Minnesota Timberwolves: Top 15 draft picks in franchise history

• Five seasons with Timberwolves (1998-2003)
• Averaged 7.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game

Rasho Nesterovic was acquired using the first-round draft pick that the Timberwolves acquired in the Ray Allen for Stephon Marbury draft night trade. It was a valuable selection, as it turned out, as Nesterovic was the primary starting center for four straight years in Minnesota as the Wolves made the playoffs each season.

After only appearing in two games as a rookie, Nesterovic played in all 82 games, starting 55 in year two. He averaged just 5.7 points and 4.6 rebounds in 21 minutes per game but was a vital cog in the defensive unit alongside Kevin Garnett.

Nesterovic only cracked double-digits in scoring average once, and it was in his final year in Minnesota prior to hitting free agency. In 2002-03 (which also happened to be the last season before the Timberwolves finally cracked the seemingly impossible code that was the first round of the Western Conference playoffs), Rasho put up 11.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

After leaving the Timberwolves, Nesterovic played three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs and was on the title-winning squad in 2005. Then, he rounded out his career with two seasons with the Toronto Raptors, one with the Indiana Pacers, and a final year with the Raptors in 2009-10.

For the 17th-overall pick and a player that only played in two games at the tail-end of the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign, Nesterovic turned in a solid all-around career. Being part of five playoff teams in Minnesota is nothing to sneeze at, either, and a championship with the Spurs is just a feather in his cap.