Expiring contracts are free money in trades. The Wolves need to spend theirs while they still can
The Timberwolves have a self-inflicted conundrum.
They want to make the playoffs.
They also have six players whos contracts expire at the end of the season. One of those six (Jerryd Bayless) is their only healthy point guard. Another (Luol Deng) is their only functional wing. Another (Taj Gibson) is seen as critical to their locker room, and to their hopes of making the playoffs.
The chances of the Wolves actually making the playoffs are, quite frankly, not good. Being close to the 8th seed in the standings does not mean the 8th seed is within reach. There are three teams the Wolves would need to pass to get in. One is the Clippers, a veteran team that is well-coached. The second is the Kings, an endlessly talented and athletic team that is well coached. The third is LeBron James. The Wolves will have to be better than LeBron James to make the playoffs.
Good freakin’ luck with that.
Conversely, the expiring contracts are assets that can only be utilized literally right now. Even if the Wolves manage to keep one of those players this summer - a huge challenge given their salary cap situation - five players is a third of the team, and some of their better talent. As the team doesn’t have the cap space to replace those players with equally good ones in free agency, their only option is to trade some of them for players who will already be under contract through next season.
By all accounts, the Wolves are active in trade talks. But strangely, they appear nowhere near a deal, despite a seeming willingness to make one.
So what’s the hold up? Small-money salary dumps are not complicated. Find a player on a team that wants cap space, offer and expiring contract that matches his salary, add in second rounders until they accept. Boom. The end. The Blazers acquired Rodney Hood for a couple expirings and a couple second rounders. The Lakers acquired Reggie Bullock - a personal favorite of mine *grumblegrumble* - for a second rounder and a guy picked in the second round. The 76ers straight up bought Malachi Richardson for cash. These deals aren’t as difficult to swing as the Wolves seem to be making them.
One reason might be that they’re focusing on trading the wrong players. Per Darren Wolfson:
“What’s coming back” isn’t a concern in minor salary trades. No one tries to tack on bad contracts to deals for expiring contracts and second round draft picks. That only happens when big money is involved…when the other team feels like what they’re getting is so costly they need additional compensation.
For the Wolves, that would seem to indicate their focus is on trying to trade Gorgui Dieng, Jeff Teague or Andrew Wiggins. That’s going to be basically impossible to do at this point; teams simply don’t want to take on that kind of exorbitant money without the Wolves either including draft picks or Josh Okogie, or taking back bad money contracts in return (which defeats the purpose) It’s worthwhile to make the attempts, but it shouldn’t be the team’s primary goal in this situation.
The other factor, again, is likely that the Wolves simply don’t want to part with the guys on expiring contracts because they feel they need them. This team has made the playoffs once in the last 14 years. That drought has skewed the playoffs into a holy grail for them - particularly for ownership.
What the Wolves need to do is, quite frankly, remove any playoff consideration from the equation and simply treat their assets as assets. If they were, say, 10 games out of the 8th seed, then trading Taj Gibson wouldn’t be a debate. The only hang up now is the feeling they need him to make a playoff push. But not only is making the playoffs unlikely to happen, but even if they do make it, they lose Taj at the end anyway.
So their best course is not to pursue deals that will send out future assets or bring back bad money. And also, not to make playoffs or bust the goal for the season. Simply use the assets that are available while they still can, and let the chips fall where they may. There are still plenty of solid wing players still out there that can likely be had for Taj or Tolliver and a second round pick - E’Twuan Moore, Darius Miller, Terrence Ross, Taurean Prince, to name a few. Expiring contracts and second round picks are basically free money - they can bring in players without costing the team anything real for the next season. As Captain Jack Sparrow would say
