The logic when the Wolves and Cavaliers involved the 76ers in their summer trade in which the big pieces were Kevin Love and Andrew Wiggins was this on Minnesota's end: Philadelphia was willing to part with power forward Thad Young, who could replace Love's minutes on a young, rebuilding team. Philadelphia took a couple of contracts off Minnesota's hands and received a real asset, too: a top-10 protected pick in 2015 from Miami.
The Wolves could have had that pick instead of Young had they kept the trade simply between two teams (though they presumably wouldn't have been able to offload those contracts). Some think the Wolves would have been better off keeping the pick, though some of that is hindsight now that the Wolves' season has descended more rapidly into a full scale rebuild thanks to injuries to several key veterans.
Whatever you think of the original trade, there is now this: Marc Stein from ESPN is reporting the Wolves are willing to trade Young, and it sounds like Brooklyn is a suitor.
Dealing Young now makes some sense. He's a useful player and a good guy. But he also has a player option next year at around $10 million, money the Wolves could conceivably spend on other assets while hoping Anthony Bennett or someone else grabs hold of the power forward spot in the future.
That said, if the Wolves aren't able to get a real asset in return for Young, those who were scratching their heads over bringing Young to Minnesota in the first place are going to be looking smarter.
