It’s no secret that the Minnesota Timberwolves are enamored with Golden State Warriors guard D’Angelo Russell. The Wolves tried to acquire Russell in the offseason when he was a restricted free agent but fell short to Golden State, which offered the former Brooklyn Nets‘ star a max contract. One of the deciding factors in Russell selecting Golden State over Minnesota had to do with the weather, and yet the Wolves are still trying to pry him out of the Bay Area to come play with one of his closest friends in Minneapolis.

However, it appears that they’ll once again miss out on their top target. According to a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Warriors are “moving on” from the trade talks after the Timberwolves failed to meet their asking price. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN added that the Warriors are still exploring other potential deals, but are not insistent on moving Russell. 

This outcome is not all that surprising considering earlier reports from Charania suggested that the Wolves were wary of paying such a high price for Russell. Via The Athletic:

So far in the Warriors-Timberwolves talks, Golden State would only consider a deal that has significant draft pick compensation as part of any Minnesota package, according to league sources. As a team currently in a rebuild, the Timberwolves are reluctant to sacrifice too much of their own draft capital in deals, including one for Russell.

Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns are extremely close, and while the two have previously talked about playing together — in addition to Devin Booker — it hasn’t happened yet. The two would be a dream pairing for a Minnesota team that has been desperate to find a star point guard to place alongside Towns, and it sounds like the Warriors tried to use that desperation to their advantage in trade talks with Minnesota. 

The Wolves have lost 12 games in a row, and Towns — who was out from mid-December to mid-January with a knee injury — hasn’t won a game since late November. During that time they’ve dropped all the way to second-last in the Western Conference at 15-34, and are looking at another lottery appearance. Even though he’s just 24 years old, and recently signed a five-year contract with the team, the Wolves are already in a position where they’re going to have to start winning soon or risk losing their best player. 

Pursuing a Russell deal was clearly part of a strategy to get more competitive. It’s too late for this season, but Russell and Towns could form an inside-outside partnership that would bring them closer to playoff contention moving forward. And that they’re already friends would have been even better. 

Still, even though the deal makes sense from the Wolves’ perspective, Russell isn’t good enough to blow up all of your other plans to get him, and that appears to be the calculation they made by not reaching the Warriors’ asking price. Perhaps something changes before the deadline on Thursday and they get desperate, but it looks like Towns won’t be teaming up with his friend any time soon.