Minnesota Timberwolves UNLIKELY to Make Any Meaningful Trades | Is the Roster Basically LOCKED?

Hello and welcome into another episode of Locked on Wolves. Today on the show, I’m going to tell you why the Timberwolves are pretty unlikely to make any significant trades this year. And if they do, there’s only one or maybe two types of trades they’ll go about. Why the Wolves roster is basically set for the year. It’s all coming next. You are Locked on Timberwolves, your daily Minnesota Timberwolves podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Wolves podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. My name is Ben Beacon. I’m the host of Lockdown Wolves. Happy Friday everybody. Hopefully you are uh ready for a fantastic weekend and had a great week so far. Today’s episode is brought to us by our friends at FanDuel. Right now, new customers could bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. All right. Today on the show, uh we’re going to get into the Timberwolves roster and why I believe it’s set for the year. There was an article um at Athlon Sports, which like say this up front, clearly throwing names at the wall to see if anything could possibly stick for trade targets for Minnesota. None of them make sense. I’ll explain why. And I’m going to use that as kind of a jumping off point for this topic. Why? like it would take a really specific thing, a really specific role type of player for Minnesota to actually make a trade this season. And I don’t think anything at all happens um until the trade deadline. And and like I realize it’s, you know, this is the opposite of like a hot take topic, right? I’m not going to tell you like the Wolves need to trade for X because I don’t think they need to or want to or have to or even could based on how their roster is currently constructed. And I think that’s equally as important of a topic. So, I want to lay that out today on the show and that’s what we’ll do throughout the show today. A big thank you for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen. Of course, you can listen anywhere. You can watch on YouTube. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. All right. So, um I want to start with this article and explain why these specific players don’t make sense and then I’ll get into what type of player might make sense. Okay, so this is an Athlon Sports article that listed three players that the Wolves could potentially have interest in. And honestly, there isn’t really a a reason for any of them other than like, you know, one of them’s a big man, so it’s like the Wolves could use big man depth and then the others are scoring guards and so it’s like, well, they could pivot from Dante Devenenzo. Well, the problem is is these guys aren’t better than Dante Devenenzo. So I guess that would be the obvious reason. But if you hear the like I think it’s important to to kind of set up the why behind, you know, why that none of nothing like this is going to happen, right? So the first option is listed here is Malik Monk. Now Malik Monk’s a good player. Malik Monk’s a great player actually. Um he was runner up to Nas Reed for sixman of the year a couple seasons ago. Became a starter for most of last year for a really injured and kind of influx obviously coaching change. Kings team averaged 17 a game. The problem with Malik Monk is he’s your typical inefficient high volume score. I mean, not exactly the same playing style as like some of these guys, but think about like a Monte Ellis type. Now, I’m not saying he’s better or worse than Monte Ellis. There actually are some similarities in terms of playing style. He’s much more of an actual shooting guard. Mont Ellis was more of a undersized point guard or I should say an undersized shooting guard that had to play point guard because he was so small. Um, both are bad defenders. I would argue Malik Monk is marginally better than than Monta Ellis and he’s, you know, marginally slightly bigger. Um, but he’s not a good defender. He’s also like nearly half of his shots, actually for his career, slightly more than half his shots come from outside the arc. He’s 35% for his career. He was 32 and a half% last year. He’s only had one season, uh, pardon me, two seasons, and one he only played 42 games in where he was above league average from outside the arc. So, he’s a below average three-point shooter at high volume. He’s just a high volume scorer, period. And Minnesota doesn’t need that type of a guy. They’ve already got like Dante Dvenenzo can play that role. And he’s a better catch and shoot guy than a player like Blake Monk. Like if you asked um so actually I should have I should have looked him up on the on the lockdown and be a top 100 player list. I’ll see if I can pull it up here. Um but uh I think a lot of people would just say, “Hey, Blake Bunk’s a better player than Dante Danchenzo.” But he’s not. I mean, Dante again is a better catch and shoot guy. Dante is a can actually play point guard. Um I I like I I