Sachin Gupta and the Minnesota Timberwolves decided to let the NBA Trade Deadline on Feb. 10 come and go without making any trades. On one hand, the Wolves have great team chemistry and have a good thing going, so why shake things up? On the other, Minnesota is within striking distance of the sixth-seed, which would allow them to bypass the play-in tournament.
So, did they make the right move?
Sometimes a national perspective is useful. What do NBA experts, who cover the league at-large think? Well, Wosny Lambre and Bill Simmons gave the Wolves a ringing endorsement on Part 4 of Simmons’ trade deadline podcast.
Wos brought up the Timberwolves, unsolicited, during the “winners and losers” section of the podcast.
Yeah, I’ve been interested in the T-Wolves all season. I want to see what they do. Like obviously they just chilled during the deadline, which I think is the right thing to do, right? Like these guys should be growing and building together.
This group should have to achieve the playoffs together, I think that would be big for them going forward. So I’ll definitely be watching the Timberwolves, for sure.
Simmons nodded along with Wos and added that he sees Anthony Edwards as a breakout candidate.
So you’re going winner Timberwolves, just by keeping this weird nucleus together? And they’re 29-26. I think I agree with you. Because for them, it’s like every year after the All-Star Break, somebody makes a jump. It’s always somebody under 25.
I remember [Jayson] Tatum it was happening for a couple years ago. We had that incredible Davis run in 2018, where all of a sudden he was like Tim Duncan 2.0.
Edwards would be a first-round draft pick for ‘could he be the guy where he just makes this leap?’ after the All-Star Break. There’s a couple of guys. Edwards, to me, I could see him going on a crazy run. I do think he has it in him. It does seem like he’s getting better. His confidence is growing, and just in general.
Those are two whole-hearted endorsements from two big-time basketball experts. Eventually, the Wolves will have to tinker with their roster. But the team is vibing right now, and national experts are starting to pay attention to them.
