Patrick Beverley is on the move again, now headed to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal involving a former lottery pick.
On Sunday night, Patrick Beverley was sent to the Memphis Grizzlies in a deal that brought Eric Bledsoe to the Los Angeles Clippers. The veteran point guard and noted agitator is on the move again quickly. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Beverley is on his way to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Jarrett Culver and Juancho Hernangomez.
Culver is a former lottery pick (No. 6 overall in the 2019 draft), so the Grizzlies have added a young player who probably needed a chance of scenery to the mix. Hernangomez probably deserved more playing time than he got in Minnesota, and he’s only approaching his 26th birthday.
Patrick Beverley is a familiar face to Timberwolves’ brass
Beverley spent the last four seasons with the Clippers. Last season, he averaged 7.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists over 37 games. He spent his first five NBA seasons with the Houston Rockets, and there are roots of familiarity from there stretching now to Minnesota.
In Houston Beverley overlapped with Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, who spent many years in the Rockets’ front office. Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was an assistant coach for the Rockets from 2011-2016, overlapping with Beverley for all five of his seasons there too. So he is a player Rosas and Finch know well. Even with years not together since then, they clearly think he’ll be a needed veteran leader for a young Minnesota team.
The Timberwolves have routinely finished toward the bottom of the league in virtually any defensive metric over the last few years, as their key players show (at best) inconsistent level of interest in guarding anyone. Beverley’s biggest on-court impact will clearly be defensively, as a three-time All-NBA defender, where he’ll be a tone-setter beyond any stats he may put up.