Minnesota Timberwolves: Grading the Patrick Beverley trade
When the NBA seemed to be quieting down with free agency and the Summer League coming to a close, the Minnesota Timberwolves made some headlines early Tuesday morning. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski announced the Wolves will be sending Juancho Hernangomez and Jarrett Culver to the Memphis Grizzlies for Patrick Beverley.
The Wolves are adding defense and toughness with this trade, and the Grizzlies are taking a low-risk, high-reward flyer on the former 2019 first-round pick.
The Trade:
Minnesota Gets: Patrick Beverley
Memphis Gets: Jarrett Culver, Juancho Hernangomez
Now that we know the full details of the move, let’s take a look at how each team did.
Minnesota:
Minnesota desperately needed to add toughness and defense, and Beverley checks those boxes – maybe a little too much at times. A reminder that he will miss the start of the 2021-22 season with a one-game suspension after shoving Chris Paul in the playoffs.
When adding Beverley to your roster, you’re going to have to get used to some of these antics. While they’re frustrating at times, he’s also going to be a player that will go to war for your team.
He attended the University of Arkansas and was later drafted in 2009 by the Los Angeles Lakers. After being cut soon thereafter that, he played overseas and eventually found his way back into the league, playing for Gersson Rosas and the Houston Rockets in 2012-13.
Beverley is most known for his defense and rightfully so, he’s a major pest.
LeBron James is one of the best basketball players in the world, and Beverley didn’t look slightly worried defending him. There’s clearly a size mismatch, but what he does best is really getting in the face of opposing players.
There’s yet to be a season in which he holds a defensive rating over 110.0. Last season his rating was 106.7, but it does help when you’re playing alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Even though this is from 2019, he’s still the same player on defense.
If Minnesota is struggling defensively, using D’Angelo Russell and Beverley together could make a lot of sense. Something that has worked well for the Golden State Warriors is putting Klay Thompson on better offensive guards and allowing Stephen Curry to play more off-ball. Minnesota could attempt something similar in certain matchups.
Beverley isn’t known for being a scorer, but he can shoot the ball efficiently. This season he averaged 7.5 points on 42.3 percent from the field and 39.7 percent from 3. Minnesota has enough scorers and they only need him to knock down open shots.
The former Razorback is on an expiring contract, which will help the Timberwolves cap flexibility long-term. This could open the door for a future move at the trade deadline or signal a bigger trade coming soon.
Grade: A
Memphis:
The Grizzlies have been busy this offseason, making trades left and right.
Hernangomez looked great for the Wolves after he was traded to the team during the 2019-20 season. Minnesota then re-signed him, hoping to see similar success last season. Ultimately that didn’t happen, and it was frustrating at times to watch him play.
In any case, Minnesota was smart to get off of his contract and move on from him. Memphis is a solid defensive team, and adding an offensive-minded forward could be beneficial for both sides.
Minnesota traded up in the 2019 NBA Draft and selected Jarrett Culver with the No. 6 pick. Since being drafted, the former Texas Tech Red Raider hasn’t found any sort of groove. His shooting has been the biggest question mark, and it’s going to be Memphis’s biggest test to develop.
In two years with Minnesota, Culver shot 40.6 percent from the field, 28.8 percent from 3 and 50.3 percent from the line. Last season, he did battle an ankle injury and eventually elected to have surgery on it.
He could end up being a good two-way player, and it’s easy to see why the Grizzlies took a flyer on Culver. This is a low-risk, high-reward type of trade that could be beneficial for a team fighting to make a deeper run in the playoffs.
I think having Pat around will bring a sense of defense the wolves have been lacking for years now. Plus trading away culver and hernangomez got rid of a lot of inconsistencies we saw last season.