Minnesota Timberwolves: D’Angelo Russell representing Wolves at lottery

The Minnesota Timberwolves will be represented by D’Angelo Russell at the NBA Draft Lottery.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have never moved up in the NBA Draft Lottery.

Technically, they can’t move up this year, either, as the still-relatively-new lottery odds mean that the Wolves are tied with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers with a 14 percent likelihood of landing the first pick.

But picking anywhere lower than third would be considered moving down. And in order to try and avoid that fate, the Wolves are calling in the big guns for good luck.

Minnesota Timberwolves: D’Angelo Russell representing Wolves at lottery

Over the years, the Wolves have been represented in person at the NBA Draft Lottery by the likes of David Kahn, Kevin Love, Milt Newton, Flip Saunders, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

Now, it’s D’Angelo Russell’s turn.

It’s basically a rite of passage when it comes to being a key figure or superstar within the Timberwolves organization. It’s an unfortunate tradition, of course, but here’s hoping that it’s the last time for a while that the Wolves will need to send anyone.

Of course, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the lottery will be held virtually, so presumably, Russell won’t need to go physically anywhere at all, but will instead represent his new organization virtually.

Here’s how the Wolves announced it.

Classic. Let’s all hope that D’Lo brings some of that same “ice in his veins” to the lottery process.

Whichever pick the Wolves get, it will add to their stable of incredible draft capital. The Wolves already have pick No. 17 and No. 33, which is the third pick of the second round.

The lottery will take place on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPN, in between a pair of playoff games. Of course, we’ll have coverage here at Dunking With Wolves immediately afterwards.

We’ve already had plenty of draft coverage to this point at DWW, but we’ll be able to have more accurate mock drafts once we know where the Wolves will be picking in the lottery. Also, the conversation around possibly trading down can heat up a bit too, especially if the Wolves end up with one of the top two or three picks.

For now, at least, it’s all up to D’Angelo Russell.