Trade rumors continue to swirl ahead of Thursday’s 2 p.m. deadline and the Minnesota Timberwolves remain a team connected to numerous reports and speculation, the latest coming from Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports.
Fischer says the Timberwolves are among the teams that have “registered interested” in Toronto point guard Fed VanVleet. He also cited reports linking the Clippers and Suns to VanVleet, along with his sources mentioning the Lakers and Magic along with the Timberwolves.
It’s been widely reported that VanVleet will bet on himself and decline his $22 million option next season, which would put him on the free-agent market with an opportunity to make $30+ million annually.
Would you rather have VanVleet in a potential rental role for the rest of the season or keep D’Angelo Russell and ride him into free agency? Russell has been a far more efficient scorer than VanVleet this season.
- VanVleet: 19.7 PPG, 6.5 APG, 4.5 RPG, 34.4 3P%, 39.7 FG%
- Russell: 18.1 PPG, 6.2 APG, 3.1 RPG, 38.9 3p%, 46.4 FG%
The one thing VanVleet has over Russell this season is better ball control. VanVleet has been tagged for 82 turnovers compared to 146 for Russell in just 55 more minutes on the court.
Meanwhile, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (subscription required) reports that Russell, Naz Reid, Taurean Prince and Jaylen Nowell have drawn interest from around the league, but it’s unclear if Minnesota feels enough pressure to deal any of them. He also mentioned Mike Conley and Bones Hyland as potential trade targets for Minnesota, while noting that it would be pretty easy for other teams to outbid the Wolves for Houston’s Eric Gordon, Detroit’s Alec Burks and Phoenix’s Jae Crowder.
