Bill Simmons refuels Damian Lillard for Karl-Anthony Towns idea

"It's a trade that makes sense on paper for a lot of reasons, for both teams," Simmons added.

Damian Lillard in Minnesota? No chance, right? 

By all accounts, namely from trustworthy insiders like Jon Krawczynski, the Timberwolves plan to run it back with Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley. But Bill Simmons stirred the pot on his podcast Monday when he re-introduced the idea of a Damian Lillard for Towns trade. 

"We don't really have a Dame Lillard trade and I'm wondering...you wonder if Dame Lillard's watching this going, ‘You know what? Me for Towns. You just switch us. We have Gobert. We have Edwards. It’s kinda nice. Me and Ant together, I'd be aligned with this guy who's clearly going to be one of the best five or six guys in the league. Maybe that’s a better situation for me than anywhere else and I want to win a title and this doesn't seem unrealistic to me. F*** it. Minnesota. I'm adding them to the list,'" said Simmons. 

"It's a trade that makes sense on paper for a lot of reasons, for both teams," Simmons added. "Portland going, 'Oh, cool, I have a 27-year-old stretch five who averages basically 24 and 10 every game and I get to put him with Scoot Henderson and my guards and I have a more interesting team."

Back in early July, NBA insider Chris Haynes reported that Minnesota was among the teams to call Portland about Lillard, but they were "quickly eliminated" as a possibility. 

At the end of the day, there doesn't appear to be any substance to Simmons's talking point. It's just an idea that he thinks makes sense. And if you think it's more than that, then just go check out the description of show and see how it describes many of the topics as "half-baked ideas."

"I actually think he's underrated," Simmons noted about Towns. “I know what Portland’s gonna do. They’re just gonna go into the season w/ Dame. They’re gonna bank on the fact he wants to play basketball. And then they’re gonna know that a better trade will be available in December. They’re not gonna take that crappy Miami thing. But I do think the Towns piece is interesting."

If Lillard to Miami doesn't happen and Towns looks awesome the first couple months of the season, then maybe the realistic odds of a Lillard for Towns swap will increase. Until then, prepare for the Wolves to run it back in 2023-24.