Bill Simmons had Ryen Russillo on his Monday podcast to break down the first two games of the NBA Finals. After discussing the Miami Heat’s Game 2 win over the Denver Nuggets, Simmons and Russillo did a draft of teams where they wouldn’t want to be a general manager.
They used wide criteria, including:
- Talent on the roster
- Salary cap situation
- Owner
- Market
- The upside of the team’s success
- The ceiling of the job
Russillo and Simmons alternated. Russillo took the Charlotte Hornets first; Simmons the Chicago Bulls second. Then came Russillo with the dagger.
“This is gonna be weird, you’re gonna be surprised I’m taking this team as high as I am,” he said, “but I’m gonna take Minnesota.”
“Oh!” Simmons said, expressing genuine surprise. “Even with our guy Edwards?”
Russillo confirmed that he’s going with the Minnesota Timberwolves, even with Anthony Edwards. And his reasons were as damning as you’d think.
I know. Even with our favorite player. But Gobert is gonna be $41 [million], $44 [million], $47 million. And then Karl-Anthony Towns, who I’m just not a huge fan of, $36 [million], then $50 [million], $54 [million], $58 million, player option for $62.0 million, that’s in ‘27-28.
Conley, they have to make a decision on his contract, so there’s some depth stuff there.
Look, Jaden’s been a nice story for them, but for him to really be something, you’re gonna have to see a little bit more from his offense as well. And that’s with one of my single favorite players in the league. If I gave you my list of my five favorite players in the league, Anthony Edwards is on that list.
So you factor in those two guys, we already know this, and the draft picks that they moved out. I think the scary thing is they’re gonna have to … we already know that Milwaukee at some point is gonna have to reinvent this thing on the fly with Stage 2 or 3 of whatever Giannis is. I don’t even know if Minnesota will be able to do it in a way that helps the rest of the roster when they have to kinda figure out who they’re gonna be.
Because I think Edwards is gonna be that good, and pretending he’s not the No. 1 option as they move forward is probably just a waste of everybody’s time.
Then Simmons threw out a blockbuster trade.
“You made me think, as you were talking that out, does a Towns-Dame trade make sense?” he asked.
“Maybe,” Russillo considered.
“And then Portland takes Scoot,” Simmons explained. “And you put Dame and Edwards together with Gobert as the center, and you’ve got McDaniels. It’s nothing.
“If you’re Portland, I’m probably hoping I can get more from Dame. Towns is like 27 at this point. I feel like he is what he is, but he’s still a 25 and 10 when he’s healthy. He’s still a good player.”
“He’s still a good player,” Russillo agreed. “I just don’t trust him, and I don’t know what happens to him in games where –”
“Pressure,” Simmons interjected.
Russillo agreed, expanding on Towns’ shortcomings.
Yeah. It feels like … it might just be the way he is so demonstrative that it ends up being worse than it actually is with the basketball stuff, but I feel like he lets s— get to him, not DeMarcus Cousins’ way, where you’d be like, ‘Oh, he’s gone for the game.’ Like, okay, we’ll see you on Tuesday. You’ve got nothing left for tonight.
I wouldn’t say anything was that bad, but, eh, look, I think there’s plenty of evidence to say that those two guys, I don’t know, man. We’ve talked about it a million times. We don’t need to keep going over it.
Simmons and Russillo have been out on Minnesota’s situation for a while, but it’s especially damning now that they have Edwards. Ant is a franchise player who a good organization can win a championship with. But Towns and Gobert clog the lane for him, and it’s going to be hard to fit Jaden McDaniels and other crucial players on the roster under the new CBA.
No. 2 may be high for the Timberwolves, but Simmons or Russillo were always going to choose them on a list like this. Tim Connelly and Co. have some work to do to keep Edwards in town and contend for championships.
