Bones Hyland could’ve been a Timberwolf but the Denver Nuggets took less to avoid sending the young guard to Minnesota, according to longtime Minnesota sports reporter Darren Wolfson.
“Bones Hyland was the second trade target that they nearly completed,” Wolfson said on his podcast, The Scoop. “They thought they had a deal done, they would have done what the Clippers did. In fact, they would have done more but you’ve heard me mention this, there was a thought that the Denver ownership group was not willing to help Tim Connelly here in Minnesota.”
Hyland was traded to the Clippers for a pair of second-round draft picks.
If it’s true that Minnesota was willing to give up more for Hyland then there are really only two logical reasons why the Nuggets didn’t trade him to Minnesota. One being that there may be some bad blood between Denver and Connelly, and two being Denver simply wanting to keep Hyland out of the Northwest Division.
But considering how irrelevant divisions are in the NBA, the former seems like the most logical answer. Is there bad blood?
Connelly was the president of basketball operations in Denver and was behind the drafts that landed Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Hyland, in addition to trading for one of the two-way forwards in the game, Aaron Gordon.
Mike Singer of The Denver Post got a quote from Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke shortly after Connelly agreed to terms with the Timberwolves that he had given Connelly a contract extension in 2019 with an opt-out option after Year 3.
“I put that in his contract never anticipating that he would opt out and go to another NBA team and that’s what happened,” Kroenke said, according to Singer.
Whatever the case, Hyland is with the Clippers and if he develops into a standout guard it could come back to bite Minnesota and Denver in the future.
