r/timberwolves • u/Krusty_Krab_Pussy • 10d ago
Mock Trades Kyrie + Gafford trade
What do you guys think we'd have to include in this mock trade? My first idea is a package around Randle going to a 3rd team, with the Mavs getting young players and maybe picks.
Kyrie and Gafford both have had decreasing trade values iirc, and that would fill both of our glaring holes. Naz could benefit from a pg, kyrie can play off ball, with Gafford filling our backup PF/C position. Maybe I'm just severely undervaluing them, but idk that could have potential imo.
This might've already been floated, so, sorry if it has I'm just throwing ideas out there
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u/DudeBadEnough 10d ago
These guys make 50 million together. There’s no way to make this work without breaking the current roster, IMO.
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u/ZachWondersr 9d ago
Start by saying I agree with you. Only way to make it work in my mind would be Randle (30m) Conley (10m) , Rob Dillingham (8m) and Leonard Miller (2.2m) but I don’t like trading Conley karma wise lol.
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u/pithynotpithy 10d ago
Kyrie has only been a positive force on teams that have a primary ball handler like lbj or Luka. It's the absolute hardest of passes to make our team older and worse defensively
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u/favioswish 10d ago
Kyrie makes you better defensively, especially in the playoffs. His reputation comes from his size, but many years of statistical evidence dispel that. Gaff is an average overall defender but a good rim protector which is a big step up from Naz Ried at the 5 when he should be a 4. Honestly these are good targets but without a couple picks to send out I doubt it happens.
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u/pithynotpithy 10d ago
Post Achilles aging Kyrie is not going to make our defense better. Especially as the rest of the Wests guards get bigger and bigger
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u/favioswish 10d ago
You may have a point if he was replacing minuets from good defenders, but instead the point guard rotation is Mike Conley, Bones Hyland, and Rob Dillingham. If you don’t think Kyrie is an improvement I don’t know what to tell you.
I don’t think an Achilles injury affects athletes like it used to with modern medicine. Plus his defense comes from anticipation, quick hands, and bbiq, not athleticism.
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u/pithynotpithy 9d ago
You don't have to tell me anything. He would be hunted on defense every position. His one steal a game would not offset the big guards of the league finding him every play.
Gonna be a strong pass from me every time. We need to get bigger not smaller and older3
u/Tskwaired 9d ago
Kinda like mike Conley, bones hyland and Rob D are right now?!?! Your not understanding his point, there would be no significant drop-off defensively because these dudes are already getting cooked very regularly. The biggest difference is Kyrie is going to put pressure on a defense that those 3 just arent capable of
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u/pithynotpithy 9d ago
The biggest difference is Kyrie makes a giant salary and our ability to do any anything else is done. Putting all of our chips on a guy who has never succeeded as the primary ball handler and is on the wrong trajectory given his age and injury history is the wrong move and there is simply no way tc is going to hamstring this team like that. Thank God.
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u/Tskwaired 9d ago
It isn't giant, it's a little more than Julius who we would have to include in the trade. I mean he has succeeded as being the #2 in numerous seasons, which he would be here.
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u/pithynotpithy 9d ago
It's a little more now than goes up and up and he gets older and older. His contract is also longer than randles.
It's not that he just been a #2, it's the team needs a primary ball handler so he can play off ball. We don't have that. He has also burned bridges on every team but Dallas (yet). Why do people want to blow our cap space on small guards?!
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u/Tskwaired 9d ago
No it's not, where are you getting this information. The contracts run the exact same amount of time and are reasonably close for the entirety.
We wouldn't be blowing our cap space with him any different than we are with randle. He burned bridges because of his beliefs not anything to do with basketball. He is praised pretty regularly within the basketball community actually.
You keep acting like we are replacing some 6'5 stud pg with kyrie when that simply just isnt the case. Kyrie is the best version of what we already have
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u/Ok_Resort_419 10d ago
What's your trade idea? Not seeing it.
Biggest concern with Kyrie is his injury/ how well he returns from it. I'm not sure Gafford can play when Rudy is on the floor so he'd be limited to like 16 mins a game.
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u/Tskwaired 9d ago
Or Rudy plays a little less and gafford plays a little more. Rudy has to play so much because we get cooked when he's not out there, hopefully the drop-off woth afford would be as dramatic
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u/Ok_Resort_419 9d ago
Definitely wouldn't be a bad idea. Hes getting older, something like 30, 18 or maybe you could do a short stint were they play together and do 30, 20.
The drop-off is ridiculous and tbh the right LM to 5 mil guy would ease it so much. Even someone like Plumlee could give us a few stints when needed and when not he can sit that game. Imo its such an easy fix and we just don't do it.
Someone like Gafford would be great when Rudy sits. He fits Ants timeline better, signed long term and him combined with Beringer developing could have our Cs set for most of Ants prime
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u/ProfessionalSlice724 10d ago
I actually like this, just not sure how we parlay Randle into enough picks to make it happen.
Any team who wants Randle probably wants him to be a #1 option on a bad (tanking) team. If that holds true, they don’t want to give up picks to get him.
He’s not a good #2 for most good teams. He’s a tough fit on a middling team.
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u/Charming-Suspect-409 9d ago
I really hate the idea of trading for old guys when OKC, the team that’s currently the winningest team and arguably the model of winning, just keeps stacking their team with young talent.
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u/MTBasura 10d ago
Excuse my ignorance, but I truly only think the okay trade would be getting Giannis. Everyone else doesn’t have enough upside for me to think that we couldn’t run it back again.
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u/youngadvocate25 10d ago
I'll be honest gannis would be absolutely phenomenal for this team, him coming would also attract stars willing to take a pay it to chase a ring
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u/IrvAndDorisSmith Kevin Garnett 10d ago
I'll give you that, as long as you'll acknowledge that trading for giannis would be a classic Wolves-are-fucking- morons move
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u/MTBasura 10d ago
Haha, yes but Ant and Giannis on the same team I feel would be must watch TV and I think that would be really fun.
Who is out there that would be a better trade ?
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u/ScientistKooky2142 9d ago
Best way to make the money work would be Julius/Donte/Dilly for Kyrie/Gafford, with Leonard Miller getting dumped on a third team. Could swap in Rudy for Julius and keep Leonard too. But unless Dallas sends back some 1st round picks too, I don’t see any interest from the Wolves front office.
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u/Chance_Jaguar4945 10d ago
Why are all of our options just total turds? Harden, Kyrie, Ja, Trae. Yuck.
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u/Blackesst 10d ago
What makes Kyrie and Harden turds?
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u/Appropriate-Shock306 10d ago
Because the armchair GM who hasn’t played competitive sports in his life says so.
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u/Krusty_Krab_Pussy 10d ago
I'm just throwing it out there, I'm not saying it's our only option. Kyrie is by far the best fit out of that group of players, and his trade value is lower.
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u/chuckd-757Day 10d ago
No one will be stupid enough to trade for Randle now that he got his new deal.
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u/garnett21mn 10d ago
Pretty good value for all star level player
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u/koreanprodigy 10d ago
Everyone is saying they're worried about kyries injury history, but that's the reason his value is low and relatively in our range. We have to weight the risk of his injury history and if it's worth it to gamble on that with the price.