The Minnesota Timberwolves once explored the possibility of trading for big man Domantas Sabonis, a name that has once again been put on the table by the Indiana Pacers after refusing to sign a contract extension last week.
According to Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500, the Wolves talked to Indy about their young forward's services in June, and there's a slight possibility of talks happening again with the Pacers looking for teams interested in taking him.
Minnesota already cut down its roster to 15 players and is pretty loaded in the frontcourt with Robert Covington bound to start next to Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. Gorgui Dieng, Noah Vonleh, and Jordan Bell are all up for minutes at power forward and center and trading for a name such as Sabonis would mean dislocating a rotation that already has Covington covering up for some of Wiggins' defensive miscues.
Head coach Ryan Saunders is hoping a healthy year for RoCo also means instilling some of that defensive mentality into the likes of Wiggins and Towns, which would allow his team to take the next step.
Sabonis' trade value is as good as it's ever been, coming off his third season in the league averaging a strong 14.1 points on 59% shooting and 9.3 rebounds per game, while offering little contributions on defense. Moving Sabonis would push T.J. Warren to the four-spot and give the Pacers a very different look, with all five starters now capable of sniping away from the outside, but losing a strong rebounder responsible for 2.5 offensive boards a night.
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