The Minnesota Timberwolves have an exciting young core starring Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards that showed promise at the end of the season, but they still finished just 23-49 and also lost their draft pick to the Golden State Warriors because of the Russell trade. The Timberwolves have been bad since trading Jimmy Butler and are ready to make moves to rise up the standings.
Timberwolves president Gersson Rosas said as much Tuesday during a radio appearance. He admitted plans to be active on the trade market and even said he has been involved in plenty of conversations already:
Gersson Rosas on @KFAN1003 this morning discussing Timberwolves offseason plans:
"For us, trades are going to be the primary route for us to upgrade our roster, along with development, and that dips into free agency as well with sign and trades."
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) July 6, 2021
Gersson Rosas said on @KFAN1003 today that he is having a lot of trade conversations now and hopes to move to some action toward the end of the month.
"We’re having a lot of conversations now. We’ve identified our needs, we’ve identified our options."
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) July 6, 2021
The Timberwolves are rumored to be a team with interest in Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons. It's unclear if the two teams have had legitimate conversations about a trade, but there's clearly some smoke there. One would think Minnesota would have to give up one of the core youngsters (not KAT) in order to get Simmons, even after his dismal postseason. His playmaking and defense would be extremely useful on a team that first needs to get much better in the regular season before thinking about playoff success.
There are certainly plenty of other moves out there Rosas could make. While the Timberwolves lost their first-round pick and don't have a single pick right now in the 2021 NBA Draft, Rosas hinted they could trade back in. Players like Malik Beasley and Ricky Rubio are intriguing trade chips, though Beasley is currently serving a 120-day jail sentence and Rosas said Minnesota values Rubio “a ton.”
It sure looks like the Timberwolves are going to be active over the next month as the offseason action really picks up. We'll see what Gersson Rosas has up his sleeves as he tries to get his team in the postseason mix. Minnesota needs to make improvements soon, otherwise Towns could start getting a wandering eye.
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