NBA: 7 teams with questionable futures heading into the offseason

Minnesota Timberwolves

In similar fashion to the Pistons, everything started going downhill once they traded for Jimmy Butler. Sure, they made the playoffs in his only year in Minnesota, but that trade basically contradicted what they were trying to do at the time, which was to continue developing the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach LaVine, and Kris Dunn (which the latter two were sent over to Chicago in the deal).

Nowadays, Towns has fully blossomed into an elite center, while Wiggins has continued to underwhelm after his impressive rookie year. And yeah, it might be necessary to mention that Towns is on a max deal (which don’t get me wrong, he absolutely deserves) while Wiggins is owed over $120 million over the next four years. Yeah, not good.

So, with all this in mind, what’s next for the Timberwolves? The Twin Cities aren’t exactly a free agency destination so their only (and best) course of action might be to internally develop. The Timberwolves already possess young assets as Josh Okogie, Dario Saric, and Keita-Bates Diop, and with Towns being so good already, their picks will most likely be in the later picks of the lottery. Even if on paper, the Jimmy Butler trade wasn’t that good for the T-Wolves, they did get back Saric and Robert Covington, the latter of which is extremely underrated for what he does on the court; the type that his impact doesn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheets.

As a whole, it’ll be interesting to see what these seven teams end up doing this offseason, as it is imperative that these franchises make smart moves that will not set back their franchise. For now, though, we still have more playoff basketball to watch, so let’s get back to that, shall we?