When Giannis Antetokounmpo soft-launched a trade request last week, the usual suspects were mentioned right away: the Heat, the Knicks, the Warriors, and so on. But there was another team that Shams Charania mentioned in his initial reporting that doesn’t often get mentioned as a destination for stars, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
It has since been added by Marc Stein that Giannis may be interested in teaming up with Anthony Edwards, which would be a fascinating and frightening combination for the rest of the league, and especially the Western Conference.
The Wolves have made the Western Conference Finals in back-to-back seasons, but haven’t been able to get over the hump yet. Anthony Edwards is one of the best young superstars in the NBA, and adding a top-five player, who would fit pretty naturally alongside Ant, would be an incredible coup.
Tim Connelly, who played a huge part in building this Nuggets team and this Wolves team, has shown no fear in making big deals, and this would be a whopper. But for this kind of talent? It may be worth it. Minnesota would have to part with multiple core players like some combination of Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, and others.
Those players would go to other teams for picks, which would all be going back to Milwaukee. That’s the idea anyway. Whether it actually happens or not is anyone’s guess. Either way, it’s a scary thought for a team that already poses a serious threat to Denver.
Western Conference gauntlet may get even tougher
The path to the Finals is already daunting enough in the West. The Thunder have looked beatable lately, but that’s still a juggernaut and the defending champs. The Spurs have elevated faster than anyone expected, the Rockets and Lakers are lurking, the Clippers are surging, and then there’s the Wolves.
It hasn’t all clicked for the Wolves this season, and they’ve had some disappointing losses, but they’ve got the talent on paper, and they’ve got playoff scars from the past few seasons. Ripping this roster apart would be a tough call, but to pair Ant with Giannis, you have to make the call.
They’d be able to keep enough talent to fill out a good starting lineup around them, and they’d have some work to do to scrap a bench together, but they’d instantly have the best duo in the West, narrowly edging out Jokic and Murray, Luka and LeBron, SGA and Chet, KD and Sengun, and others.
There’s a lot of talent already in the West. If the best player in the East switches conferences in the next few days, it’s going to get even crazier.