Losers of eight straight, Wolves end 3-game trip tonight in Utah

The Wolves finish up their post-Christmas, three-game trip tonight in Salt Lake City, looking to end an eight-game streak that also includes losses in 14 of their last 15 games.

You'd think they'd have a fighting chance against a Utah team that also is rebuilding and played last night in Los Angeles, losing to the Clippers 101-97.

The Jazz, though, is playing better: They won four of five games -- including a victory over mighty Memphis -- before Monday's loss and the Wolves will have to contend with Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors, not to mention up-and-coming center Rudy Gobert.

A game against Utah always is a chance to revisit that 2013 draft-night trade between the teams, which looks better for the Wolves than it did this time last year because of Shabazz Muhammad's season so far this year.

You'll remember -- especially if you're a Trey Burke fan -- that the Wolves swapped the ninth pick on draft night after Detroit surprised and took guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope eighth. They sent that ninth pick to Utah for the 14th and 21st pick and the Jazz ended up with Burke while the Wolves took Muhammad 14th and Gorgui Dieng 21st.

The Wolves never considered taking Burke with that ninth pick because they already had Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea and Alexey Shved already on the roster.

The Wolves made the deal with Gonzaga center Kelly Olynyk and Muhammad on their radar for that 14th pick. They also considered Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo but favored the aforementioned player both because he was more of an unknown and because they didn't want to gamble on more of project with then-coach Rick Adelman on the bench.

The Wolves then traded/sold their 26th pick in that draft with Gobert still on the board so they'd create enough cap space to sign Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Chase Budinger that summer.

A couple other things:

* Flip Saunders said the team still is considering many options with their 15th roster spot, now held by Jeff Adrien and still they haven't yet decided to sign former Milwaukee center Miroslav Raduljica, who was bought out by his Chinese team last week.

Saunders did acknowledge the team needs to add size to help out Dieng in the middle. The video/statistical analytics the team uses shows both Dieng and Muhammad are playing with less energy the more the team asks of them and Saunders is conscious of the load he's asking both players to carry.

It's still probably likely the Wolves sign Raduljica after such things as visa issues are sorted out, but Saunders said he is "looking at all options."

* Wolves assistant Sidney Lowe also is coming back to EnergySolutions Arena, where he was an assistant to Ty Corbin for three seasons.