Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 things the Wolves could do with No. 1 pick

Now that the Minnesota Timberwolves have the No. 1 pick, what are their options?

As you may have heard, the Minnesota Timberwolves have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

While there is already plenty of speculation regarding which prospect they might select, there are plenty of other options for president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas and his front office.

Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 things the Wolves could do with No. 1 pick

From simply selecting the top player on their draft board to trading for an established player to orchestrating a multi-team blockbuster or trading down and maybe even out of this year’s first round, the Wolves have myriad options to consider. And Rosas has already made it clear that he’ll be doing just that: exploring “every avenue.”

Let’s take a look at the decisions that Rosas will have to make in the coming weeks as he prepares for the draft.

1. Take the best player available at No. 1

The most obvious plan of action for the Timberwolves would be to take the top player on their board at No. 1.

In some order, the consensus top three is Memphis’ James Wiseman, LaMelo Ball of the Illawarra Hawks, and Georgia’s Anthony Edwards. The Wolves already have Karl-Anthony Towns as their primary big and D’Angelo Russell as their lead guard, so that makes Edwards the obvious fit, at least from a positional perspective.

But there’s a school of thought that Ball and Russell could co-exist. While there’s no doubt that they could figure out how to be dynamic together on offense, the defense would be a question mark, to put it lightly.

Edwards has his own issues, primarily surrounding his inefficient offensive game, inconsistent jump shot, and uneven effort on defense. But the physical tools are there, and he likely has the best potential ceiling as a pure scorer in the entire draft.

At the very least, Edwards should theoretically be able to come in and be a terror in transition, a threat as a fourth or fifth option offensively, and a physical defender. Unfortunately, his floor is still lower than what teams generally want to see from the first-overall pick in a draft.

That said, there are plenty of teams who would love the opportunity to select Edwards. This leads us to the possibility of a trade down…