Minnesota Timberwolves: Ranking the decade’s No. 1 overall picks by potential
By Josh Tyler
In the last decade, the Minnesota Timberwolves have drafted or acquired three first-overall picks. Where do they rank among all 10?
The Minnesota Timberwolves were fortunate in acquiring the young talents of Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. (Also, Anthony Bennett. More on him shortly.)
However the aforementioned duo never really turned into what Minnesota faithful were hoping — at least not together. New president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas understood the difference in playing style between the two and eventually traded Wiggins for D’Angelo Russell, the second-overall pick in the 2015 draft and a better fit with Towns.
There is plenty of star power across the last 10 years of first-overall picks, so let’s rank these players based on their potential for the next decade.
There will be a few surprises along the way, but this side of No. 10, it’s a fairly loaded group…
No. 10 – Anthony Bennett, Cleveland Cavaliers, 2013
Unfortunately for Bennett, many know his name for all the wrong reasons.
Bennett was a freshman star for UNLV posting a line of 18.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game. He was, somewhat surprisingly, taken first overall by the Cavaliers in the 2013 draft, but … it’s safe to say that his college career didn’t translate to the NBA.
Bennett played only one season in Cleveland, in which he averaged 12.8 minutes, 4.2 points, and 3.0 rebounds per game before being traded to Minnesota in the deal that brought Wiggins and Thaddeus Young to the Timberwolves.
Held down by a nagging knee injury, Bennett’s career never really got going. After one year in Cleveland and one in Minnesota, he split his final two NBA seasons between Toronto and Brooklyn, playing just 19 and 23 games, respectively. Bennett was signed by the Houston Rockets at the beginning of last season in which he was waived because he was set to have arthroscopic knee surgery.