Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Wolves will get Nets’ pick

The Minnesota Timberwolves are now guaranteed to receive the Brooklyn Nets’ pick in this year’s draft.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are virtually guaranteed to have the best collection of picks in the 2020 NBA Draft.

This week, the Brooklyn Nets clinched a playoff spot. That means that their first-round draft selection that was traded to the Wolves via Houston as part of the Robert Covington trade will indeed convey in this October’s draft.

Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Wolves will get Nets’ pick

As the first couple weeks of the NBA’s Orlando bubble played out, it became apparent that the pick would belong to the Wolves, as our Dylan Jackson wrote about a few days ago. But it became a guarantee on Friday as the Nets clinched their spot.

We don’t yet know exactly where the pick will land, although it will certainly be between No. 15 and No. 18. As of this writing, Brooklyn, Memphis, Orlando, and Portland all have either 32 or 33 wins, so it’ll be until the end of the week before we know for sure.

But according to the website Tankathon, the Wolves are first in the Draft Power Rankings, and it isn’t close. According to their formula, the value of Minnesota’s draft picks is scored at 134.03, with Golden State’s 107.03 a distant second and much closer to No. 3 New York’s 97.91.

Of course, we don’t yet know where either of the Wolves’ two first-round picks will land, although one will be in the top seven and the second will be between No. 15 and No. 18. Combined with the No. 33 pick, the third of the second round, the Wolves will certainly have a formidable stable of picks come October.

Elsewhere, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic penned a fantastic long-form piece (subscription required) on current owner Glen Taylor’s acquisition of the Minnesota Timberwolves back in 1994. Taylor effectively rescued the Wolves from being moved out of town, most likely to New Orleans.

He also acquired the franchise, which was only five years old at the time, for just $88 million. With the team on the market once again, Taylor sure to flip the business, which now includes the Minnesota Lynx and T-Wolves Gaming, for north of $1.2 billion.

There has been no new news surrounding the potential sale of the Wolves over the past week or so, but we’ll continue to keep a pulse on the situation here at DWW.