The 2025 Wolves Off Season

[cmoss84]

Dalano Banton? He is not a great shooter but he is intriguing. Anyone seen him play enough to have a good feel for what he can do?

[Domejandro]

With Damian Lillard being off of the table, I wonder who #14 is going to end up being. Malcolm Brogdon is trying to maximize the amount of money that he can make, so assuming he is out for the time being. Probably going to be a pretty uninspiring signing, but we will see.

Delon Wright

That would be a solid fit.

I wouldn't be completely opposed, but honestly, he's functionally a defensive shooting-guard, not really a Point-Guard. Feels a bit redundant with Jaylen Clark, but I guess it never hurts to add veteran defenders to the team.

[Klomp]

Dalano Banton? He is not a great shooter but he is intriguing. Anyone seen him play enough to have a good feel for what he can do?

He'd be just fine as a 14th man

[Klomp]

Delon Wright

That would be a solid fit.

I wouldn't be completely opposed, but honestly, he's functionally a defensive shooting-guard, not really a Point-Guard. Feels a bit redundant with Jaylen Clark, but I guess it never hurts to add veteran defenders to the team.

(that's exactly why he'd be a solid fit though)

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

[younggunsmn]

And it would take a disaster for the swap to happen.

Or Utah having a good year. I don’t know, stranger things could happen.

Literally the only way I see the swap happening is if we have enough injuries to miss the Playoffs and then move up past Utah in the lottery.

Yep.

OKC gets Utah's pick if Utah picks 9th or lower and swap rights then go away.
No way Utah lets that happen.

If Wolves miss the playoff will likely finish no lower than 10th.
It would take Wolves moving way up in the lottery, which is like a 5-10% shot at best, and Utah having a lot of bad lottery luck, for the swap to happen.

I don't see a scenario happening like happened to Detroit last year where Utah all of a sudden just figures out how to win.
And if that happens their pick goes to OKC and we have nothing to worry about.

There are supposed to be like 4 Cooper Flagg/Dylan Harper level players in next year's draft and you have to think teams are gonna tank extra hard when finishing in the bottom 4 gives you like a 50% chance at one of those guys.

[younggunsmn]

We owe an unprotected swap in 2026.

And it would take a disaster for the swap to happen.

This is honestly the biggest annoyance I have when people talk about the trade.

The pick swap only matters for us if we end up worse than Utah. I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. Utah has not made any progress in their rebuilding project.

For what it's worth it was more risky to throw the pickswap in at the time of the trade back in 2022, when Utah still had Donovan Mitchell on their roster and were deciding what route to go.
They could easily have reloaded with those draft picks and moveable salary filler expiring contracts and just plain traded for Lauri Markaanen outright and fielded a team of Conley/Mitchell/O'Neale/Markaanen/Kessler with Clarkson, Beasley, and Vanderbilt off the bench.

I don't think even Utah thought they would be at the bottom of a rebuild 3 full years later.

[Klomp]

And it would take a disaster for the swap to happen.

This is honestly the biggest annoyance I have when people talk about the trade.

The pick swap only matters for us if we end up worse than Utah. I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. Utah has not made any progress in their rebuilding project.

For what it's worth it was more risky to throw the pickswap in at the time of the trade back in 2022, when Utah still had Donovan Mitchell on their roster and were deciding what route to go.
They could easily have reloaded with those draft picks and moveable salary filler expiring contracts and just plain traded for Lauri Markaanen outright and fielded a team of Conley/Mitchell/O'Neale/Markaanen/Kessler with Clarkson, Beasley, and Vanderbilt off the bench.

I don't think even Utah thought they would be at the bottom of a rebuild 3 full years later.

Except I doubt that was an option on the table. They knew what their plan was, and I'd imagine the whole league knew.

[younggunsmn]

This is honestly the biggest annoyance I have when people talk about the trade.

The pick swap only matters for us if we end up worse than Utah. I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. Utah has not made any progress in their rebuilding project.

For what it's worth it was more risky to throw the pickswap in at the time of the trade back in 2022, when Utah still had Donovan Mitchell on their roster and were deciding what route to go.
They could easily have reloaded with those draft picks and moveable salary filler expiring contracts and just plain traded for Lauri Markaanen outright and fielded a team of Conley/Mitchell/O'Neale/Markaanen/Kessler with Clarkson, Beasley, and Vanderbilt off the bench.

I don't think even Utah thought they would be at the bottom of a rebuild 3 full years later.

Except I doubt that was an option on the table. They knew what their plan was, and I'd imagine the whole league knew.

Well it was an idiotic plan. I get selling extremely high on Gobert but Mitchell was and is an All-NBA talent they still could have built around and remained competitive.
And they stupidly took back picks in the same draft years (23,25,27,29) for both players and turned those last 3 Cleveland picks into only one Phoenix pick.

