Wolves trading for Kevin Durant? Minnesota was reportedly serious at deadline, but rules make it easier now

Kevin Durant may have squashed a trade deadline deal to the Golden State Warriors, but they weren’t the only team to pursue the 2014 league MVP in the middle of the season. Reports have indicated that several other teams tried to get him as well, and despite the difficulties such a blockbuster presented, at least one other team made an aggressive push. 

“It became clear to me in talking to the parties involved just how serious the Wolves were about trying to trade for Kevin Durant at the trade deadline,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on his Hoop Collective podcast.

This is not the first report of Minnesota’s interest, but the severity that Windhorst describes is notable because a Durant-to-Minnesota deal was basically impossible during the season. Both the Suns and Timberwolves were above the second apron during the season, so trading with one another would have involved cap gymnastics that just weren’t feasible. At least two significant rules would have all but certainly scuttled any trade that would have sent Durant to Minnesota during the season:

• If a team brings in more salary than it sends out during a trade, it is automatically hard-capped at the first apron. As both teams were above the second apron, neither had any chance of shedding enough money to duck below the first apron during the season. Teams have worked around this rule by including third teams, but both the Suns and Timberwolves had traded away most of their draft picks, so enticing another participant would have been difficult. It could have potentially been doable if not for the next rule we’re going to cover…
• If a team aggregates multiple salaries in a trade, it is hard-capped at the second apron. What this basically means is that Minnesota could not have combined several players to reach the salary-matching requirements for acquiring Durant unless they could shed enough money to get below the second apron in the process. With only Detroit having cap space during the season, doing so would have been extremely difficult.

The rules are set up to make it so hard for second-apron teams to trade with one another that, outside of one specific circumstance, it usually just isn’t plausible. If two second-apron teams are making a trade in which only one player is moving in each direction and those players have the exact same salary, down to the dollar, these rules can be avoided. But obviously, in most trades, that won’t be the case. Therefore, for the Timberwolves to seriously have pursued Durant during the season, they would have needed to find an extraordinarily creative solution to the cap problems both they and the Suns were facing. Even trying shows that they must indeed have been very serious about their pursuit.

Which is pretty notable as we enter an offseason in which Durant is widely expected to get traded. We now know that the Timberwolves should be among the more interested parties, and the rules are going to be much easier for them to navigate over the summer. As of right now, Minnesota is below the second apron for the 2025-26 season. Phoenix is above it, but with team options and non-guaranteed contracts, it can pretty easily get below if needed. And then, of course, during the offseason, more teams are in a position to potentially serve as a facilitator because they have empty roster spots, cap exceptions, and, in Brooklyn’s case, cap space. If the Suns and Timberwolves are motivated to make a deal, they should be able to legally complete one.

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Jasmyn Wimbish

The questions that arise thereafter are basketball-related. The Timberwolves were underwhelming for most of the regular season, but got hot down the stretch and wound up reaching the Western Conference finals. Are they as interested in making major changes to their team after that success? Or did their five-game decimation at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder show them how much work they still have to do if they hope to seriously compete for the championship next season?

And what would a trade look like? Minnesota would almost certainly take prized wing defender Jaden McDaniels off the table entirely. Could they build a package around Julius Randle (who would presumably opt into the final year of his deal and sign an extension in Phoenix) or Rudy Gobert? They don’t have tradable first-round picks outside of the No. 17 pick this year, but they do have young players like Rob Dillingham, Terrence Shannon or Jaylen Clark to sweeten the deal. Throw in a role player or two and maybe Phoenix could be enticed.

The Timberwolves have one of the most aggressive front offices in basketball. Three offseasons ago, they traded a mountain of picks to get Gobert. Last October, they swapped Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a pick. They aren’t going to sit on their hands, and Durant was Anthony Edwards’ childhood idol. This is a sensible fit for a lot of reasons, and now that we know how aggressively Minnesota chased Durant during the season, we should have every reason to expect a similar pursuit this summer.