Minnesota Timberwolves: Checking in on the Nets draft pick

Will the Minnesota Timberwolves get to keep the Brooklyn Nets draft pick?

The Minnesota Timberwolves currently own the Brooklyn Nets’ lottery-protected first-round pick.

As recently as a few weeks ago, it felt like a near certainty that the pick would convey to the Wolves at either No. 15 or No. 16. Now, there’s a non-zero chance that the pick might stay with Brooklyn until 2021 when it would remain lottery-protected but otherwise be sent to the Wolves.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Checking in on the Nets draft pick

In order for the Wolves to keep the Nets’ pick, Brooklyn simply needs to make the playoffs. They currently sit No. 7 in the Eastern Conference and with a half-game lead on No. 8 Orlando and six games ahead of No. 9 Washington, who is out of the playoff picture and looking in.

But per the rules of the NBA’s re-start in Orlando, all a team in the No. 9 spot needs to do to get a shot at a play-in series is to be within three-and-a-half games of the No. 8 seed.

In other words, if the Magic pass Brooklyn, the Wizards need to gain four games on the Nets. Over the course of the eight regular-season games, that isn’t exactly an easy task. Then, if they’re able to do that, they would need to beat the Nets twice in a head-to-head series in order to knock Brooklyn out.

So, in short, it’s a tall task, right? Yes, but the Nets are beyond depleted.

Kyrie Irving isn’t playing in Orlando due to injury. DeAndre Jordan and Wilson Chandler opted out because of COVID-19 concerns, and both Spencer Dinwiddie and Taurean Prince recently tested positive and will not play.

Losing four out of the top seven or eight players in the rotation is a bad enough hit to take, but the Nets are attempting to back-fill the missing scoring production with … drumroll, please … Michael Beasley and Jamal Crawford.

The pair of former Wolves employees are both volume-scorers who had yet to suit up for an NBA team this season. Beasley is 31 and Crawford is 40, and it’s safe to say that each of their best days are behind them.

Not only that, but both guys were also net-negative contributors in their most recent stops, Beasley with the Lakers and Crawford with the Suns, both during the 2018-19 campaign. It’s been at least three years since either player was worthy of a rotation spot on a playoff team.

Of course, the Nets still have Caris LeVert, the promising 25-year-old playmaker and budding scorer. He’ll be the best hope for the Nets to generate offense and hopefully will get significantly more of a chance with the ball in his hands than either of the veterans the Nets have added.

As far as the Timberwolves and their fans are concerned, all the Nets need to do is win five or so games out of to win a playoff spot outright, or even back into postseason play in a short series against Washington.

In short: Go Nets!