Minnesota Timberwolves: Mock Draft Roundup No. 2
By Ben Beecken
The second edition of the Minnesota Timberwolves Mock Draft roundup is live.
Yes, we’re still more than five weeks away from the NBA Draft Lottery and more than three months from the actual draft, but Minnesota Timberwolves fans are pretty much always in draft mode anyways.
That means that we can continue to peruse the various mock drafts that the internet experts have put together.
The first edition of this exercise can be found here. Back then, the Wolves were given Georgia’s Anthony Edwards twice while landing Memphis’ James Wiseman and Dayton’s Obi Toppin once apiece.
This time around we have a few different entrants into the roundup. Let’s get to it.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Mock Draft Roundup No. 2
The Athletic
Pick No.1: Anthony Edwards
Sam Vecenie’s NBA Mock Draft 6.0 at The Athletic (subscription required) features another roll of the dice (er, click of the mouse) over at Tankathon, providing us with a realistic look at what the lottery balls themselves might do on Aug. 25.
This particular bouncing of the virtual lottery balls gives the Minnesota Timberwolves the No. 1 overall pick. Of course, this is a year without a clear top talent, and as Vecenie notes in his article, team needs and preference of the team that lands the top pick will dictate whom the eventually No. 1 pick ends up being.
With the top pick, Vecenie selects Anthony Edwards from the University of Georgia. As we’ve noted previously at Dunking With Wolves, Edwards possesses one of the higher upsides of any prospect in the draft, but some of the concerns with his efficiency and all-around effort somewhat mirror concerns surrounding Andrew Wiggins when he was coming out of Kansas back in 2014.
Edwards might just be who the Wolves take at No. 1, believing he’s a fit between D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns and that there is plenty of potential that their coaching staff can unlock. But the floor is lower than you’d generally like it to be out of a No. 1 pick.
The Step Back
No. 6 pick: Obi Toppin
Ian Levy and our great friends over at The Step Back gave the Wolves the No. 6 pick, and with it, they selected Dayton’s Obi Toppin.
If the Wolves slide to No. 6 and Toppin is on the board, it’s highly likely they would select him. Toppin has the perfect offensive skill-set to step in and be an NBA role player from day one. Plus, there’s star upside if he can smooth out some elements of his offensive game and improve significantly on defense.
Big ‘ifs’, to be sure, but the floor is high enough that Toppin would be a solid pick at No. 6.
NBC Sports
No. 3 pick: Toppin
Rob Dauster at NBC Sports gave the Wolves the No. 3 pick, and after Wiseman went first to Golden State and Edwards went second to Cleveland, he picked Toppin for the Wolves.
Depending on the view that the Timberwolves front office holds on how LaMelo Ball could fit with Russell, or on the stack of wings who could go anywhere from No. 1 to No. 10 (Killian Hayes, Isaac Okoro, Devin Vassell, Tyrese Haliburton), Toppin at No. 3 isn’t a crazy idea.
Dauster’s case is basically that Okoro’s versatility allows him to be an impact player in short order, and that playing in a pro-style system under Anthony Grant at Dayton largely prepared him for the next level.
Just under six weeks to go until the lottery…