What are the chances Timberwolves make a deal at the trade deadline?

The second-apron restrictions severely limit anything Minnesota can do.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle works around Los Angeles Clippers forward Nicolas Batum in the second quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis on Jan. 6, 2025. / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Timberwolves are nearing the halfway point of the season and haven't quite lived up to expectations following a Western Conference finals appearance last year, hovering around .500 with a 19-17 record through 36 games.

That's a respectable mark considering the massive roster overhaul in the offseason that included trading franchise staple Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. It was always going to take time to fit in the new pieces, but for some Timberwolves fans, patience is beginning to wear thin. Many fans would like to see the Wolves make a move before the NBA's trade deadline, which is just under a month away, coming at 2 p.m. CT on Feb. 6.

What are the odds the Wolves make a move? Well, first of all, their options are limited.

Minnesota is above the second apron of the luxury tax this season, and as a second-apron team, is severely restricted in the types of deals it's able to construct. The Wolves cannot take on any additional salary in a trade, and they also can't aggregate players' salaries to make the money work, which means they couldn't trade a player who's making $15 million and another who's making $20 million for a player who's making $35 million. Salaries essentially have to match 1-to-1.

As an example, that rules out a potential reunion with Jimmy Butler, who appears to be headed towards an exit with the Miami Heat. Demarcus Cousins threw out the idea of the Wolves trading for Butler on FanDuel's Run It Back podcast on Monday, saying "dogs need other dogs, so I think Jimmy would be a great fit next to Anthony Edwards." While Cousins may like the idea of Butler and Edwards together, a trade simply wouldn't be possible with Butler's $48 million salary.

That doesn't mean there aren't trades out there that would be possible, but the overbearing second-apron restrictions are among the reasons the Timberwolves aren't currently shopping for trades, according to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski.

"From what I understand as of right now, the Wolves' sort of mentality, for the short term at least, is that they are not out there actively shopping in the market for trades," he said on his podcast, The Jon Krawczynski Show, on Tuesday. "No. 1, when they're a second-apron team, it's a lot harder to execute trades just in this new collective bargaining agreement."

The other reason, Krawczynski said, is that the Wolves believe there's a lot of improvement to be had from within. Many players on the roster, particularly Mike Conley and Jaden McDaniels, just haven't been shooting up to their potential. Chris Finch is still figuring out how to fit all the pieces together, recently swapping Conley for DiVincenzo in the starting lineup.

Minnesota is still acclimating Randle and DiVincenzo into the fold, and the team is yet to play its best basketball with the currently constructed roster. There's still time to figure it out for a team that, at 19-17, is eighth in the Western Conference and in a play-in spot, and just two games back of a top-four seed in the standings. It's not time to hit the panic button.

A trade may eventually be what Minnesota needs, but don't expect one to happen imminently.