The Timberwolves were among several teams that reached out to the Milwaukee Bucks about a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade before the deadline and will almost certainly circle back this offseason. In Tim Connelly's exit interview for Minnesota on Wednesday, the president of basketball operations reiterated that he isn't afraid to take risks (subscription required), such as trading for the 31-year-old superstar or even the 34-year-old Kyrie Irving.
“I’d rather get fired for trying than sit here and just do the job in survival mode,” Connelly said. “So risky, I think, is if you’re a championship-level team and make a huge trade. I don’t know what level of risk there is when you’re bounced in the second round. I think we’re open to it. Certainly, we’re not driven by it.”
Connelly's track record proves he's not just all talk. He brought Rudy Gobert to Minnesota and traded Karl-Anthony Towns to New York before the 2024-25 season, in exchange for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. That was a few months after the Timberwolves made the conference finals for the first time in 20 years.
He isn't afraid to swing for the fences, so if the Bucks are serious about listening to offers for Antetokounmpo, as Shams Charania of ESPN reported a little over a week ago, Milwaukee will hear from Minnesota (if it hasn't already).
Timberwolves' second-round exit upped their chances of Giannis trade
The only way Minnesota probably wouldn't have been interested in an Antetokounmpo trade this offseason would have been if the team won it all. Making it even as far as the NBA Finals might not have been enough to keep Connelly away. He's set on leading the Timberwolves to a championship.
Going after Giannis is probably at the top of his list this summer, though it'd mean parting ways with Gobert, Randle, or Naz Reid. The Bucks shouldn't want to keep any of those three players around long-term, but maybe a multi-team deal would work. Even then, Minnesota doesn't have the draft assets to pique Milwaukee's interest enough.
If there is a team that can still figure out how to get something done, though, it's the Timberwolves. It would help their case if Antetokounmpo wanted to be in Minnesota, and The Stein Line reported in January that he's interested in playing alongside Anthony Edwards. It's hard to think he'd feel any different now than he did then.
Still, the Bucks have to prioritize putting themselves in the best possible position for their post-Giannis future. They can get more from other teams, but as the past has shown, you can't rule Connelly and the Timberwolves out.
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