think he is a he can play point guard. It’s not the best the the best position for Dante. Um but he he could play point guard and Malik Monk can’t doesn’t play a point guard, right? Um so like those are two reasons right there. And I would argue that even the off the dribble scoring is more efficient um when he does it. Dante doesn’t attack off the dribble as much as Malik Monk, right? That’s that’s the one area where Monk would have the advantage is he can create his own shot a little bit more, etc. But it’s not super efficient. When Dante does do that, it’s more efficient. Um and Malik Monk wasn’t in the top 100 either. So neither Malik Monk or uh Dante Devenzo were in the locked on NBA top 100 where if you missed that I did talk about it on um on every show last week. I’m scrolling through the guys who just missed the top 100 and I actually don’t see him here either. Surprises me a little bit. I would have expected him to be on the list of guys that just missed it but no he’s not. Um so okay, good job block host. We did a good job with that one. Malik Bunk I think is a little bit overrated. He is a volume scorer. There is a role for those guys. I think he’s still a rotation player and could be on a good team, but Dante fits all these other can do all these other things. He’s a better defender. He’s a better catch and shoot guy. He can create for others and he’s more efficient when he does create off the dribble. And he makes less money than Malik Monk. Lick Monk just signed another extension with the Kings. Um scoring 17 a game helps, you know, and and all that stuff. So, he’s got what, three years and and almost $60 million on this contract, which is nuts. Um Dante’s got two years and what 20some million on his. So a player like Blake Monk doesn’t make sense for Minnesota. Um the other one that’s listed here is Colin Ston. Colin Ston’s a nice player. He’s the best player on this list of guys. I like Colin Ston. I think that he’s going to be good um in Charlotte. I mean like he’s going to be uh I don’t know how long he’s going to be in Charlotte. I don’t know what that’s going to look like for him, but he’s going to be able to put up some numbers there. But at least Colin Ston is a um you know he’s not he’s not a great defender but when he’s asked to playmake he does a bit more of that. He can actually masquerade as a point guard similarly to Dante Devenenzo in that regard. He’s a lower volume three-point shooter. Only a little over a quarter of his three-point quarter of his shot attempts for his career come from outside the arc and he’s nearly 39% out there. He was almost 41% last year in Utah and had to carry a scoring load for a bad Utah team. each of the last two years um was a little bit limited in playing time due to injuries. I’m using air quotes. Uh real injuries, but also the Jazz being the Jazz. And he averaged over 18 a game over the last two years. Again, over the last two years, 40% from three. Can create a bit for others. The assist was, you know, the four to five per game range, but the assist rate is really nice for him the last two years. He’s actually a functional rotation guy and a good team. I actually really like Colin Ston. The problem is I’m still not convinced he’s better than Dante Dvenenzo, right? Like Dante Dvenenzo is a really good player. Now, Ston has one year left on his deal. Remember, he signed that extension originally in Cleveland. Uh well, actually it was a sign and trade deal. So, it was the tail end of his Cleveland years, was sent to Utah, and then ultimately now was traded over the summer to Charlotte and um just one year left on the deal, but it’s $19 million. So, I don’t know how that would even work and like like why Minnesota would would do that would acquire, you know, unless you were planning to extend him, but then whose role are you taking like obviously you could say, okay, he’s the Mike Connley successor, but he isn’t a pure point guard. You’d be taking away your only pure point guard and Mike Connley and then obviously Rob Dillingham has more of the scoring tendencies, but I think Dillingham’s still a better passer and has a higher ceiling than what Colin Ston is. And again, Colin Ston’s a rotation guy. He’d be a nice sixth man on a playoff team. Honestly, I I believe that. But Minnesota has that in Dante Devincenzo and they have the scoring bit from Nas Reed and when you look at the actual mechanics of it and we’ll get into what the Wolves have in terms of their own trade assets to or assets to potentially trade that other teams would be interested in. Um I like I don’t know I I what salaries would the Wolves send out to match that would make sense? You’re not going to trade Dante whose salary is less anyway. You’re not going to trade Jade McDaniels for him. Um, pretty much everyone else on the roster salary is too low to be part of matching in this trade. Uh, if somehow the Wolves found their way into con, you know, like say Mike Connley gets hurt and Dillingham’s woefully