Wolves' trade of Burke to Jazz looking better

SALT LAKE CITY – Never judge a pro sports' trade by first glance.

That's almost always good advice, and particularly pertinent with a 2013 draft-night deal between the Timberwolves and Utah that now isn't the lopsided transaction it seemed just a year ago.

This time last season, Jazz point guard Trey Burke was finishing up a December in which he'd been named the NBA's Rookie of the Month, the first of three times he won the award. At the same time, rookies Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad couldn't get off coach Rick Adelman's bench for a Wolves team that won 15 more games.

Flash forward a year and Burke remains a productive starter for a Jazz team that's improved mostly because Gordon Hayward is playing like a guy who might be worth that max-salary his team has guaranteed him and because Derrick Favors is playing much better.

Meanwhile, Dieng parlayed Nikola Pekovic's recurring ankle injuries into starter's work to end last season and begin this season, a job he'll probably hold here or elsewhere for the next decade.

Muhammad transformed his body last summer and his game this season with a 13.3- point scoring average that could get him into the NBA's Most Improved Player conversation.

"I like that trade," Wolves president of basketball operations/coach Flip Saunders said simply. "Burke's done a nice job. He'll take big shots. He's a scorer, and he's a pretty tough kid. We like our guys."

He targeted Gonzaga's Kelly Olynyk and Muhammad with the 14th pick; Olynyk was chosen 13th. He had considered Greece's Giannis Antetokounmpo, too, but hoped he'd be available with the 21st. When Milwaukee took Antetokounmpo at No. 15, Saunders chose Dieng over French center Rudy Gobert with the 21st pick.

Utah took Gobert with the 27th pick after the Wolves' traded/sold the 26th pick they owned to create salary room to sign Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer and Chase Budinger that summer.

Dieng and Gobert faced each other again Tuesday, 18 months after they competed against each other in a predraft workout for the Jazz.

Fatigued by a hectic workout schedule that took him from city to city, Dieng had trouble adjusting to Salt Lake City's 4,200-feet elevation. "I almost passed out," Dieng said before Tuesday's game.

• Saunders reports Tuesday injured Ricky Rubio is improving daily. He said Rubio ran much better at practice Monday than he did before Saturday's game at Golden State. Pekovic also has advanced to shooting drills but won't be cleared to run until he gets a MRI in Minnesota after the team returns home.

"They show me a lot of love here," said Williams, who was drafted by Utah in 2003 and returned a decade later to play a second stint.