The Minnesota Timberwolves bet on D’Angelo Russell to have a big year, and through eight games of the season, he’s fallen short of expectations.

Russell was in trade talks throughout the offseason, and when the Timberwolves traded for Rudy Gobert, I initially thought he would be included in the deal. However, that was not the case, and Minnesota kept their most talented players intact.

Whether that was the correct move is still to be seen.

Russell had a great preseason, and it looked like he could carry over that momentum into the regular season. He shot 47.7 percent from the field and 36.8 from 3.

Through eight games, he’s averaging 14.0 points, 5.8 assists, 4.1 rebounds on 39.4 percent from the field and 27.9 from 3. He’s also been turning the ball over at an alarming rate (3.1 per game). His assist-to-turnover rate is 1.84, which ranks 56th amongst starting guards.

The PnR with Gobert hasn’t been good, and the execution has been sloppy. I do believe this will get better as the season progresses because both of these players are good in this action. It takes time to gel with another player, but it needs to come fast.

DLo is shooting poorly, turning the ball over, and has been a traffic cone defensively.

Watch Russell in this video. He turns the ball over, shows zero effort, and doesn’t rotate onto Cam Johnson, despite Naz Reid telling DLo to pick him up.

This season Russell has the second-worst net rating of -5.6 (minimum 10 minutes). Jordan McLaughlin leads the team with a rating of 24.8. DLo also has the worst plus/minus (-4.4), and McLaughlin has the best (9.2).

There’s always the possibility that Chris Finch starts McLaughlin and has Russell come off the bench. He’s done it before with DLo, but I wouldn’t bet on this idea happening. He’s in a contract year, and the politics of starting do factor in here.

Minnesota doesn’t have any assets, so trading him is almost impossible. Though, Tim MacMahon of ESPN brought up the idea of trading Russell for Mike Conley on ‘The Lowe Post.’ It’s an interesting idea, and he has experience playing with Gobert. Conley is also a veteran, who brings experience to the starting lineup.

If DLo won’t come off the bench and they can’t trade him, then where do the Wolves go from here?

Sadly, they pretty much have to ride this out and hope they can get positive production. He has the talent and ability to turn it around, but the question becomes, when?