NBA.com’s Consensus Mock Draft says that Anthony Edwards is still the Minnesota Timberwolves’ pick at No. 1 in the NBA draft.
What will the Minnesota Timberwolves do with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft?
The initial post-lottery steam all centered on Georgia’s Anthony Edwards. More recently, however, reports suggest that the Wolves are looking at the NBL’s LaMelo Ball.
However, the latest NBA.com Consensus Mock Draft came to a different conclusion.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Mocks say Anthony Edwards is still likely No. 1 pick
We’re still more than six weeks away from the draft, and there’s plenty of runway for the Wolves to shift their thinking. There are, after all, myriad possibilities with the No. 1 selection, from taking one of the aforementioned players to trading back to trading out of the 2020 draft entirely.
Drew Packham at NBA.com has updated his Consensus Mock Draft, which takes a look at 10 of the most popular mock drafts from around the web and lists each player’s most popular landing spot.
The 10 mocks used are ESPN, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Tankathon, The Ringer, The Athletic, CBA Sports, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and NetScouts.
A whopping seven out of the 10 mocks considered have the Wolves selecting Edwards a No. 10. The dissenting three (ESPN, The Athletic, and NetScouts) all have the Wolves taking Ball. It’s likely that the next Bleacher Report update will align with that trio, given that Jonathan Wasserman’s latest reporting is that the Wolves are leading towards taking Ball if a trade cannot be commenced.
The most popular second selection is, unsurprisingly, Ball, receiving four of the votes. Four sites also are mocking Memphis’ James Wiseman at No. 3, and three mocks have Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Deni Avdija going No. 4 to the Chicago Bulls.
The other players with the greatest consensus are Avdija and Dayton’s Obi Toppin, both with four selections at No. 5 to Cleveland, Saddiq Bey with four mocks having him at No. 13 to New Orleans, and a surprising six mock drafts have Florida State’s Parick Williams going to the Spurs at No. 11.
The NBA.com consensus didn’t extend beyond the lottery, but a look at each of the individual mock drafts shows a variety of seven players tied to the Wolves at the No. 17 pick. The most-picked there are Memphis’ Precious Achiuwa (three mocks), who is often predicted to go in the No. 12 to No. 14 range, and Maryland’s Jalen Smith.
Our own Dylan Jackson recently offered up a couple of options that he feels would be good fits for the Wolves at No. 17.
We’ll keep an eye out as mock drafts are updated and we (hopefully) continue to hear nuggets about which direction the Wolves and other lottery teams are leaning.