Who The Timberwolves Will and Should Draft

WOLVES FANS! Draft day is upon us, in a few short minutes we will know who the Minnesota Timberwolves selected with the first* overall pick in the NBA Draft.

^{*assuming they don’t trade down}

Now, we can get on about how this it’s so perfectly Minnesota Sports Luck to win the NBA Draft Lottery a year before one of the strongest draft classes in recent history. We can lament that there’s no clear cut No. 1 guy like a Zion to make the decision easy.

But I am an optimist idiot, so I am gonna try to look at the bright side. The Timberwolves have picks 1, 17. and 33. That’s a fair amount of draft capital to do some maneuvering. The NBA is somewhat of a Wild Wild West when it comes to trades, so for the sake of simplicity I am going to pretend that any trades the Wolves do tonight will only be related to the draft. If you want to see some insane trade machine where the Wolves wind up with someone like Ben Simmons, look here instead.

Let’s focus on the 3 main guys and two more I like instead.

THE BIG THREE

I figured let’s get it going talking about the 3 prospects that are generally considered the 3 most “surefire” things in this draft. That would be LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman, and Anthony Edwards.

First up, let’s talk LaMelo Ball. Supposedly the best of the Ball Brothers, who has been playing overseas for awhile. Ball is a 6’7″ point guard who needs the ball in his hands to make plays, but the plays he does make are pretty damn good. I’ll be honest, I’ve been against this guy for a long time because I can’t stand his father and all of the attention and arrogance LaVar brings with him. But I am willing to go back and delete a lot of tweets if I have to.

Next up, James Wiseman. A big man who played (3 games) at Memphis last year even after he got caught in a recruiting scandal. While you have to respect anyone who is willing to give the NCAA the bird, ultimately he would just be KATs backup.

He’s an enticing piece, and would be great trade bait to a team that needs a big like Houston (assuming they still have a basketball team next season) or Golden State. The Warriors actually have the assets to make something interesting work, including our first round pick next year we gave up in the DLo trade.

Still, as exciting a player he can be, I don’t see Rosas assembling a squad of 7 footers in today’s NBA. Which leads us to the next guy on the list.

Anthony Edwards Is Stupid.

Anthony Edwards is so dumb he deserves his own category here. Edwards is a UGA hooper who primarily plays at the 2. He’s probably the best athlete of the bunch. As of right now, Edwards is actually the betting favorite to go first overall.

But there are some things you should know about him from an interview he did with ESPN’s Alex Scarborough:

I’m not sure if it’s funnier to me that he thinks he’s a legit rapper (I’m willing to eat crow if I’m wrong in 4 years) or that he thinks the NFL would allow him more freedoms than the NBA. Now in fairness, Scarborough did follow back up with him two weeks after that interview and this is what he said:

In the follow up, he clearly got some coaching from his agent on how to not fumble the fucking bag. He hit his talking points. He said what he needed to say to try and convince NBA teams he does, in fact, like the game teams are trying to pay him millions of dollars to play.

Not content to simply have teams question his work ethic, someone on reddit also pointed out that he’s a complete moron.

If the whole “would quit basketball to play football tomorrow” vibe wasn’t a big enough red flag, Edwards’ inability to understand the concept of hibachi should be enough to convince you that the Wolves are better off without him.

Another Option: Trading Down

Pretty much just throwing this in here because I know it will make Brew mad that I always find a way to bring up Auburn in a blog.

Consider this: a 6’6″ small forward with a motor on defense and a knack for inside scoring. Sounds kinds nice to complement our otherwise not great defensive team of outside shooters. I present to you, Isaac Okoro.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy to death but we shouldn’t take him first overall. So if we can find a way to trade down into the lower 10s and get him as well as future assets, I think that’s an absolute no brainer. He fills a slot on the roster where we’re a little thin. He has good size to defend well. And he can actually score inside.

His shot needs some work, but all the intangibles are there for Okoro to develop into a star in the NBA if he is put in the right situation.

As an added benefit, you would immediately endear the team to a particularly adept but delightful group of Twitter trolls known as Auburn Twitter.

So, What The Hell Should The Wolves Do?

I’ve given you plenty of options that make sense. But there’s one player that I haven’t even mentioned that is a perfect fit for the Timberwolves roster.

At the end of the day, Gersson Rosas and the Wolves need to sack up and draft Obi Toppin. Not only is he a pretty exciting player that can fill a need for us at the 4, it also allows us to roll out a rotation we can call Obi-Juan-Okogie.