Bones Hyland has been riding the bench for the past week and it appears quite likely that he’ll be traded before Thursday’s 2 p.m. CT NBA trade deadline. Where he goes depends on what the Nuggets can get for him, but the latest from Mike Singer of The Denver Post suggests the Raptors, Pelicans and Timberwolves have “registered some level of interest in Hyland.”
Singer says the Nuggets want a two-way rotation player and draft compensation, or a first-round pick for Hyland. Minnesota has two, maybe three players who fit that mold: Taurean Prince, Kyle Anderson and Naz Reid.
Hyland could be a steal considering the former first-round pick has big offensive upside and is only 22 years old. He fits the long-term plan in Minnesota even more if D’Angelo Russell is traded or leaves as a free agent this summer. But acquiring Hyland while losing Prince or Anderson seems risky.
That said, Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly drafted Hyland in Denver and, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, he is still a “big fan” of Hyland.
Because Anderson is signed through next season and has been one of the main reasons for Minnesota’s 2023 turnaround (they’re 13-7 since Jan. 1), trading him wouldn’t make much sense for a team that needs his playmaking and defense.
Prince is a very good two-way wing off the bench, though losing him would be a punch to the gut for a Minnesota team that needs veteran leadership in a bad way. Getting Hyland for Prince makes great sense long term but probably hurts the Timberwolves this season.
If you go on ESPN and use the trade machine and try to swap Prince for Hyland it’ll say the trade doesn’t work. But the trade machine doesn’t take into account Denver’s $9.1 million trade exception, which means they can take on a player making that much money without having to match salary in a deal.
Prince just so happens to have a $7.2 million cap hit this season and a non-guaranteed deal next season worth $7.4 million, according to Spotrac. Reid is making less than $2 million.
Can the Nuggets do better than Prince or Reid?
The Raptors could offer Denver Thaddeus Young (Gary Trent Jr. makes too much money without forcing Denver to shed more salary and Otto Porter is out for the season with a foot injury). New Orleans could send them someone like Garrett Temple, Jaxson Hayes or Trey Murphy III, though Murphy has started 43 games for the Pelicans and averages 13.1 points while shooting 40.2% from 3, so he’s probably not the kind of 22-year-old New Orleans is interested in dealing.
If the Nuggets want to go for it all this season – and they surely do as the team with the best record in the NBA – Prince is arguably the best two-way wing among the three teams Singer mentioned.
We’ll see what happens.
