What position must Timberwolves address in 2024 NBA Draft?

The Minnesota Timberwolves 2023 NBA Draft may not have excited fans, but it was certainly a vital step towards building a competitive 2023-24 Timberwolves roster nevertheless. The question is, which position must the team address this off-season? While that may seem to be a long time into the future, time passes very quickly when the season begins.

And so, shopping for tomorrow realistically begins today. But at which position?

That will certainly depend upon how well the team plays this year, doesn’t it? While there are plenty of factors moving forward this season, we know what we know right now. And for the Timberwolves roster, the team appears to have a very solid five-man starting group and a feasible rotation of perhaps up to nine players for the 2024 NBA Playoffs.

But beyond 2024, the Timberwolves roster becomes rather ambiguous rather quickly. For now, the Minnesota Timberwolves are projected to lose just three players to the 2024 NBA Free Agent market. They are PG Mike Conley Jr., F Kyle Anderson, and PG Jordan McLaughlin.

Point guard

It doesn’t take a statistician or mathematician to recognize the void in the Minnesota Timberwolves roster after this season. While there is the belief that PG/SG Shake Milton can step into a backup point guard role for the Timberwolves, that plan is likely limited to a rotational relief role, and not intended to earmark him as the Timberwolves starter next season.

Point forward Leonard Miller is another name who will likely see some time in a pseudo-point guard role in the 2023-24 NBA season as well. But for all intents and purposes, I’d confidently place point guard at the top of the Timberwolves shopping list for next season.

Power Forward

The Minnesota Timberwolves may plan to re-sign forward Kyle Anderson at the end of this season. Even so, you have to keep power forward on the Timberwolves shopping list for the 2024 NBA season.  For all of the talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves needing to trade Karl-Anthony Towns, the aftermath of any trade scenario will most adversely impact the PF role on the roster.

Don’t lose sight of the fact that the Timberwolves consider Towns their starting power forward right now. If a trade presents itself that compels the Timberwolves’ front office to pull the trigger on surrendering Towns to another NBA team, the Timberwolves could immediately enter the 2024 NBA Draft as a team that is very motivated to land a talented power forward.

Perimeter scoring

You can pencil in perimeter defense and scoring as a need of the Minnesota Timberwolves for the foreseeable future. For that matter, you could say the same thing about all 30 NBA teams. With the three-point shot becoming the backbone of NBA Championship teams, you can never overload the roster with players who have a sharpshooter quality about them.

While the 2024 NBA Draft may seem like a distant point in the future, it’s never too early to prepare. The Minnesota Timberwolves have designs on being very competitive in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. But to stay competitive, the Timberwolves front office must replenish the roster with new and talented rookies next year.

Might as well start making a list now.