NBA Trade Season Must Be Upon Us Because D'Angelo Russell Has Already Started Retweeting Cryptic Messages And Unfollowed The Timberwolves On Instagram

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The NBA trade deadline is a little over a month away which means one thing. It's time for cryptic social media posts/actions from NBA players on the trade block! 

I love this yearly tradition. Every tweet, RT, emoji etc sends the internet into a frenzy. We all turn into Charlie the second it hits our timeline

Usually, about 95% of the time it's NBA players trolling all of us because this shit is like catnip for us normal people. We love drama, we love rumors, and we LOVE trade season. Other times it does give you an insight into what's actually going on and since we can't tell which is which, you may as well believe them all as far as I'm concerned.

Which brings me to D'Angelo Russell. 

At the moment, the Wolves are in a bit of a pickle. They currently sit at 17-21 and in the 11th spot out West, and while KAT has been out for a while, things weren't exactly great even when he was playing. The Gobert addition hasn't really changed much about their team defensively (14th), offensively they're still in the middle of the pack (17th), and they have a clear issue at the point guard position. 

This is now the 3rd full season DLo has been in MIN (played 12 games after he was traded there in 2019), and he hasn't exactly solved any of their issues like I imagined they hoped he would. His numbers have dipped since his BKN run and he's been around 17-19 points and 5-7 assists in his 154 games as a TWolve and you could make the case that the honeymoon phase is starting to wear off. With potential trade rumors swirling, our first player Twitter activity has hit the timeline

Ruh roh. Time sure does fly doesn't it? It wasn't too long ago the vibe around DLo and the Wolves was much, much better

But when you underachieve, the vibes suddenly aren't so hot. Given where Russell is in terms of his contract, it does force the Wolves to make a decision

If he's not going to be a part of their future, and his play hasn't really made a difference this season, you have to be proactive. Losing that asset/salary slot for nothing would be bad basketball management. Even if you have to take 60 cents on the dollar, it's not a crazy idea that the Wolves would be looking to move DLo. It's honestly not all that different than what the Mavs are currently experiencing with Christian Wood

he's another guy who is an expiring contract and can leave for nothing if they don't agree on that extension. 

So while there will for sure be more emojis and more cryptic tweets as we get closer to the deadline, when it comes to DLo I do think this one is legit. You then have to wonder what this means in terms of KAT and his happiness with MIN given that this two big idea has flopped and they could potentially move on from one of his best friends. I'm not sure who the Wolves even get as a replacement for DLo, but maybe it means running more offense with Anthony Edwards as the initiator which has shown some positive flashes as of late.

Given that this is one of the more exciting times of the year we can have on the internet in regards to the NBA, I'm ready for all the chaos. I'm ready to be baited by emojis, I'm ready to dive into who is following and unfollowing who, I'm ready for rumors that will never happen. I'm ready to hear about how many players the Miami Heat are interested in only to not trade for any of them. Bring it on.