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The Minnesota Timberwolves 2021-22 season was extremely encouraging. They finally seem to have a young core, led by Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, that is capable of leading the team to the postseason success. It was quite a turnaround after the many seasons of struggles the team has faced.
The future looked bright for the Timberwolves, and for good reason. Unfortunately, they made a big move this offseason that has thrown their future completely out of wack. While the current team should be improved, it cost Minnesota an unruly amount of picks and players to get done.
It's no surprise that this move is the worst move of the Timberwolves offseason considering it is easily the worst move of any team so far in the 2022 NBA offseason. Heck, it may even go down as one of the worst trades of all time, though it may be a bit premature to make such a claim. You probably all know which deal I'm am discussing by now, so let's get into the specifics as to why it is such a terrible move.
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Minnesota Timberwolves worst offseason move: trading for Rudy Gobert
It's not that Minnesota acquiring Rudy Gobert is a bad move. He admittedly isn't the most natural fit alongside Towns, although this does allow Towns to move to power forward and take on less responsibility on defense. It's that the Timberwolves gave up a ton of picks and players to land Gobert.
The only thing Minnesota got out of this deal was Gobert. In return they sent the Jazz a package that starts with five first round picks (2023, 2025, 2027, 2029, and Minnesota's 2022 first round pick, Walker Kessler), three of which are unprotected. The Jazz also have the option to swap picks with the Timberwolves in 2026. If things go downhill for Timberwolves fast, and there's a decent chance that happens, the Jazz will be set for the rest of the decade.
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Not only did Utah manage to come away with that insane haul of draft picks, but they also landed four players in the deal too. The Timberwolves sent over Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, and Jarred Vanderbilt as part of the deal as well. For those who weren't aware, Beasley, Beverley, and Vanderbilt were all key pieces of Minnesota's rotation last season, while Bolmaro was a first round draft pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
It was an almsot unbelievable return for Gobert, who admittedly remains one of the best defensive players in the league. He's a dominant paint threat on both ends of the floor, and Minnesota is better with him on their squad heading into the 2022-23 season. But to give up this much for Gobert is ludicrous.
As a result of this deal, the Timberwolves have virtually no bench to speak of. Their starting lineup of D'Angelo Russell, Edwards, Kyle Anderson, Towns, and Gobert is good, but they aren't going to be able to play the entire game. Losing Beasley, who had his role scaled back significantly last season, will probably hurt the most. But even then, Beverley was a defensive pest off the bench, and Vanderbilt was a young prospect who appeared to finally be coming into his own.
The draft picks on their own are enough to make this deal look absurd, as Minnesota has virtually no method of bringing in young talent now. Drafting and developing players is the key to winning in the NBA, but the Timberwolves, for whatever reason, have invested heavily in a starting five that is probably not among the five best starting lineups in the Western Conference, let alone the entire NBA.
It would be one thing acquiring Gobert was the final move Minnesota had to make in their pursuit of a championship roster, but it wasn't. The Timberwolves had a ton of work to do before making this move, and they have even more work to do as a result of the deal. The improvement on the current roster feels minimal at best, and they just emptied out their chest of draft picks to pull it off.
It's tough to understand why the Timberwolves would even want to make this deal. But nonetheless, it's been made, and only time will tell how big of a success or a failure this deal will be. As of right now, I don't see anyway this deal doesn't end up as a catastrophic failure within the next five years; Minnesota simply gave up too much to get Gobert. And while Gobert is a good player, he's not worth the haul the Timberwolves gave up to get him, making this a clear cut choice for their worst move of the offseason.