disappointing, you know, sure, fine. Go after Colin Ston on an expiring deal. But who are you trading again? Like all the guys that have a salary that would be matchable are guys you’re not going to trade. Ant, Rudy, Julius Randle, Jay McDaniels, Nazreed. Um, you could trade Mike Connley’s deal and another deal. Like you could probably like you could line up the Connley and Dillingham deals and make it work. But why would you trade Rob Dillingham who’s cost controlled for another couple of years, has a higher ceiling to get a guy who’s better now but has a lower ceiling and isn’t actually a point guard whereas Dillingham can play point guard is is a shooting guard in a point guard’s body but is more of a point guard than Colin Sexton in my opinion. So I like Colin Ston. He’s the best player on this list. But how does that trade even shake out if you’re the Timberwolves? What are you trading out in that deal? There’s one more player listed in this article and then we’ll get a bit more into what I just kind of alluded to or or tiptoed around, which is Wolves trade assets. Like what is there? What’s in the cabinet? What’s in the cupboard, I guess, is a better better phrase in terms of like salaries and players on the roster, but also draft picks. Like what could the Wolves even be trading in uh any of these potential deals? We’ll do all that here next. Today’s episode of Lockdown Wolves is brought to us by our friends at Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every missed call is money left on the table. Think about the last time that you had an urgent need. Maybe for a plumber or service provider, if the first person didn’t answer, did you wait? Probably not. You moved on to the next one. And that’s why you need Open Phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system built to streamline and scale your customer communications all from an app on your phone or computer. Open Phone will let you manage business calls and texts from a single app. The shared inbox feature is a gamecher. Your team can jump into any conversation instantly without missing a beat. And their AI agent handles after hours calls, answers common questions, and captures leads so you never miss a customer. Open Phone is offering my listeners 20% off your first six months at openphone.com/lockedonba. That’s openphone op.com/lockton NBA. And if you have any existing numbers with another service, open phone will port them over at no extra charge. Open phone, no missed calls, no missed customers. All right. Um, the last player listed on this on this list at Athlon Sports, so we talked about Colin Ston, we talked about um, Malik Monk. The last guy makes maybe the least amount of sense, and that’s uh, Dwap Rereath from the Portland Trailblazers. And I’m not saying that Dwap Reef is like Were excuse me, is a is not a useful rotation guy. I think he could be. I just don’t know what he actually gives a good team. Like he’s been able to put up some good advanced stats numbers. He’s been able to be a functional big, be a good re a decent enough rebounder for a bad Portland team the last couple years. And you don’t mind him as a depth piece, but he’s not a rim protector. Like his block rate, you take his block rate from the last two seasons. And he’s played 114 games. He’s also he’s an older quote unquote young player in terms of time in the league. He’s only been in the league for two years, but he’s going to be 29 this year. He’s played in 114 games. So, it’s not it’s not a nothing sample size. The block rate would be slightly I think slightly less than Jade McDaniels, slightly more than Anthony Edwards. Like, he’d be after all the bigs on the Wolves roster in block rate. Like, he’s nowhere near your Rudy’s and and what Zakarsski and Baron are going to be ultimately in terms of their block rate. It’s not a good block rate for a center. Um, he’s also not like he’s not really a scorer. He takes a ton of threes. Um, over half his shot attempts are have been threes, but he’s 35% under 35% 34.8% as a three-point shooter. So, I like I don’t really know what he’s providing you if he’s not giving you good like he’s not a great stretch big and he’s not scoring off the dribble for you and he’s not giving you freakish length, athleticism, etc. And he’s not protecting the rim and he’s just kind of solid bench depth. Like I don’t the Wolves lost that in Luca Garza and he’s a little bit of a different player than Luca Garza but I don’t know that trading for Dwap wreath is necessarily where they’re going to look like if they decide they need another big and and this is another situation where the only way Minnesota says all right let’s do this let’s trade for a backup big it’s really only if somebody gets hurt for an extended period of time and we saw last year even with Rudy Gobear missing a month and Julius Randle missing a month they just said let’s roll with it and Luca Garza didn’t even play the whole time like he he played some of the time there he had a couple