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#WojBomb: Wolves Trade Jeff Teague & Treveon Graham for Allen Crabbe

Trade SZN is finally under way!

NBA: Atlanta Hawks at New York Knicks Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

With the NBA Trade Deadline officially three weeks away (February 6, 2020), it’s been relatively quiet around the league in terms of rumors and activity. Thanks to General Rosas and the Human Trade Machine Sachin Gupta, that has all changed:

And just like that, the Jeff Teague era in Minneapolis has officially come to an end. In short, this is the transaction equivalent of shuffling deck chairs on a cruise ship, with all three players involved in this deal being on expiring contracts after this season (Allen Crabbe at $18,500,000, Jeff Teague at $19,000,000, and Treveon Graham at $1,600,000).

Nevertheless, the deal makes sense for both Minnesota and Atlanta — the Wolves were desperate for outside shooting, and now control Crabbe’s bird right if they decide he fits as a complimentary piece going forward (he’s still only 27). As for the Hawks, they have been desperate themselves to add a ball handler behind Trae Young, and possessed a chest of expiring deals (Chandler Parsons, Evan Turner, and Crabbe) to make a deal like this work (luckily for the Wolves, they got the one expiring contract who can actually still produce on the floor).

Final thoughts — with the Wolves sending out more players than they will be taking in (#math), this obviously opens a roster spot for additional moves down the road. Whether or not the Wolves actually hold onto Crabbe is one thing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this new, fresh roster spot is used to sign a young G-League guy (*winks at Kelan Martin*) to a deal similar to what Naz Reid got (Martin is nearing the end of his allotted 45-days as part of the two-way contract he signed with Minnesota back in August 2019).

As for some popular Twitter reactions:

So in the end, the Wolves sent out two players who had very little value to the franchise going forward, replaced them with a shooter, and added a roster spot, which means this “way too early” trade grade is a definite A. With three weeks until the deadline, we can expect Rosas & Co. to continue to be aggressive as they finally start putting their stamp on the roster leading up to what is likely to be another insane summer of transactions.