NBA Trade Rumors: Chase Budinger On The Move?

Apr 4, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love (left) celebrates with forward Chase Budinger (right) after Love made a three point basket against the Miami Heat during the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Minnesota Timberwolves won in 2 overtimes 122-121. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 4, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love (left) celebrates with forward Chase Budinger (right) after Love made a three point basket against the Miami Heat during the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Minnesota Timberwolves won in 2 overtimes 122-121. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The latest NBA Trade Rumors have Chase Budinger on the market

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports provided us with the latest NBA trade rumors pertaining to Chase Budinger, the small forward currently of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 26-year-old sharpshooter has fallen out of favor and with the litany of forwards on the Wolves roster, it makes sense that they’d be shopping him.

According to Wojnarowski, the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets are two of the main teams interested in Budinger’s services. The Pistons are worried about Jodie Meeks and his back injury which will keep him out a minimum of two months and the Rockets — who are already familiar with Chase — would love to bolster their 3-point attack to provide more space for Dwight Howard to maneuver.

Take a look at Budinger’s career averages:

SeasonAgeTmGMPFG%3P%2P%FT%TRBASTSTLBLKTOVPFPTS
2009-1021HOU7420.1.441.369.497.7703.01.20.50.10.61.18.9
2010-1122HOU7822.3.425.325.497.8553.61.60.50.20.91.59.8
2011-1223HOU5822.4.442.402.476.7713.71.30.50.10.91.19.6
2012-1324MIN2322.1.414.321.482.7623.11.10.60.31.01.39.4
2013-1425MIN4118.3.394.350.433.8212.50.80.50.00.61.46.7
Career27421.1.428.357.484.8063.31.30.50.20.81.39.0
3 seasonsHOU21021.5.435.363.492.8103.41.40.50.20.81.39.4
2 seasonsMIN6419.7.402.338.455.7902.70.90.50.10.71.47.7

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/17/2014.

Budinger’s production fell off severely after joining the Wolves in 2012-13, largely due to injury. Once he made his return, he still wasn’t the player he once was and couldn’t find consistent minutes in the then-Rick Adelman offense.  Now that he’s been given a clean bill of health, he could contribute to a contender as a shooter off the bench.

The Wolves have  Corey Brewer, Shabazz Muhammad and potentially Andrew Wiggins ahead of Budinger in their rotation and still have to trim their roster to 15 players. Ideally, they could find a taker for Budinger — perhaps a second-rounder would do — so that they could not only trim the roster, but clear the logjam and build their cache of draft picks.