Yesterday, the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves participated in a blockbuster trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins. If you were to ask most people around the NBA, they would tell you D-Lo is a much better player than Wiggins. However, it’s clear the Warriors couldn’t keep Russell’s contract and wanted someone who would fit into their system once Steph Curry and Klay Thompson come back.
According to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic, the Warriors were eager to trade D-Lo and they didn’t seem to mind what they got in return. In fact, as Thompson describes, Russell didn’t fit in with the team and executives around the club were trying to get rid of him sooner than later.
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Per The Athletic:
“Take that as an indictment on Russell, if you want. It doesn’t seem like he did much to instill confidence. He didn’t play defense and disappeared when off the ball. He didn’t instill confidence in the leaders of the franchise that he would figure it out. But it should also be seen as a failure by the Warriors.”
“They championed him. They said they wanted him as part of their core. And before they even got to see him with their core, they walked away. Which means, at minimum, they completely miscalculated Russell’s fit. It’s early, and you never know how these things turn out. But the Russell experiment must have gone so poorly that the Warriors look like they might have been the ones to blink first in a negotiation with Minnesota.”
Russell will be joining a Timberwolves team that is currently on a 13-game losing streak. Despite this, he will also be joining his good friend Karl-Anthony Towns, so we’re sure there will be some palpable chemistry between the two.
