade machine, a look back to February likely provides the best glimpse into how the Timberwolves’ own trade machine operates.
Like every team in the league, Gersson Rosas and the Timberwolves have been monitoring the situations surrounding Simmons, Booker and Holiday, who has been made available in trade talks, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The New Orleans Pelicans are openly discussing star Jrue Holiday in trade talks and several contending teams are pursuing, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 4, 2020
The Wolves know the roster still needs significant upgrading to get a team that finished with the third-worst record in the league to vault into the playoff conversation in the insanely competitive Western Conference. In just one season on the job, they have already forged a reputation for being an aggressive, creative group that isn’t afraid of the kind of multi-team trade concepts that can be so difficult to complete. There have been a few bread crumbs dropped onto the trade trail over the last few weeks that could aid the Timberwolves’ efforts to pull off some kind of deal by draft night on Nov. 18, but it is important to understand first what the structure of any potential deal would look like.
If you’re talking about a deal for a higher-end player, be it Simmons, Booker or someone else, it could mean having to wrangle three or four teams into a transaction, much like they did on Feb. 4.
The trade deadline was three days away when the ground started to shake beneath the Timberwolves’ feet. Rosas had determined that the roster he inherited was going nowhere, so he started to execute a series of deals to wipe the slate clean.
Before the blockbuster that brought D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota on Feb. 6, Rosas was in pursuit of more perimeter shooting for a team that had precious little of it. A team in the Wolves’ position needed to look for wins on the margins, players who needed a bigger role with a new team. He identified Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez in talent-rich Denver, two players headed for restricted free agency that the Nuggets were unlikely to keep around.
Advertisement
The Wolves were able to execute a byzantine, four-team trade with Denver, Houston and Atlanta that got Rosas what he was looking for plus a little bit more. When the news first broke, it was advertised as a four-team trade with Robert Covington going to the Rockets, Clint Capela going to Atlanta and Beasley, Hernangomez, Evan Turner and a pick going to the Wolves.
But that was just the start. In the hectic early moments of the trade becoming public, all of the players and picks involved were not immediately clear. Then it got nutty.
Noah Vonleh also headed to Denver, per sources. This is wild.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) February 5, 2020
Players going everywhere https://t.co/JsnSPActQa
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) February 5, 2020
Shabazz Napier and Keita Bates-Diop ended up getting added to the deal, both heading to Denver. Jarred Vanderbilt was thrown into the mix as well, coming to Minnesota from Denver.
It was the kind of trade that melts brains and crashes servers. Given the Wolves’ salary cap sheet, their assets available to deal, and a host of other measures, they would have to follow a similar path if they want to get their hands on another star like Ben Simmons.
The 76ers have long maintained that Simmons remains a big part of the team’s future. They want to see what new coach Doc Rivers can do from a schematic standpoint to find more synergy between Simmons and Joel Embiid. The arrival of president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, who worked with Rosas in Houston for years before Rosas left for Minnesota last year, makes the conversation at least worth exploring.
Morey’s initial comments at his introductory press conference on Monday give at least a glimpse into what the Sixers are thinking with a new chief decision-maker.
When Morey left the Rockets and quickly joined Philadelphia, there was immediate speculation about Simmons’ fate. He is an All-NBA player and one of the league’s premier defenders, a 24-year-old that has not even started a five-year max contract. But he famously does not shoot 3-pointers and prefers to play in transition as opposed to the halfcourt, which has made for an uneasy pairing with the big man Embiid.
Advertisement
Morey said all the right things in his introductory press conference in Philadelphia on Monday, saying that his revolutionary approach to basketball in Houston, building a team around 3s and layups, was based on the personnel on the roster and the ability to compete against the teams in the West more than an overall philosophy. To drive home his point, he said that if he had Shaquille O’Neal in his prime years, the Rockets would have unquestionably operated through the post.
Morey sounds like he agrees with Rivers that Philadelphia has to see if there are changes they can make in scheme and personnel, in addition to the coaching changes that have already been implemented, before they break up a tandem of two of the top 20 players in the league.
“I’m excited to go on this journey with Joel and Ben moving forward,” Morey said.
Of course Morey is going to say that, right? No new GM is going to put one of the team’s two stars on the trade block publicly in his first comments as the new head of the front office. And there is every reason to believe that Morey wants to explore if he can use one of his strengths — finding role players to surround his stars — to build a team that better complements Simmons and Embiid.
