The gears for a huge trade proposal are seemingly set in motion today by the L.A. Clippers, who have sent the Minnesota Timberwolves a ground shaking proposal involving Blake Griffin and Karl-Anthony Towns, per Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders.
Sources: The Los Angeles Clippers proposed a blockbuster deal to the Minnesota Timberwolves involving forward Blake Griffin and center Karl-Anthony Towns. Full story coming on @BBallInsiders.
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) January 13, 2018
Before things get even more interesting, however, Scotto made it clear that Minnesota immediately dashed the Clippers’ hopes of discarding Blake Griffin for Karl-Anthony Towns by rejecting the latter team’s offer.
The trade proposal didn’t advance past an exploratory call from the Clippers as Minnesota declined, league sources told Basketball Insiders. Minnesota views Towns, the former No. 1 overall pick of the 2015 draft, as a franchise-caliber player and a vital piece of the future who is not for sale at this time.
Apart from Minnesota’s unwillingness to give Towns away, the biggest obstacle for this trade to push through is the salary imbalance between the two assets. Griffin’s take-home pay for this season is worth $29.5 million, while Towns is only making $6.2 million. On paper, it makes little sense for Minnesota to ship a younger player with higher upside in exchange for someone who comes with an albatross contract that stretches until 2022, but the Clippers might just have tried to shoot their shot by audaciously putting that kind of offer on the table.
Although many thought of the Clippers prior to the season and after numerous injuries to their key players as among the teams likely to hit the reset button, they have remained relatively competitive. The Clippers are sitting just a game outside of the playoff picture in the Western Conference. If the Clippers are still looking to deal Griffin away, they will have to look for a trade partner somewhere else.
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