While the rest of the league was buzzing, the Minnesota Timberwolves stayed quiet at the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline. Here’s why that was the wrong move.
Sometimes not making a move is the right move. That wasn’t the case with the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ decision to stay quiet at the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline.
The Wolves have been up and down all season long. Sometimes they look like a team that could challenge the NBA’s elite, and sometimes they look like a team that should be vying for a chance at a top pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Sure, injuries to key players like Jeff Teague, Robert Covington and Derrick Rose have played a part in their struggles as a unit, but that shouldn’t have been an excuse to stay dormant at the trade deadline. Even when those guys return to form, this is still a flawed team with a minuscule chance of making the playoffs. The Wolves need help, and the deadline would’ve been a great place to find that help.
After a frustrating loss to the Orlando Magic, the Wolves currently sit at 25-29, which puts them four games behind the Los Angeles Clippers for the last spot in the Western Conference playoff standings.
The Clippers were sellers at the trade deadline, trading away their best player — Tobias Harris — for a nice haul of assets. They essentially decided it was better for them to focus on the future rather than keep winning games and subsequently get blown out in the first round. Kudos to them; it was a smart decision. This now means the Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves are all fighting for the final playoff spot in the West.
On paper, the Lakers seem like a shoo-in for that final spot. Anytime LeBron James is on your team, it’s hard to imagine being on the outside looking in when the playoffs start. However, a LeBron injury and chaotic trade rumors have put the Lakers in a less-than-favorable position.
The Kings, unlike the Lakers, have exceeded everyone’s expectations this year. De’Aaron Fox has been phenomenal, Buddy Hield is a legitimate scorer and Marvin Bagley III has given them a nice spark off the bench. They all seem to really enjoy playing together, which is an undervalued characteristic of a team trying to find success.
The Wolves have been a massive disappointment this season. The whole Jimmy Butler fiasco didn’t help, but now that they’ve moved on from that situation and received two nice rotation players in the process, the Wolves should be a team capable of getting into that final playoff spot.
They’re just missing someone.
The Wolves are 11th in the Western Conference in 3-point makes per game, which is far off from where they need to be. They have one of the NBA’s best stretch-5 players in Karl-Anthony Towns, which should space the floor enough for the rest of the team to knock down 3s. All they needed to do was add one more shooter to their lineup and they would’ve looked like a playoff team.
Okay, fine, the Wolves are more than one shooter away from being a playoff team. But hey, it would’ve moved the needle in the right direction.
A guy like Nikola Mirotic would’ve been an ideal fit.
Taj Gibson is a nice guy to have on the roster, but he doesn’t fit today’s NBA style well enough to be the primary power forward on a playoff team. He rebounds and he defends, but that’s about it. The Wolves need more.
Dario Saric gives the Wolves a poor man’s Mirotic, but why not get the upgraded version? Mirotic was available at the trade deadline, and the Pelicans weren’t asking for very much in return.
Even if the Wolves couldn’t land Mirotic (or didn’t want to for some reason), there were other shooters on the market. Wayne Ellington, for example, would’ve been a phenomenal addition for the Wolves, especially with injuries to their primary backcourt players.
Ultimately, Minnesota didn’t make any bad moves at the trade deadline, but not making a move at all wasn’t the right call either.
Basketball fans in Minneapolis experienced playoff hoops last year for the first time since the 2003-04 season, and the expectations in the Twin Cities haven’t gone down at all. They have a franchise player, an up-and-coming head coach and a solid supporting cast. Missing out on the playoffs would be a massive disappointment.
This is a team that should be in the playoffs, and not making a move at the trade deadline only decreased their chances of sneaking in.