[Klomp]

For what it's worth it was more risky to throw the pickswap in at the time of the trade back in 2022, when Utah still had Donovan Mitchell on their roster and were deciding what route to go.
They could easily have reloaded with those draft picks and moveable salary filler expiring contracts and just plain traded for Lauri Markaanen outright and fielded a team of Conley/Mitchell/O'Neale/Markaanen/Kessler with Clarkson, Beasley, and Vanderbilt off the bench.

I don't think even Utah thought they would be at the bottom of a rebuild 3 full years later.

Except I doubt that was an option on the table. They knew what their plan was, and I'd imagine the whole league knew.

Well it was an idiotic plan. I get selling extremely high on Gobert but Mitchell was and is an All-NBA talent they still could have built around and remained competitive.
And they stupidly took back picks in the same draft years (23,25,27,29) for both players and turned those last 3 Cleveland picks into only one Phoenix pick.

Why I haven't been terribly worried about the pick swaps or even the trade return as a whole. It feels like their rebuild has been flawed from the beginning. Unless they got lucky, I just never thought their process was a good one.

[KGdaBom]

The off season continues rolling along and the Wolves continue to do.... NOTHING. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It is what it is.

[WolfAddict]

The off season continues rolling along and the Wolves continue to do.... NOTHING. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It is what it is.

Yeah I'm guessing they want to see where the roster is at for the 1st half of the season and make any moves closer to the deadline. (I.e. see if Dilly is progressing, any new guys need rotation mins, a jump for the Nazs, Jadens and DDVs etc.)

[Klomp]

The off season continues rolling along and the Wolves continue to do.... NOTHING. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It is what it is.

Did nothing through September 29 last season too, just saying.

[TimberKat]

So, now the quiet season starts. However, Connelly seems to like surprises before training camp starts. Maybe we will see a Randle+DDV for Towns trade this summer as we can't get KD to come here

[WolfAddict]

So, now the quiet season starts. However, Connelly seems to like surprises before training camp starts. Maybe we will see a Randle+DDV for Towns trade this summer as we can't get KD to come here

If this happens, I'll be ready with popcorn to watch the absolute meltdowns on this site

[winforlose]

So, now the quiet season starts. However, Connelly seems to like surprises before training camp starts. Maybe we will see a Randle+DDV for Towns trade this summer as we can't get KD to come here

If this happens, I'll be ready with popcorn to watch the absolute meltdowns on this site

Meltdown I would love it. We would be getting the benefit of drafting JB for free.

[WolfAddict]

So, now the quiet season starts. However, Connelly seems to like surprises before training camp starts. Maybe we will see a Randle+DDV for Towns trade this summer as we can't get KD to come here

If this happens, I'll be ready with popcorn to watch the absolute meltdowns on this site

Meltdown I would love it. We would be getting the benefit of drafting JB for free.

Ha ha I'm with you brother

[shrink]

And it would take a disaster for the swap to happen.

This is honestly the biggest annoyance I have when people talk about the trade.

The pick swap only matters for us if we end up worse than Utah. I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. Utah has not made any progress in their rebuilding project.

For what it's worth it was more risky to throw the pickswap in at the time of the trade back in 2022, when Utah still had Donovan Mitchell on their roster and were deciding what route to go.
They could easily have reloaded with those draft picks and moveable salary filler expiring contracts and just plain traded for Lauri Markaanen outright and fielded a team of Conley/Mitchell/O'Neale/Markaanen/Kessler with Clarkson, Beasley, and Vanderbilt off the bench.

I don't think even Utah thought they would be at the bottom of a rebuild 3 full years later.

This is why I disagreed when many thought Connelly “stole” Dillingham with a 2031 unprotected 1st, plus a top one protected 2030 swap. There is a lot of risk in how much a team can change its course over a large number of years.

So far, all the picks we sent Utah haven’t hurt us too bad, and I think adding Gobert changed the course of the franchise, and helped Ant grow in winning situations. However, we don’t know if we will continue to be a winning team for six full years, and that swap in five looks more perilous too since the Spurs have Wemby.

[Klomp]

This is why I disagreed when many thought Connelly “stole” Dillingham with a 2031 unprotected 1st, plus a top one protected 2030 swap. There is a lot of risk in how much a team can change its course over a large number of years.

So far, all the picks we sent Utah haven’t hurt us too bad, and I think adding Gobert changed the course of the franchise, and helped Ant grow in winning situations. However, we don’t know if we will continue to be a winning team for six full years, and that swap in five looks more perilous too since the Spurs have Wemby.

Well now we're down to 5 years left, and for four of the years we have Ant/Jaden/Naz locked up as our core plus Rudy/Julius/Rob/TJ for three. Sure, that leaves one year unaccounted for at the end, but unless the bottom falls completely out (classic Minnesota sports fatalism), I just don't see worrying about the risk as something to waste time doing. Sure, it gets factored into the equation, but I think dwelling on that is the only time where the "downside" of the trade comes into play.

[Biff Cooper]

The off season continues rolling along and the Wolves continue to do.... NOTHING. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It is what it is.

I'm assuming they offered Brogdon a one year vet min deal, and he is shopping to see if he can get a better offer from another team.