Timberwolves: How they could win a Ben Simmons for Damian Lillard trade

How this trade would help the Blazers, Sixers and Timberwolves

Sending Jarrett Culver, Josh Okogie, and Jake Layman away opens up a little room at the three for Minnesota. With an anticipated starting lineup of Ricky Rubio, Malik Beasley, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and Karl-Anthony Towns, bringing Curry in allows Minnesota the flexibility to give Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaylen Nowell the time to develop at the three spot.

It also means Minnesota isn’t clogged at that position for when Leandro Bolmaro joins the team. Philadelphia, for their part, gets a superstar point guard in their attempt to win a championship, and the Trail Blazers not only receive an All-Star guard in Simmons, but a couple of assets they could use to help in a minor rebuild.

The only hurdle is whether Portland is ready to trade Lillard at all. They have to acknowledge that they won’t receive a superstar in return for him, not because he’s not worth it but because there are only like 10 of those guys in the league including Lillard and none of them seem too unhappy at the moment, so is a package centered around reducing a potential rebuild enough to entice Portland to separate with Lillard so soon? Only time can tell.

At first glance, it doesn’t look like Minnesota wins this trade. And honestly, there’s almost no chance they’ll be the biggest winner of the trade, that’s almost sure to be Philadelphia. However, with the ability to build through future drafts, negotiate with role player guys who can still make an impact this year in free agency, and, most importantly, allow the young players space to develop to their full potential, it might just be worth it for Minnesota to see if they can negotiate a mega-deal, and come away a secret victor in it all.