Why The Minnesota Timberwolves Do The Deal?

Money. This is one of the unfortunate realities of the NBA. Teams need to balance their books. With Anthony Edwards’ extension kicking in, the Timberwolves are about to get expensive.

If they make a deep playoff run, they may foot the bill. Towns isn’t a goner. Still, if the Timberwolves are disappointing in this year’s postseason, they’ll have to entertain some bold moves.

In that event, this would be a good return. Ivey still has star potential, and Stewart is a useful combo big who can play next to Gobert. The Wolves will have a glut of bigs between Stewart, Gobert, and Naz Reid, but that’s a problem worth solving if they’re adding a pair of first-round picks.

Why The Detroit Pistons Do The Deal?

Many will argue that the Pistons are being hasty here. They’ll say that a team in their position should be hanging onto their draft capital. That’s easy for us to say – we’re not Troy Weaver.

If we were the general manager of the Pistons, we’d probably be feeling some heat. This team needs to right the ship soon. By adding Towns, they’ll have one of the best shooting big men in NBA history spacing the floor for Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson. Meanwhile, Towns has a reputation as a defensive liability. This season, he’s beginning to shed that reputation. If Towns can be neutral on that end of the floor, the revolutionary impact he’ll have on Detroit’s offense will be worth the trade-off. Who knows how many wins they might have at next year’s All-Star break?