This is an insane take. I need Wolves fans to take just one minute to put their thinking caps on and imagine that it’s 2026. Anthony Edwards is entering his prime at 25. He’s a top 3 player in the league. He’s alongside Jaden McDaniels, who is an elite defensive player. Naz Reid is 27, in his prime, KAT is 31 and aging gracefully with his shooting. Gobert is 34 and barely a presence anymore, but the regular seasons were great!

This team is one impact player away from contending. So they trade their first round pick for a PG. Wait, sorry, they already traded it for Gobert, who is no longer playing. So they trade next year’s pick. Oh, sorry, wait, they’ve already traded that one too. So they trade the following year’s pick. Oh wait, they can only swap that pick, because of Rudy Gobert. So they trade the following year’s pick. Wouldn’t you know it! They traded that pick for Rudy Gobert :(. Rudy Gobert is NO LONGER ON THE TEAM at this point. And they won’t even be halfway to paying off what they paid for him. Which happens to be, roughly, every first round pick that lines up with Anthony Edwards’ prime.

The next three years better be REALLY, REALLY good. Because the Timberwolves just traded all of their trade ammunition from Anthony Edwards’ prime, in exchange for the rights to pay Rudy Gobert a max contract until he’s 34. If the Wolves don’t win a championship, this was a massive mess up. Because they are borrowing from the best championship window this team is probably ever going to have in 2026-2028. It’s insane they did this trade. If they win a championship, all is forgiven of course. But it’s unhinged to suggest that being good for 17 games one year makes it already worthwhile. Do you understand what they gave up here?

The Nets did not go to the ECF. The Lakers had zero success with their big 3, all their success came when they were built around 2

It tends to be the exact opposite in nearly every case. The big-3 style teams have tended to fail when they have a bunch of vet mins around top end stars. People actually get really hyped by the vet min additions and then are surprised when the team is struggling with practical depth 20 games into the season.

The issue is that a lot of the vet min deals tend to be either old guys who get hurt or Christian Wood-type cast offs. Occasionally a team finds a diamond in the rough, but for the most part things tend not to work out with the vet mins anymore. It’s been over 10 years since the Heatles.