The Timberwolves, led by D’Angelo Russell‘s close friend Karl-Anthony Towns, were confident about their ability to get a commitment from Russell in free agency and went into their Sunday meeting with him ready to make the trades necessary to make a deal work, sources tell Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Minnesota was just waiting for the green light from D-Lo to move forward on those trades, but the All-Star point guard instead opted to join the Warriors.
The Suns were viewed as a team that might try to get into the mix for Russell, who has another good friend – Devin Booker – in Phoenix. However, despite Booker’s campaign, Phoenix chose not to pursue the RFA guard, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. According to Rankin, the Suns “apparently felt Russell wouldn’t have been a good influence on Booker off the court.”
The Warriors, with their veteran leaders, apparently had no such qualms about D-Lo, who – by all accounts – matured considerably during his time in Brooklyn.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- After agreeing to sign a three-year, $40MM deal with the Clippers, Patrick Beverley tells Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times that he turned down a more lucrative offer from the Kings to return to L.A. “I got a bigger offer from Sacramento and I took $9-10 million less to come here,” Beverley said. “… It was the right decision. Of course, the human part of you wants to take as much money as you see, but all money isn’t good money. I did what was best for me and my family and I did what was best to stay on a winning team, and I feel like I made the right decision.”
- Despite Beverley’s comments, Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link) hears that the Kings offered the veteran guard a guaranteed total of $35MM over three years, with a partial guarantee in year three. Theoretically, it’s possible that Beverley’s claim could still be accurate if that third-year partial guarantee was very small and he’s including the non-guaranteed money as part of Sacramento’s bid.
- Before he agreed to return to the Rockets for the veteran’s minimum, Austin Rivers had offers in the range of the $5.7MM taxpayer mid-level exception, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. “Now that the league is wide open, I just saw an opportunity,” Rivers said. “You can’t really put a price on happiness. The goal was to come back to Houston all along. I think we have the team to beat.”
- The Trail Blazers have announced Terry Stotts‘ coaching staff for the upcoming season, with Nate Tibbetts replacing David Vanterpool as the team’s associate head coach. Portland has also promoted Jim Moran to the front of the bench and hired former NBA guard Jannero Pargo as an assistant.
Kawhi is in SF right now.
So the Kings gave Joseph more than they offered Beverly? Call me crazy but I doubt it.
That was very rude by Russell. He might pay for that if GSW flips him away from MIN. He said MIN was top of his list. Guess he lied
Not necessarily. His list may not have had GS as an option. That hit all of us out of nowhere.
Imagine how Towns feels.
Warriors lost Durant but the D-Lo acquisition is very good. A Steph-D’Lo backcourt duo is an offensive juggernaut. When Klay recovers & comes back, he can easily transition to the 3 position. Steph, D’Lo and Klay still gives the Warriors A LOT of ammo. Not as explosive with KD but will not run out of bullets.
I’d be surprised if those three ever see the court together for GSW. The Warriors will be better off flipping him to another team a year from now if Klay proves to be healthy enough
Read earlier that GSW signed D-Lo to replace Durant but plan to trade him after Klay returns if the right trade offer surfaces.
Everything depends on how well the team is playing at that point. If they are winning and Dlo is playing well with all 3 on the court no trade happens. Only way Dlo is traded is if the team is struggling and not making the playoffs.
Russell was acquired almost for free to be flipped. He’ll be made available when Klay is back if he’s not already.
But some other team will have to want him, so him playing well may actually speed his departure.