Despite losing their best player over the summer, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a pretty solid core of talented young players, and they’ve been trying to add more experienced talent to them, recently consisting of trade talks with the Phoenix Suns for Eric Bledsoe.

Apparently, this has been going on for quite some time. The Minnesota Timberwolves, who also have the Ricky Rubio contract extension issue hanging over their heads after pretty much being forced to trade Kevin Love, have been talking to the Phoenix Suns about possible deal packages for Eric Bledsoe, who has proven to be quite stubborn this summer about the money he wants to get despite not doing much since he’s been in the NBA.

Despite losing their best player in Kevin Love, the Timberwolves don’t see this as the beginning of a rebuilding phase. They have plenty of young talent, but also veterans in what seems to be a promising build up, at least in terms of style and fun basketball levels. It probably won’t be enough for the playoffs, but Minnesota shouldn’t be taking too many steps backwards because Kevin Love left the team.

There’s plenty of young talent to build a deal around, but considering how much money Bledsoe wants, it might not be possible at all. The Timberwolves have two lottery pick rookies with Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, the added Anthony Bennett and also Gorgui Dieng who has earned a lot of credit during the second half of last season and in the basketball world cup. Still, seeing as how they have one big contract to deal with at the moment, going all in for Bledsoe and sacrificing a big chunk of their future doesn’t make sense unless they were aiming for a championship now.

A restricted free agent, it seems Bledsoe will sign the one-year contract which means making a lot less than what the Suns were offering him ($12 million a season), but gives him the opportunity to make up that money if he signs a big deal once he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2015. It might mean we’re going to see a very big season from Bledsoe in 2014-15 after missing almost half of it during his first year with the Suns, something that might have cost them a playoff spot.

As a one-year player, it’s hard to believe the Timberwolves will go for Bledsoe. They’ve already been burnt by one star, demanding and getting his trade. Now they might find themselves in a similar situation with Rubio as the negotiations continue, so adding someone like Bledsoe for players that might be better in a year or two doesn’t sound all that great, not to mention mostly bad contracts like the ones they have with Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic to endure.

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