of starts mixed in there and he played some heavier minutes against certain opponents, but there were nights that they were like, “All right, we’ll just play with whoever we got. It’s Rudy or it’s Randall and us and we’ll just play a little smaller today and see how this works.” Like unless it’s a multiple month injury and or you know, it’s multiple bigs that are getting hurt from the three guys I just mentioned between Randall, Nas, and Rudy. I don’t see Minnesota pulling the fire alarm and being like, “We need another backup big.” I mean, they let Luca Garza walk. So, I I don’t like obviously they’ve got Rockco Zakars, they’ve got Jean Baron, and I think Baron would get obviously ahead of Zakarsski first crack at some rotation minutes if if it were, you know, a multiple week injury or something. But I don’t think Minnesota’s like, we got to go get a veteran big or in this case an old young player, an old inexperienced player to put on our bench as a contending team because we’ve got a guy who’s dinged up for a couple of weeks. I I just don’t see him as a viable trade candidate and I don’t know what you’d even be giving up for this guy. I mean like you’re talking a player in a second pick, but but why? Like what are you really gaining there for a guy who’s on, you know, a minimum contract? And I guess that’s that’s not a bad kind of transition into talking about assets and what the Wolves could even trade. And I do want to get into draft picks, but let’s talk about the roster first. We talked about this a couple of months ago toward the beginning of the offseason. I think it’s worth a revisit is the way the Wolves roster is set up. There’s nobody that they’re going to be like there’s not a whole lot of guys with trade value that the Wolves would consider trading and both things are important. Like obviously Jade McDaniels, Nas Reed, of course Anthony Edwards, these guys all have trade value. Teams would love to trade for them 100%. No question. But the Wolves aren’t trading them. They have no appetite to trade these guys. Like and I don’t even know. I mean, the Kevin Durant thing was a possibility, and if he had been willing to extend his contract in Minnesota, the Wolves would have entertained the idea reportedly of trading Rudy Gobear. I don’t think they would have traded Jade McDaniels. They didn’t want to trade Jade McDaniels in the trade with the Jazz for Rudy Goar three plus years ago. McDaniels wasn’t going to be on the table in a Durant trade. That wouldn’t have made any sense. And Durant’s still a top 15 player. Like, you’d have to be talking a top five player for Minnesota to say, “Yeah, we’ll trade Jaden McDaniels.” Of course, Julius Randle’s a possibility. I really don’t think that’s happening this season, though. Unless things go completely arai and they’re below 500 at the deadline. If they’re below 500 at the deadline, yeah, Julius Randle could get traded. But if things go moderately according to plan and they’re a top five team in the West or something, give or take in January, like none of the starting lineup is going to be traded. Nazreed’s not going to be traded. Okay, that’s your top six. Those guys are not going anywhere. Now you start to get into guys who have valuable contracts and actually you could throw Nas in there too. Um Dante Danchenza is only getting paid $12 million this year and he’s under contract for 12.5 million next year. How are the Wolves going to find a player that provides more value and fits what Dante does or even doesn’t like say it’s for another big or whatever a backup a true backup point guard. Well now you still got to fill the Dante role of a catch and shoot guy off the bench who’s a solid defender can play both guard spots. You’re not going to find that for 12 million. So the value is so great. The only way Dante gets moved is and apparently Phoenix was interested in Dante as well. And like you know, but you would have had to trade Rudy to match the contract. So why would you trade Rudy and Dante Dvenenzo? Like that would have never happened. Minnesota’s not including Dante Dvenenzo in a trade unless it’s part of a gigantic deal where they’re getting, you know, a top five player back and those guys aren’t available. Like nobody’s trading those players. As I say that, Luca Donuch was traded last year, but reportedly the Lakers also reached out to Minnesota. This report was out there a couple different places post Donic trade that they said, “Hey, we’ll trade you Luca if you give us Ant.” And Minnesota was like, “No, why would we do that?” Like, Luca might be a top three player, but Ant’s a top five player and he’s um younger, earlier in his contract. We don’t have the same uh concerns about his conditioning that you clearly do about Luca, right? Like, why would the Wolves ever trade Ant for Luca Donic? That doesn’t make sense. I realize now I’m this is venturing into like Bill Simmons trade value column podcast territory and and you know the premise there is like if team A calls