“The chance to work with Joel and Ben and the roster (general manager) Elton (Brand) has put together, this is a roster that has championship aspirations and can win the championship,” Morey said. “You can’t ask for anything more.”
So case closed, right? Maybe for right now. But maybe the Sixers go into the season and find that the chemistry issues that were evident under Brett Brown carried over to the system Rivers deploys and they decide that something has to give. Add to it Charania’s reporting that Morey plans to inquire about James Harden’s availability, and it is clear that nothing is set in stone.
Jrue Holiday reportedly wants out of New Orleans. The Suns’ Devin Booker has been rumored a Wolves target before. Like Simmons, neither would come cheap. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
While Philly appears to be set on keeping Simmons for the immediate future, the other problem the Wolves would face if he were to become available is that other teams with more and better assets to offer could get in to outbid them. A young, All-NBA player as versatile as Simmons, who also happens to be just starting a five-year deal, is a unicorn. He has had some health issues to deal with, but there is no question that he would be highly coveted.
Advertisement
The Wolves would likely have to give up massive draft capital, including the No. 1 pick this season and multiple unprotected picks in the future just to get a seat at the table because outside of Karl-Anthony Towns and Russell, they do not have the young studs along the lines of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, sent from the Clippers to Oklahoma City to get Paul George, or Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, who went from the Lakers to New Orleans to help land Anthony Davis.
On top of it all, the Wolves would have three max contracts, paying the luxury tax and having to surround their three stars with role players on league-minimum deals. The Rajon Rondos of the world will sign a deal like that to play with LeBron James in L.A. or Tim Duncan in San Antonio. The Timberwolves have almost never been able to recruit free agents to come to frigid Minnesota when they tried to overpay, so it is hard to see them having success trying to underpay. Would Towns, Simmons and Russell be enough to change their minds?
Maybe it’s all a moot point.
“I’m not looking to trade Ben or Joel,” Brand said earlier in the offseason before Morey was hired above him. “I’m looking to complement them better. They are 24 and 26 years old, respectively. You try to make that fit as long as you can. They want to be here, they want to be with our organization, and I see them here for a long, long time.”
Wolves fans also got their hopes up after listening to Bill Simmons’ podcast with Ryen Russillo this week. Both are plugged into NBA circles, and Russillo said “it’s the worst-kept secret in the NBA” that Booker wants out of Phoenix. Given that Towns, Booker and Russell are close friends, that would seem to put the Wolves near the top of the list of possible suitors.
The Wolves have been looking into Booker’s potential availability for months but have been given no indication that he is available, league sources said. The Suns were one of the best stories of the Orlando bubble, going 8-0 as Booker emerged as a dynamic playmaker and scorer. There is a belief that Phoenix wants to see if the magic they discovered in Orlando can carry over to the start of this season, and it appears that they won’t have to wait much longer to find out if the union approves a plan to begin the season on Dec. 22.
As for Holiday, he would be a perfect fit for the Wolves. A defensive-minded guard who can shoot it from the perimeter and provide great leadership for the youngest roster in the NBA. But Holiday is 30 years old and likely would be more interested in joining a team that is ready to contend right now. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but it seems unlikely at this point.
Advertisement
If Rosas, executive vice president Sachin Gupta and assistant GM Manny Rohan can’t concoct the same kind of elaborate, multi-pronged deal structure that landed them Beasley, Hernangomez and Vanderbilt from Denver, there may be an appetite for making a cleaner, one-team trade. Maybe that is Charlotte jumping up from No. 3 and throwing in a player or future pick to sweeten the pot for the Wolves to get a chance to select Memphis big man James Wiseman.
As you sit at home and ponder the possibilities, the likelihood is the Wolves are doing the exact same thing. There may not be a clear and obvious plan out there to land any big stars on the radar this summer. The odds would seem to be on the Wolves keeping No. 1 and making a selection. There are players they like at No. 1, and trades can be exceedingly difficult to pull off.
But that didn’t stop the Wolves from pursuing Russell after losing him in free agency and being told by the Warriors earlier in the process that they weren’t interested in making the deal, and that won’t stop them now.
— Rich Hofmann in Philadelphia contributed to this report
(Top photo: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)