NBA Trade Deadline 2020: The 20 best players available

4. Robert Covington — F, Minnesota Timberwolves — Salary of $11,301,219

It’s not clear that Covington will be available at the trade deadline. But the Wolves are going nowhere fast, and they have a number of intriguing, young players who have earned time in the second half of the season, like Jarrett Culver. They need to build a good team around Karl-Anthony Towns, and they haven’t proven able to do that. That Towns has spent so much of this year injured further serves to make Covington a luxury the Wolves can’t afford. Though Covington fits well around Towns, perhaps selling him for a king’s ransom would prove a better way of building the team going forward.

Covington is the exact model of player every contender wants. A long-armed defensive menace, Covington has the chops to bother the foremost stars in the league, from Kawhi Leonard to LeBron James, James Harden to Luka Doncic. He has among the best block and steal rates for his position among the entire league. His hands can seem like glue guns, capable of shooting out at unseen moments, and the ball always seems to stick no matter the angle or speed of contact.

And that’s just Covington’s ability on the defensive end. He’s an excellent standstill shooter, and that’s enough to matter offensively; when he plays, the Wolves score 7.7 points more per 100 possessions than when he sits. He doesn’t bring too much beyond shooting, but he’s the prototypical 3-D wing, and he’s on a low salary, so plenty of teams will try to pry him loose at the deadline. He would look perfect on a team like the Brooklyn Nets, who already have plenty of initiators. His price will be extremely high if he goes anywhere.