Four big decisions face Vikings, Timberwolves, Twins bosses — right now

The pennant chases have not reached the stretch run, the WNBA just reached the All-Star break, NBA players are busy buying small countries and turning them into man caves and football players are enjoying a brief respite from getting smacked in the head.

With the possible exception of February, this is the least-dramatic period on the sports calendar. But for team executives, it's always thinking season.

Here are four decisions facing local teams, and what might happen in the next few weeks:

Signing Danielle Hunter is proving difficult for the Vikings. Whether to sign him is not a difficult choice.

The Vikings need him. He appears to feel he is vastly underpaid. He is correct. His contract situation is complicated by the money the Vikings have moved around previously to keep him happy.

He is due just $5.5 million in base salary for this season, roughly a quarter of what he should receive based on merit. If no bridges have been burned, this should be the easiest decision of the year for Vikings boss Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.

If Adofo-Mensah believes that Hunter will be a highly-productive pass rusher for years to come, he should sign Hunter to a deal that will keep him in Minnesota for the rest of his prime. If he believes that Hunter represents a long-term risk, he needs to find a way of structuring a lucrative one-year deal that will get Hunter into camp and defer the long-term negotiations for another year. What is certain is that the Vikings' defense would be in trouble without him.

Sometimes the calendar dictates when major deals get done, and there has been no pressure on either side to rush into the expected extension for the Vikings' best player: Justin Jefferson.

The beginning of training camp offers the first true deadline. Would it hurt the Vikings if negotiations cause Jefferson to hold out, or "hold in" — meaning he would report to camp but not risk injury by practicing? Maybe not.

But the Vikings have a rare opportunity to build cohesiveness this summer. For the first time since 2016, quarterback Kirk Cousins will work in the same system and with the same coordinator for a second consecutive season.

Jefferson missing a little time might not be consequential, but he, Cousins and first-round draft pick Jordan Addison could use time together. If both sides negotiate with the intent of getting a deal done in time, it will get done in time.

It's not complicated: Jefferson should be the highest-paid receiver in the game, within a structure that doesn't kneecap the organization. Tearing up the remainder of his current deal and starting over with a lucrative package is one way to accomplish this.

The Karl-Anthony Towns trade rumors won't go away. By next summer, the Timberwolves will have financial problems to solve, and the easiest solution to those problems will be trading Towns. That doesn't mean it should happen this summer.

So many trade rumors regarding the Wolves' big man exist because other teams know the Wolves' situation and would like to steal Towns in a lopsided deal.

The rumors are popular because, with much of the fan base, Towns is not. He continues to conduct interviews in which he says the kinds of things that fill entire talk shows.

I'll say it one more time: it's too early to give up on Towns, and it's too early to give up on a frontcourt featuring Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. Give it a year. Or at least until the trade deadline.

Paul Goldschmidt, the Cardinals' veteran slugger, is the logical subject of trade rumors for the Twins. They need hitting. Their best two seasons under the Derek Falvey regime occurred when they had Nelson Cruz, a veteran righthanded slugger, holding down the middle of their lineup. Goldschmidt should be available and has one year remaining on his contract. What could go wrong?

This: If the Twins trade prospects for an older player who may be near the end of his effectiveness, they'll gut the farm system without knowing if Goldschmidt is capable of putting them over the top.

Goldschmidt remains a quality hitter but his .844 OPS is his lowest since he was a rookie.

The Twins can't afford to trade top prospects for a short-term hitter, even one as excellent as Goldschdmidt.