Minnesota Timberwolves: 5 best draft trades

3. 2009 NBA Draft:  The Minnesota Timberwolves steal the fifth pick in the NBA draft.

This example is one that shows how aggressive the front office was in obtaining a valuable asset.  However, in terms of who the Minnesota Timberwolves passed on in this draft, Stephen Curry, many will look at this as a failure.

Instead of dwelling on what could have been, let’s focus on the positive in trading for the fifth overall pick in 2009.

The Minnesota Timberwolves traded Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the Washington Wizards.  In return, the Timberwolves acquired the fifth overall pick in the NBA draft, Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov.

With the acquisition of the fifth overall pick, the Minnesota Timberwolves held two picks in the top six. Using the Wizards fifth pick the Timberwolves selected Ricky Rubio.

The big mistake in this draft was picking Jonny Flynn with the sixth pick but I won’t dive into that mistake for everyone’s sake.

The Spanish phenom took his time playing overseas before joining the team in 2011.

Ever since joining the Minnesota Timberwolves Ricky Rubio has made his mark.  Love him or hate him people can’t discount his playmaking ability.

Rubio is second in franchise assist totals at 2,991 behind the great one, Kevin Garnett.

The point here is that Ricky Rubio for the disappointing Randy Foye was a huge steal.  This move continues to pay dividends for a team who struggled to find a reliable point guard for a long time.

Regardless of what happens moving forward, Ricky Rubio has been one of the best point guards in franchise history.