The NBA trade market was a wild place over the past five days, with superstars being swapped and other high-level players moving for various levels of compensation. Only four teams didn’t make a trade.

The Timberwolves were one of them.

The deadline came and went without a move for the Timberwolves. Of course, Minnesota made its major splash on the eve of training camp, when it dealt Karl-Anthony Towns to New York in exchange for Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle.

DiVincenzo and Randle are both currently out for multiple weeks, which leaves the Wolves weakened at the moment. That complicates the equation as Minnesota tries to earn a top-six seed in the Western Conference and avoid the play-in round.

But the organization maintains a belief that, when healthy, this team could be primed for a run. Jaden McDaniels’ overall production has up ticked of late. Naz Reid is the NBA’s best 3-point shooter by percentage (54%) since the calendar flipped to 2025, and Randle and DiVincenzo were both finding roles on their new team before going down with the injuries.

With Randle, that meant finding the right lineup combinations and adjusting his style of play to benefit those around him. For DiVincenzo, it was simply the feeling comfortable enough to play his game with aggression and tact.

If all of those positive developments can meld when the Wolves return to full strength, they could be positioned to make a push in a Wester Conference that is fairly open outside of Oklahoma City, which has cemented itself as the conference’s team to beat.

But it’s fair to say the landscape is a little murkier after some of the seismic shifts that occurred just before the trade deadline.

San Antonio doesn’t look like a win-now team, but the addition of star point guard De’Aaron Fox to pair with Victor Wembanyama at least makes the Spurs a tough out. Who knows what version of Jimmy Butler is going to Golden State — he was traded for another familiar face, Andrew Wiggins — but he has proven that, when at his best, he can carry any team deep into the playoffs.

Luka Doncic and LeBron James are two of the best postseason performers of the past two decades, and they’re now on the same team. And while Dallas may no longer have Doncic, but it does have the personnel to be frighteningly good on the defensive end.

But all of their decks have been shuffled. and it’s not uncommon for such shakeups to require time to settle before the true benefits are revealed. Minnesota was not good in the first season after it dealt for Rudy Gobert. Dallas was horrendous immediately after trading for Kyrie Irving at the deadline of that same season.

In the short term, stability can be king. Perhaps that will benefit Minnesota down the stretch this season. Houston, Memphis and Oklahoma City also largely held firm.