As the Wolves' 3-1 start and positive vibes from a win at defending NBA champion Milwaukee have dissolved in a blizzard of losses during a 1-8 stretch, I have resisted the urge to visit ESPN's trade machine to test out various high-profile deals.
It's time for the Wolves to make a move in the standings — or prepare to make a roster move
Minnesota has four consecutive winnable games. If the Wolves can't get any traction now, when will they?
November 17, 2021 at 5:59PM
It's still early, after all. And it's a mere coincidence that the Wolves' current 4-9 record was their exact mark three years ago at this time when they traded Jimmy Butler.
Are the Wolves better off now than they were then? Absolutely not.
But there's no undoing the past. There's only dealing with what's in front of them, and the reality — which Chip Scoggins and I talked about on Wednesday's Daily Delivery podcast — is this: The Wolves have four winnable games coming up. They need to show something soon before serious questions about this roster emerge.
The Wolves don't have built-in excuses this season. They had an offseason to prepare. Their roster is similar to what it was at the end of last season. They've been reasonably healthy. They just haven't played well enough to win, particularly when it matters most.
Minnesota squandered a squishy soft schedule over its first eight games of the season. Now it has another chance: home games against Sacramento, San Antonio and Memphis and a road game at the lowly Pelicans.
Three wins in the next four is entirely reasonable. Two would at least steady things.
Anything less than that?
Sachin Gupta — running the Wolves, of course, after Gersson Rosas was dumped just before the season started — might have to start thinking about major roster moves.
And yes, assuming he has that authority, that includes either taking the biggest swing possible for Ben Simmons or thinking about a midyear trade of Karl-Anthony Towns while transitioning to the Anthony Edwards era.
In a previous life, Gupta helped invent ESPN's Trade Machine. Unless things improve, he'll be tempted to give it a few spins himself.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
