The Minnesota Timberwolves have lost out on the Dejounte Murray sweepstakes as the San Antonio Spurs reportedly reached a blockbuster trade with the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday afternoon.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Hawks are sending veteran guard Danilo Gallinari to San Antonio along with a 2023 first-round pick from Charlotte, their own first-round picks in 2025 and 2027 and the option to swap first-round picks in 2026. ESPN’s Zach Lowe also reports that the 2025 and 2027 picks are unprotected.
The Timberwolves were connected with Murray on draft night and continued to be a possible destination as talks intensified. ESPN’s Marc Stein tweeted earlier on Tuesday that a deal involving Murray was “imminent” and that the Timberwolves were interested along with the Hawks and New York Knicks.
The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski believes that Minnesota was interested in trading for the 25-year-old, but the potential ramifications of giving up unprotective picks were too much to give up.
The Wolves recently found out the ramifications of not protecting a pick well enough just because you think, 'Eh, we'll make the playoffs, it won't really matter.'
Now imagine doing that for picks 3 and 5 years away, but COMPLETELY unprotected. Can't blame them if they balked
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) June 29, 2022
Murray averaged 21.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game for the Spurs last season and could have been a complementary piece to Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards. Instead, things remain quiet outside of signing Taurean Prince to a two-year deal on Tuesday night.
With less than 24 hours until free agency begins, things should pick up for Minnesota, who could look to move D’Angelo Russell or several other pieces at the start of the league year.
