Minnesota Timberwolves

A fun theory about Shabazz Muhammad trade rumors

Published Dec. 11, 2015 1:59 p.m. ET

foxsports

A few days ago, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports! dropped this mini-Woj bomb on basketball Twitter:

Muhammad is having a solid season as a scorer off the Timberwolves' bench this season, but his shooting numbers are down from last year, as are his minutes. Canis Hoops offers an interesting theory on where the rumors could be coming from:

Muhammad is restricted at the end of the year, so this makes sense. That said, we know there are other teams who have inquired about Bazz, who is getting just 17.8 minutes a night season season.

I see no reason why everything in this tweet wouldn't be true. I'm sure teams are intrigued and have inquired about his availability, because he is a player who is still on his rookie deal, has shown some interesting skills in the past, and is not getting a ton of playing time. Why wouldn't teams inquire?

What I do wonder about is whether Muhammad's agent Rob Pelinka is part of this agitation given the reduction in playing time he's seen this season and the fact that restricted free agency is on the horizon.

I also believe that the Wolves, for now, are fending teams off.