The Minnesota Timberwolves are trading longtime center Gorgui Dieng to the Memphis Grizzlies, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
In exchange for the seven-year veteran, the Grizzlies are sending recently acquired forward James Johnson, and it appears Minnesota will be a third team in the Grizzlies' deal with the Miami Heat for Andre Iguodala, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Dieng, 30, was selected in the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz and traded to the Timberwolves on draft night in the Trey Burke deal. In his seven-year tenure with the Twin Cities franchise, the Senegal native went from stable presence in the paint to backing up former first overall pick and Rookie of the Year center Karl-Anthony Towns.
The Grizzlies and Heat initially agreed on a six-player deal centered around veteran wing Andre Iguodala, ex-Golden State Warriors small forward and Finals MVP from the 2015 championship. Iguodala was dealt to Memphis in the past offseason and sat out the entire season as he awaited a trade, which stirred the pot with young players like this season's Rookie of the Year front-runner Ja Morant. Johnson, Dion Waiters, Justise Winslow, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill were the other players involved in that initial deal.
With the Timberwolves involved in the Grizzlies-Heat trade, they're making room to compete with Towns at center and recently acquired All-Star guard D'Angelo Russell, for whom they just acquired, sending longtime wing Andrew Wiggins to Golden State.
It'll certainly be a new era in Minnesota without Dieng, but with a familiar face in Towns and his friend and the immediate pick after him in 2015 in Russell.