As fantasy basketball draft season starts to heat up, let’s look at some Minnesota Timberwolves who you should pick up or fade this year.
As the Minnesota Timberwolves prepare to begin training camp on October 1st, you should be preparing for the upcoming fantasy basketball season.
The Wolves will be playing a more up-tempo brand of basketball this year, which should make their overall fantasy output higher than it was during the Tom Thibodeau era.
Let’s take a look at some potential targets and fades on Minnesota’s roster this season.
Stud: Karl-Anthony Towns
The obvious fantasy target from this team is Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns finished last season with the sixth-most fantasy points in the entire NBA, and he was the second-highest scoring center just behind his division rival Nikola Jokic.
Towns spent a lot of time on his handle. Ryan Saunders has said he could see time in the pick-and-roll next season pic.twitter.com/XmQlKgtqcH
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) September 17, 2019
The former Kentucky Wildcat could be handling the ball more in the pick-and-roll this season, which would increase his already sky-high fantasy ceiling.
ESPN’s André Snellings ranks Towns number three overall on his big board and put him ahead of Jokic as the top center for the upcoming season.
It wouldn’t be shocking to see Towns outscore Anthony Davis, who comes in at number two overall on Snelling’s list. If you have any pick after the number one overall selection, which should be Giannis Antetokounmpo, Towns should be one of your top targets.
Sleeper: Jarrett Culver
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We have yet to see rookie swingman Jarrett Culver take the court in a Wolves uniform, but he could provide some major value in the later rounds of your draft this season.
Culver started to handle the ball a lot more during his second season at Texas Tech where his assists per game number jumped from 1.8 to 3.7. The Wolves’ staff has talked about him possibly getting some minutes in the backup point guard role, which should help him rack up some assists this season.
One thing that didn’t improve from year one to year two for Culver in college was his three-point shot as it dropped from 38.2% as a freshman to 30.4% as a sophomore on similar volume.
The former Red Raider was forced to take much more difficult looks from deep last season, but that three-point percentage should bounce back if he gets more open shots from beyond the arc playing off the ball this year.
There is certainly a level of risk involved with drafting an unproven rookie in fantasy, but I think Culver’s upside warrants a pick in the later rounds this year.
Bust: Andrew Wiggins
I would be extremely wary of selecting Andrew Wiggins at any point of a fantasy draft this season.
Wiggins’ game doesn’t translate very well to fantasy basketball because he doesn’t get many rebounds, assists, steals, or blocks to fill out the stat sheet and his field goal percentage is usually pretty poor.
Wiggins was the Wolves’ second-highest scoring fantasy player last season, but that’s mainly because he was one of the only starters who stayed healthy all year long.
Wiggins could lose some playing time this season if he continues to play poorly. Minnesota has a ton of young wings who could challenge Wiggy for his minutes this year if the former Kansas Jayhawk continues to look disinterested on the floor.
In conclusion, the Wolves’ fantasy outlook is pretty simple this season: get Karl-Anthony Towns if you have a top-five pick, try to scoop up Jarrett Culver in the later rounds because of his upside, and avoid drafting Andrew Wiggins anywhere near his average draft position.