As the 2021 NBA trade deadline passed at 2PM Central Time on Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota Timberwolves roster remained unchanged.
While Wolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and his staff were aggressive on the phones to feel out potential transactions leading up to Thursday’s deadline, Minnesota’s front office was steadfast in its belief in the players acquired a year ago at the 2020 trade deadline. Last year’s marquee additions D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley have shared the court with franchise centerpiece Karl-Anthony Towns for just 103 minutes over five games during the past two seasons due to injuries and suspension. Add in 2020 No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards, and that four-man group has played only 13 minutes together in three games this season.
“Considering that we’ve done nine, ten trades over the last 18-24 months, there is a period of time where you’ve gotta see what you have and you have to evaluate it,” Rosas told media over Zoom following the deadline on Thursday.
He continued: “I like the group we have. We haven’t seen this group together enough, starting with our best two players [Towns and Russell] and everybody else. That played a big part in it. We wanna see what we have in order to make the best educated decisions we could make.”
While Russell has missed 20 games due to knee surgery and Beasley currently serves a 12-game league suspension, the partnership of Towns and Edwards has flourished since the All-Star break under new Head Coach Chris Finch. Over the last eight games, Towns and Edwards have combined for 52.6 points per game, shooting 38% from three-point range.
Once Beasley (20.5 ppg) returns from suspension on Saturday and Russell (19.3 ppg) is fully healed, Rosas is eager to see how all the pieces fit in Finch’s system over the coming weeks.
“There’s nothing like games to tell you what’s there and that’s what we need to evaluate,” Rosas said of the Wolves’ current roster composition.
“We need a period of stability and development to see what’s there, and then it’ll be the next step of change as we continue the program forward.”
The Timberwolves return to play on Friday night for the first game of a weekend back-to-back versus the Houston Rockets at Target Center.
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March 26, 2021 at 05:20AM
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