Knicks Trade Rumors: Five potential destinations for Tim Hardaway Jr.

4. Minnesota Timberwolves

In 2017-18, the Minnesota Timberwolves trended up. Jimmy Butler arrived to join forces with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Pieces were added around them, including Taj Gibson and Jeff Teague. There was even depth off the bench, featuring Gorgui Dieng.

However, one tumultuous offseason and Butler incident later, they’re 23-24. While that’s just two games back of the Western Conference’s eighth seed, this group sits as just another team. President of basketball operations and head coach Tim Thibodeau is out, too, leaving different faces to make roster decisions.

Will the Timberwolves break up this roster? Maybe not the top, but if this isn’t a winning group, reassembling the middle of it makes sense, and they have an expiring contract to move.

Taj Gibson, although productive, is a product of the Thibodeau regime and has a $14 million salary that ends at season’s end. That’s enough to shift to the New York Knicks for Hardaway, at least for a deal’s groundwork, and changes things up for a potential playoff push.

Minnesota can use another backcourt scorer, despite Hardaway’s inefficiencies. They add a veteran to the fray in the process, but it saps them of free-agency flexibility this offseason. Adding an asset from the Knicks side could make this compelling, though their desire to not complicates this.

Acquiring Hardaway also shelves Josh Okogie, a promising rookie, away. He was selected by Thibodeau, but is his development worth risking for someone that likely takes a roster spot for the next three years?