Washington Wizards: potential Timberwolves trades with Morris and Wright

The decision to tear apart a mediocre roster and start from the bottom has finally been made for the Washington Wizards. With this decision, they have already moved on from two stars with another in free agency. Now it’s time to move the role players.

The first two players that seem to be a roadblock for the franchise are not-so-coincidentally the same first players confirmed to be involved in trade discussions since the trade that landed the Wizards Jordan Poole.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are reported to be interested in the two veteran point guards. However, the Wizards are also said to be searching for draft compensation for the duo and the Timberwolves are lacking significantly in that department. They only have seven tradable draft picks following the Rudy Gobert trade from last offseason, all of which are in the second-round.

Offering two or three second-round picks may be enough to pick up Delon Wright, but certainly not Monte Morris. He will likely require extra assets tacked on to complete the trade if he is the preferred target for the Wolves.

How could the Minnesota Timberwolves get Monte Morris or Delon Wright from the Washington Wizards?

This is a difficult question. The Timberwolves have limited draft capital and can only take on a few million dollars in a trade. This means the Wolves will have to match the contract of either player in order to make a trade work, this is most prominent in a potential Morris trade.

Another roadblock exists as well in the fact that the Timberwolves only have one player in the range of Morris in terms of salary. That player is probably the third most untouchable player on their roster in Kyle Anderson, making salary matching difficult.

That leaves only one option to get this trade done, matching the contract using multiple different small salaries. However, once again, the Timberwolves don’t have much to offer there, only having a small list of players that would work.

With all that out of the way, let’s look at the most likely outcome for these two teams, should they come to an agreement featuring Monte Morris or Delon Wright.

While the Washington Wizards do receive multiple young players and even a draft selection, this doesn’t seem like a move the new front office would make.

The Wizards already have issues with too many players on the roster, trading one player for three would do nothing to alleviate that issue.

Another idea could be:

This trade is even less likely as Michael Conley is a key member of the Timberwolves offense and the Wizards only get older and give up draft capital. This option isn’t going to happen.

Overall, pursuing this trade is unlikely to lead anywhere for the Washington Wizards as they would just end up in a more difficult situation than before with their roster.