Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach let it be known on ESPN’s True Hoop podcast that his team is in search of some depth in the front court.
Cole Aldrich and Jordan Hill should be very offended at the moment.
The T’Wolves rely heavily on Karl Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng in the front court. Nemanja Bejilica, Cole Aldrich and Jordan Hill combined average only about 34 of the possible 144 front court minutes while Towns and Dieng combine to play 66.7 minutes per contest.
Minnesota is coming off of their best win of the season, coming back from a 21 point deficit in Chicago to beat the Bulls in Thibodeau’s first game there since being fired a few seasons ago.
The @Timberwolves had a huge comeback win in Tom Thibodeau's 1st game against his former team (via @EliasSports): pic.twitter.com/b8oz1SrHp5
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 14, 2016
Although the Wolves are far away from playoff contention at the moment, they are still trying to improve and win games and are looking at adding more defensive paint presence to the 27th ranked defense in the NBA.
There is no way a player like LaVine or Dunn would be on the table and they aren’t allowed to deal a first round draft pick until 2019, so one would assume the most likely candidates to be dealt in any hypothetical trade would be Ricky Rubio or Shabazz Muhammad.
The most feasible trade partners would be the Kings who could offer Willie Cauley-Stein and Ben McLemore for Rubio or the Bucks who would be willing to deal Greg Monroe for Rubio potentially.
December 15 is the first day people who signed new contracts in the off-season can be traded so expect the trade market to start heating up.
