MILWAUKEE – The Timberwolves have agreed to acquire guard Monte Morris from the Pistons in exchange for Troy Brown Jr., Shake Milton and a second-round pick to address their bench scoring needs ahead of Thursday's NBA trade deadline. Officials confirmed on Wednesday that the two had tied the knot.
The second round will belong to the Timberwolves in 2030.
Morris, 28, just returned from a quadriceps injury that sidelined him for much of the season and played five seasons in Denver under Tim Connelly, the Tim Connelly president of the Wolves. He is a career 39% three-point shooter.
He will be a free agent after this season and is making $9.8 million this season. The deal would give the Timberwolves an annual salary worth about $800,000, but it would still be about $1.6 million below the luxury tax line. They currently have 13 players on their roster (not including two-way players) and will eventually need to fill the 14th spot per NBA rules, but to do so they will have to wait two weeks to fill the remaining We'll see what happens at the trade deadline and a buyout market breaks out.
Brown appeared in 37 games (three starts) and averaged 4.2 points per game. Milton was signed as a free agent in the offseason and appeared in 38 games, averaging 4.7 points. The Timberwolves made the move in part because Milton, who signed a two-year contract worth $5 million this season, wasn't getting the results they expected.
Milton was a regular member of the rotation early in the season, with the Timberwolves hoping he would be the team's backup point guard and primary creator off the bench, but that role never really clicked for Milton in Minnesota. It seems so. He heads to Detroit after averaging 4.7 points and shooting just 40 percent from the field with the Wolves.
Brown's brief tenure with the Timberwolves included more accomplishments, including a key role in the Timberwolves' victory earlier this season, including a home win over Oklahoma City on Nov. 28 in which he scored 17 points off the bench. was there. Brown was typically solid during his playing time, but was often found on the outside of manager Chris Finch's eight- or nine-man rotation.
Morris played college basketball at Iowa State and was a second-round pick by the Nuggets in 2017. He played in Denver until 2022, then was traded to the Wizards, who traded him to Detroit last offseason.
Prior to this season, Morris averaged double digits in each of his past three seasons. In his career, he averaged just 0.8 turnovers per game, a number that the turnover-prone Wolves could take advantage of.
With the Morris deal, the Timberwolves appear to have made a move before this deadline, but it's hard to say what will happen with the rest of the trade market before Thursday's 2 p.m. deadline. They are scouring the market for a potential scorer off the bench or a backup point guard, according to sources, and were interested in reuniting with Apple Valley's Tyce Jones, but did not have a first-round pick. Jones' likely asking price is far too steep for what the Timberwolves can afford in terms of draft capital. Thanks to the Stepien Rule, which prohibits teams from trading back-to-back first-round picks, the Timberwolves won't be able to trade a first-round pick until 2031 as a result of the Rudy Gobert trade.
The deal also allows the Timberwolves to secure a top second-round pick this offseason. The Wolves will receive a lower second-round pick between Washington (9-40) and Memphis (18-33).
