Shams Charania of The Athletic broke the news that the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers, and Utah Jazz finalized a three-team trade that sends D’Angelo Russell to the Los Angeles Lakers for Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and picks.

The Trade:

• Minnesota Gets:
  • Mike Conley
  • Nickeil Alexander-Walker
  • 2024, 2025, 2026 second round picks
• Utah Gets:
  • Russell Westbrook
  • LAL First Round Pick
• Los Angeles Gets:
  • D’Angelo Russell
  • Malik Beasley
  • Jarred Vanderbilt

The Timberwolves have been unafraid at making moves over the last year. Since Tim Connelly has taken over as the President of Basketball Operations, Minnesota has been making trades left and right – most notably the Rudy Gobert acquisition.

Russell was having the best season of his career, shooting near 50/40/90. He was also an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and Minnesota couldn’t afford to let him walk for nothing. They could have done and sign-and-trade or extended him for a year, but that wasn’t part of the plans.

The Timberwolves are acquiring a veteran point guard in Conley. Yes, age and health are a concern, but he has a lot of experience. He’s played in 1,001 regular season games and 73 playoff games.

He’s also built a ton of experience playing alongside Gobert, and that should help unlock the three-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Conley isn’t the same defender he once was, but the defensive IQ will hopefully make up for some of those issues. He’s also in the midst of a career year in terms of assists per game (7.7). That should only get better with the Gobert pairing and playing alongside Anthony Edwards.

Losing Russell’s scoring and shooting will be a lot for the Timberwolves to replace; there’s no hiding that. Russell was a minus most of the time on defense and made too many careless turnovers. For other teams, that might work, but for an inexperienced team like the Timberwolves, that’s hurt them far too many times.

The Timberwolves are also getting three second round picks and Alexander-Walker. Connelly is great at finding value late in the draft and could find some hidden gems. Those picks could also be moved in future trades.

Alexander-Walker is a former first-round pick and still has a lot of upside. This season he’s averaging 6.3 points, 2.1 assists and 1.6 rebounds in 14.7 minutes. He’s also shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 40.2 from 3.

He looked great with the New Orleans Pelicans but hasn’t looked as good in a limited role in Utah. Hopefully, Minnesota can open more time for him to flourish because he does have real upside.

Let us know in the comment section below your thoughts on the trade.