So you had big hopes that the Timberwolves would make a trade before last week's deadline? Sorry, that never materialized.

Then you set your sights on some of the most appealing buyout candidates — players either traded at the deadline for salary reasons and then dumped immediately by their new teams or players that teams couldn't unload and were likely to reach agreements with their existing teams to part ways.

Sorry, a lot of those guys are gone, too. Before you could even fixate on how much Joe Johnson has left in the tank, he agreed to join the Rockets. Marco Belinelli? Forget it. The 76ers grabbed him.

That said, the discard pile isn't completely picked over. On the RandBall blog, I took a look at five guys who could be of interest to the Timberwolves. Players must be signed by March 1 to be eligible for the postseason, so any of these moves would need to get done in the next two weeks or so.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.