Sachin Gupta: No trade was worth the risk for Timberwolves

CHICAGO – Timberwolves Executive Vice President Sachin Gupta made his way up the ladder in the NBA as an analytical mind, an MIT and Stanford graduate proficient in using data to help inform decision making.

But as Gupta was weighing what to do with the Wolves before Thursday's trade deadline, something that is hard for data to measure played a major role in his decision to not make any moves at all — team chemistry.

Gupta said Friday he didn't pull the trigger on any deals, even a marginal move, because he didn't want to upset the "good vibes" happening with this Wolves team.

That's not to say Gupta would have shied away from a chance to upgrade the roster this season and into the future, but there was no deal out there the Wolves liked that was worth the risk of upsetting the current roster.

"It's been a long enough stretch, that we feel confident that there's something really to that," Gupta said. "Whenever you make some change, there's always some risk, for sure. … On the margin it's not worth it. It's not worth that risk when we do feel really good about what we have going there."

Gupta's priority at the trade deadline was finding a deal that would have helped the Wolves this season and in future seasons. He didn't want to trade assets for a player who would not be on the roster beyond this season and said there wasn't a deal like that out there that made sense for the Wolves.

"Just weren't able to find the right opportunity that strikes the balance between helping us now while continuing to hold on to the upside this roster has and that we have with all the assets available to us," Gupta said.

In evaluating the team, Gupta said he was encouraged by how well the bench has played of late, how well the starters play together, and that success over the past few weeks is more real than mirage. The Wolves were 13-7 since January.

"We want to give this group time to breathe and time to continue to grow," Gupta said. "Coach [Chris Finch] has done a terrific job, and there's still tremendous upside in this group with the young players that we have, so I'm excited to see how it continues to grow. We'll have opportunities this summer to continue to upgrade."

Gupta has run the basketball operations since Gersson Rosas was fired in September, and it was easy for him to let the deadline pass without making any moves that would have put his imprint on the team.

"I didn't have to actively fight that," Gupta said. "I could imagine the perception that I would want to put my stamp on things and make a move just for the sake of it. But that's just not how I operate. I'm going to operate from a position of what is best for this franchise, not for me."

The Wolves, who entered Friday as the No. 7 seed, have their eyes on reaching the top six seeds in the Western Conference and avoiding the play-in tournament, and that goal is still within reach even after the Wolves made no trades, Gupta said.

"We don't feel like any of the teams around us made moves that we feel like put them out of reach," Gupta said. "It's an exciting time for this team, not just the importance of every single one of our games night in and night out, but even when we're not playing we're all scoreboard watching with the teams just below us and the teams just ahead of us."

The Wolves still have an open roster spot and could look to the buyout market for added frontcourt depth. Given the team's constraints against the luxury tax, Gupta said they wouldn't likely be able to take on a prorated minimum contract until early March.

But Gupta likes the depth the Wolves have, and that's one reason why he didn't want to tinker with the roster as is.

"The ceiling is pretty high for this group over the next several years," Gupta said.