up team B and says we’ll trade our superstar for yours who who hangs up the phone right that’s essentially the premise the Wolves did hang up the phone and the idea of Ant for Luca right now Luca ultimately was traded and I think most people would argue in a vacuum he’s still a better player than Anthony Edwards but would you rather have Ant or Luca over the next five I’m taking Ant 10 times out of 10. There’s no question about that. So anyway, that’s your like top seven on the roster. And now you get into guys that theoretically could be traded, but is there value? Like would teams trade for Rob Dillingham. He’s owed six and a half million this year has two more team options. You know, one the Wolves will have to pick up here in the next month or so that are in the seven to eight plus million dollar range. I think he still has trade value and I think teams would trade for him. He’s a possibility to be traded. John Baron was just drafted. He’s essentially a bargain at $4 million over the next three years and then a team option for that fourth year at seven a little over seven million uh projected like I don’t think Bar the Wolves don’t have an appetite to trade Jean Baring. Nobody’s trading for Joe Engles. Um and that leaves what three guys on standard contracts. So TJ Shannon, Leonard Miller, and Jaylen Clark who I think all could at least be in the conversation as guys that could be moved. I’ll explain what I mean by that and we’ll talk about draft picks and uh if the Wolves trade somebody who could you know whose name could be on that list. We’ll do all that here next to close out the show. Today’s episode of Lockdown Wolves is brought to us by our title sponsors at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and underway. We are week three started actually last night and FanDuel is making sure that you are ready for kickoff every week with a camp miss offer. Right now, new customers could bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Uh the Bills ultimately did cover against Miami on Thursday night. I believe that line settled in the eight uh eight eight and a half range and they won by 10. Um some good ones this weekend as well, obviously, as there always are on the NFL slate. Some interesting ones. Um the Vikings line is weird because both teams are going to be playing their backup quarterbacks. I’m pulling it up right now. And uh let’s see. Vikings are an early game on Sunday. They are three-point favorites at home against the Bengals. Carson Wentz starting for the Vikings. Jake Browning starting for the Bengals. Uh I kind of think you take the Vikings and you know, you lay the points there. I think Minnesota minus three is not a bad bet. Um the other one that you know, Packers are favored by seven and a half at the Browns. I think the Packers probably cover that one too. I’m just taking favorites apparently. There’s a lot of fun stuff there. If you like to play same game parlays, uh you could do that as well. you know, kind of double down as you’re going or or just kind of feel things out during the game. The app is quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to your Sundays. If you’re ready to play it, download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com. Download the app today. All right. So, we’ve identified so far, we’ve gone through like 12 guys on the roster and the only one we’ve talked about so far that could have trade value is Rob Dillingham and I don’t think the Wolves are likely to trade him because uh we’re one year into this thing and Dillingham has a ton of upside. We saw how good things looked in the summer league and at times last year. So, I I don’t think Dillingham’s going anywhere. Certainly not before the trade deadline. That leaves the three guys we I’m not talking about Bones Highland like he’s not nobody’s trading for Bones Highland. He did, however, it’s notable, he waved his no trade clause that was uh implicitly included in his vet minimum deal that he signed. And he did wave it when he signed, meaning the Wolves could trade him if they needed another body as a throwin match salaries. Uh if a team that they’re trading with needs another guy to hit the roster minimum, like he could be traded, okay, nobody’s asking to trade for Bones Highland. Same thing with Joe Engles. We talked about him. That leaves TJ Shannon, Jaylen Clark, and Leonard Miller. I think all three of those guys have trade value at their contracts. I don’t think Letter Miller has a lot because uh what has he shown to this point? He’s still got two more years on his deal. 2.2 million this year and then a team option for 2.4 million next year. And at least according to Spotrak, his that option is not to be picked up till June because he was not a first round pick, right? It’s a it’s a different structure to that contract than like Dillingham and Shannon’s. Their options for next year have to be picked up by Halloween this year as first round draft picks. Leonard Miller, his deal for 2627 