The Minnesota Timberwolves have lost four straight games to drop their record to 8-12 this season and they have recently been linked to some trade rumors. There are reports that the Timberwolves are getting a lot of calls on forward Shabazz Muhammad but at this point they have not shown any signs of willingness to trade him, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Muhammad's career path has been quite an interesting one as he came out of high school as the number one recruit in the nation before attending UCLA for one year. At UCLA Muhammad was pretty good but for a variety of reasons his draft stock dropped and he was selected 14th overall by the Utah Jazz before being traded to Minnesota on a draft day deal. Muhammad has not become the type of player that he looked like he could be in the NBA but he is still a talented player and just 23 years old so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he is getting interest from other teams.
The Timberwolves recently picked up Muhammad's option for the 2016-17 season which means he is not nearing free agency so the Wolves want to keep their young talent for now. Also, despite the fact that the Timberwolves are on a losing streak, they still feel they have a shot at the playoff and Muhammad is a part of their rotation. The 6 foot-6 small forward has appeared in all 20 games and is averaging 8.0 points on 46 percent shooting from the field.
Muhammad has never played more than 38 games in a season in his brief two plus year career but last season he found his niche and played really well. Muhammad had a PER of 19.9 in 38 games a season ago but has come back down this season as he is at an 11.9 PER and he is shooting a career low 26 percent from three.
The main reason teams are engaging Minnesota on Muhammad is because they are a very deep team, particularly on the wings, so there was some thought that they might be willing to part with him but as of right now rival executives say they are not willing to move him. A trade would likely be the best thing for Muhammad as he has shown a propensity for scoring when given the chance but he is averaging just 17.6 minutes per game this season. To the Timberwolves though, they likely wouldn't be able to get anything back in a trade that is more valuable than a talent like Muhammad.
