Cleveland Cavaliers: Possible trade packages for Tristan Thompson

Trade Partner #3 – Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves have been a major disappointment for the past two years now. They have one of the best players in the league in Karl-Anthony Towns and a bit of a disappointing wing in Andrew Wiggins.

While Wiggins is a very good scorer, he doesn’t give them much else and isn’t very efficient. In order for them to take the next step and compete for a playoff spot, he will need to reach his potential.

They have also been trying to get off of Gorgui Dieng‘s contract as he doesn’t necessarily add what they need from a bench big. Tristan Thompson would be a much better fit as a bench rebounder and on-ball defender.

The Cavs would add the extra year of salary for the first-round pick. It would need to be lottery-protected however because the Timberwolves would only make this deal with the hopes of making the playoffs.

If it doesn’t work out for them, they still keep their first-round pick in 2020 (Cavs would receive the pick in 2021 with top-10 protection), and they could let Thompson walk via free agency in the summer of 2020, which would clear some salary for them a year earlier than keeping Dieng.

It’s really a win-win for both teams. For the Cavs, they will have a valuable expiring contract on the books entering the 2020-21 season that they could look to move for another draft pick or young player, or they could simply let it come off of the books in the summer of 2021.

While it will be sad to see Thompson go, it might be wise on the Cavs part to move him for an asset that would help accelerate their rebuild, rather that be a young player like Little or more draft capital.