becomes guaranteed at the end of June next year. So, he’s on the team this year. No decision needs to be made till June. I think he could have some value from for a team. If like a team said, “Hey, we’re interested in Leonard Miller. We’ll give you a second round pick and a and a you know, somebody at the end of our roster for him like M.” That’s a trade Minnesota could do. You’re just not going to get much for him. I think there’s still upside there. At this point, the Wolves have had him in their program for two full years plus and and you know what do they believe is ultimately going to come out of Leonard Miller. What has he has he shown real growth in the G-League? I don’t know. I’m still intrigued by him. I just you can’t trust him with rotation minutes and he’s not going to get rotation minutes on this Wolves team barring something crazy happening. You know, one of those longer term big man injuries. He’s obviously a woefully undersized big, but he could play point power forward if if god forbid Nas Reed gets hurt or something like that for an extended period of time. you might give Leonard Miller a look because there is some upside there. And what could this turn into if he if he’s, you know, focused and does a good job out there defensively especially. So, there could be a little bit of value there, but nobody’s trying to trade for Leonard Miller and his contract is only 2.2 million. So, you can’t trade him for anything of value even if you wanted to other than a player and a pick. Jaylen Clark, I’d put in a similar category. I bet he’s got more trade value because he’s got one clear NBA level skill and that’s his ability to defend on the perimeter. is already, I think, a top 10 point of attack defender at the NBA level. He can pressure a ball handler like nobody else really. And it he’s obviously a little small. We don’t The shooting’s probably not real to 41% on, you know, 90 attempts or whatever it was last year. He didn’t shoot the ball well at UCLA. Like, I’m not anticipating him being a 40% three-point shooter. So, I don’t think there’s a lot of trade value, but I think if a team said, “Hey, we’re interested in Jaylen Clark.” The Wolves would say, “Yeah, I don’t know. you got to give us at least a couple of second round picks. I I think he’s worth more than that, honestly. Um I don’t it it’s one of those where he’s probably worth more to Minnesota than somebody else. Like a team would love to trade a second round pick for Jaylen Clark. The Wolves would never do that. A team probably isn’t going to trade a first round pick for Jaylen Clark. I don’t think he’s got that level of value. He’s already 24. He’s actually only got one more year on this vet minimum deal. And and you know, remember he signed that two-way guaranteed deal at the end of last season. He had been on a two-way deal that covered the his rehab from the Achilles injury he suffered at UCLA a couple years ago. So, he’s got one more year on this deal. Minnesota’s going to have to find a way to keep him and he may be worth more than a bet minimum deal. So, I don’t think Jaylen Clark’s getting traded, but I do think he has trade value. And then that leaves TJ Shannon, who’s probably the best mix of those things. Yes, he’s an old secondyear player. He’s already 25, but he’s only getting paid 2.6 million this year. He’s got two more years of team control where uh the Wolves, you know, pick up those options I mentioned a little bit ago. His option for 2627 is 2.8 million and then there’s one more year after that. I think he’s arguably the most valuable tradable asset Minnesota has in terms of players on their roster that they would consider trading. I’m not saying he’s more valuable than Ant or even Baron like but in terms of guys that would be on the table that the Wolves would consider trading that teams would want to trade for TJ Shannon’s on that list. I don’t think Minnesota trades TJ Shannon if he gets a off to a rough start of the season and falls out of the rotation and a team came and said we’ll send you a first round pick for TJ Shannon. Yeah, they’d probably do that at the deadline if he’s not in the rotation, but they anticipate him being a rotation member. And at 2.6 million this year and 2.8 million next year, that’s a bargain. TJ Shannon is not going anywhere. So, all that to say, Minnesota is not there’s nobody on this roster that screams like, “This guy’s going to get moved.” I just think it’s really unlikely. You look at draft picks, future draft picks. Minnesota, you know, has gotten like obviously they’ve traded a lot of picks. They still have a pick um this coming season, this in 26. They have a first round pick. It’s just a pick swap with uh Utah. Now, Cleveland’s involved. I think it’s um I think the Wolves get the worst pick of the three. So, probably their own pick because they’re very Well, I guess maybe Cleveland’s if if that’s I believe that’s involved in like it’s essentially a three-way pick swap. Um, and they have two second round