2021 NBA DRAFT

Owned Draft Picks: NONE

As mentioned before, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Anthony Edwards first overall in 2020 and he put together a fantastic rookie season. Edwards finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting, finishing behind LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets, but the #1 overall pick averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 steals and shot 41.7% from the floor. 

Late in the season, Anthony Edwards really started to play well and over his last 24 games, the rookie averaged 23.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and shot 46.8% from the floor. Edwards was voted All-Rookie First Team this year and should be one of the focal points offensively for Minnesota for years to come. 

This year, Minnesota will turn a lot of their attention onto this year’s draft, but they may not actually have a draft pick. At the trade deadline last year, the Timberwolves traded for D’Angelo Russell from the Golden State Warriors, but in the process of trading Andrew Wiggins, they also traded away the rights to their 2021 1st Round Pick with Top-3 Protection on it. 

READ MORE: NBA Rumors: Hornets, Timberwolves ‘really interested’ in trade for Myles Turner

As a result, the Timberwolves have a chance to keep their pick if it ends up in the Top-3 of this year’s draft lottery, but there is only a 27.6% chance of this happening. Minnesota won 7 of their last 12 games, resulting in them having the 6th worst record in the league, outside of the projected Top-3 in this year’s NBA Draft Lottery. 

All eyes league-wide will be on the Timberwolves’ pick and whether or not they retain it, because this could cause a monumental shift not just in the Western Conference, but in the entire league. If Golden State ends up with another lottery pick via Minnesota, then they could immediately throw themselves back into the championship conversation for years to come. 

However, if Minnesota retains their pick, they not only could add another high-level, versatile talent to pair with Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, but they could potentially flip this pick for another established, high-level talent. 

READ MORE: NBA Rumors: This Timberwolves-Rockets trade involves Eric Gordon to Minnesota

The possibilities for what the Timberwolves could do are endless, but first, they need to know whether or not they will be picking in the Top-3 of this year’s draft. With pretty much everybody from this past season under contract heading into the offseason, it seems unlikely that the Timberwolves would look to trade up and add a draft pick to their roster, assuming that their first-round pick this year goes to Golden State. 

They could potentially buy their way into the second-round if a player they really like falls there, but ultimately, the Timberwolves will likely be quiet on draft night. That is, unless they decide to tear down everything that they have built over the years. 

There have been talks over the last few months about the Timberwolves potentially looking at trade opportunities for both Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell to see what they could potentially get in return and trading both of them still remains a possibility in the offseason, so it should be interesting to see if Minnesota is aggressive on draft night and send reporters crazy with some of the deals they could make. 

With the possibility of having a Top-3 pick in this year’s draft, the Timberwolves could look to expand on their young, talented core, but it seems unlikely that they will be given the opportunity to do so at this point.