Where each Minnesota Timberwolves player would land in a re-draft

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Minnesota Timberwolves, Karl-Anthony Towns

TORONTO, ON – FEBRUARY 10: Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the Minnesota Timberwolves during warm ups. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

Let’s take a look back at where some key Minnesota Timberwolves players would be selected if their respective draft classes had a re-draft?

Re-drafts are always a fun exercise. It’s always a bit challenging to re-draft recent classes, of course, so today we’re going to focus on historical drafts that current Minnesota Timberwolves were part of.

With more recent draft there’s a small sample size and variance of untapped potential and adjustment to the league that it’s a tough practice to redo the drafts. We won’t be including any players that are still on rookie deals.

This brings us to the drafts in 2009 (James Johnson), 2015 (D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns), and 2016 (Juan Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, and Jake Layman).

Let’s start with veteran locker room leader James Johnson and his 2009 draft class.

2009 NBA Draft

The Wolves’ sixth man was taken by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 16 pick in 2009.

Since then, he’s one of 14 players in the draft that is still in the league. Johnson has averaged 8.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and almost a steal and a block per game over the course of his career. He’s been a relatively successful role player while making stops on six different teams.

Looking at his draft class, there’s the following tiers, listing players being in no specific order within each category.

All-Stars (or better)

Starters

Fringe starters and key bench pieces

James Johnson would probably be right at the end of the last section and go No. 21 in a re-draft. He’d have an argument to move two spots up over Carroll and Temple, or one spot down behind Wayne Ellington. However, him landing at No. 21 has him falling five spots from his actual draft slot of No. 16.