picks swaps there, too. So, likely bad picks in both the first and second round. But, they again have three picks this upcoming year. They do not have a sec a first round pick in 27. They only have one second. They only have a first in 28. And they don’t have a second. So, this year they have three total picks. And then they don’t they only have one total pick each of the next two years. They actually don’t have multiple second rounders other than this coming year until 2032. Every other year they’ve got one or zero second rounders and there’s some weird swaps and and protections and things too. So Minnesota doesn’t have a ton of draft assets to trade. They don’t have any years where they have multiple first round picks at this point. Uh so like it’s not like there are a ton of second round picks to throw on either. There are some, but I that’s a reason why I think Minnesota could be in the business of trying to get a second round pick. I think that’s the most likely trade this year is a team calls up and says, “Hey, we’ll give you a second round for Leonard Miller.” Minnesota be like, “All right, cool. Let’s do it.” Depending on, you know, some of the details and stuff and I don’t think that would be until closer to the deadline. I think that’s a possibility. I think multiple seconds for a Jaylen Clark toward the end of the year. Um, picks for TJ Shannon if things go sideways, possible, but really unlikely. I’d put that at like less than 5%. So, it’s pretty unlikely Minnesota makes a significant trade this year. and and they would love to stock their cupboard of more draft assets moving forward and I think that’s on the table. Uh I just think it’s unlikely. I don’t think we’re going to see trade fireworks this season for Minnesota. I think the roster is pretty well locked in and yeah, they’d love to have a succession plan for Mike Connley. They should have a much better idea by the deadline. Get through training camp preseason, the first part of the season. Is Rob Dillingham the answer in 2627 or is he not? And does that then kind of affect what Minnesota decides to do or not do at the trade deadline in February? So, a lot to be answered, but the way the Wolves roster and draft pick stable is set up makes a trade this year unlikely. Unless it’s a minor deal like a Leonard Miller for second rounders or a second, you know, a future second rounder for big man depth in case of an injury. That’s really the only thing I see happening this year. Unless you find a young point guard who you are convinced is a better option than Rob Dillingham to lead the Steam into the future in place of Mike Connley, I don’t show me that guy. I don’t know that that guy’s out there. I don’t think it’s Colin Ston. He’s not a true point guard. Like, I don’t I don’t know who that is. That’s the only other significant trade I can see potentially happening for Minnesota, but there’s a lot, you know, jury’s definitely still out on on uh who that could be and if they would even pull that trigger. All right, that’s all I got for you today. We’ll of course be back Monday uh all day or I should say all week next week. Again, Monday through Friday shows as we inch ever closer to training camp. I believe just the beginning of the week after next. So, just over a week away from the start of training camp, preseason just a couple of weeks after that. Um, believe it or not, we’re it’s happening. Uh, big thank you for making Lockdown Wolves your first listen every day. Of course, this show is free and available everywhere. That includes YouTube as well as all of your favorite audio platforms. Wherever you like to listen to podcasts, you can find Lockdown Wolves. You can also watch on the Lockdown Sports Minnesota app, which you can download at Roku or Amazon Fire TV. A reminder, our Lockdown NBA top 100 playlist I talked about earlier is out. Um, every show I did last week had some content related to the top 100 list, the five Wolves players on the list, players that just missed, uh, you know, my rankings versus the overall rankings I did last Monday. So, all that’s out there. You can also, uh, find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts and, uh, check out my reactions from all of last week. Of course, the Lockdown Wolves podcast is part of the very same Lockdown Podcast Network. And remember, the Lockdown Network is your local experts on all the biggest stories. Once again, I’m Ben Beacon. This is the Lock That Wolves podcast. We’ll catch you next time.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are unlikely to pull off a trade of any significance this year given the makeup of their roster and their salary books. Ben Beecken (@bbeecken) goes into detail on why the Wolves are likely to look the same in the spring as they do now, plus why Collin Sexton, Malik Monk, and Duop Reath are NOT sensible trade targets. If the Wolves decide to make a trade, here’s why and what they’ll be targeting…

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