The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will be taking place on Monday evening. The Minnesota Timberwolves do not own a pick in the lottery, given that they're two wins away from advancing to their second straight Western Conference Finals. But seeing as they will have two first-round picks in the upcoming draft, they are still in a quite favorable position. If they so desire, the Wolves could package these two picks in exchange for a top-14 pick.
Minnesota will make their selections with the 17th and 31st picks in the NBA Draft next month. The 17th selection is the one they acquired from the Detroit Pistons when they officially clinched their spot in this year's playoffs. The Wolves' 31st pick was acquired from the Utah Jazz.
It's quite a break for the Timberwolves to have these two selections after moving so many of their own first-round picks in the coming years. Now, there's a couple trains of thought here. The first of which being that Minnesota could keep both these picks, and continue their solid run in the draft to bring in some talented young prospects.
The other school of thought would be that the Wolves could craft up a trade package and send both of these picks (along with other assets, potentially) in exchange for another team's lottery pick. This would probably the the wiser choice, all things considered.
The Timberwolves could trade up with the Spurs or Hawks
We have to consider that Minnesota is a team with a championship window that is wide open. They have an extremely deep and talented roster, with a great blend of experienced veterans and young talent. Chris Finch's formula is clearly working for the time being.
With that said, the Timberwolves don't really need *two* more young prospects. Jaylen Clark, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Rob Dillingham is already an excellent core of young guys that can take the baton from Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid in due time. They could still add one more high-upside young player with star potential through the lottery, but drafting one mid-first rounder and one late-first rounder isn't really what this group needs.
Some teams that the Wolves could look to deal with would be the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks. With both squads likely seeking additional assets, it could be worth a phone call or two for Tim Connelly and company. Both teams would likely be okay with moving back in the draft, given that they both have a healthy amount of young talent already on their rosters.
It was only 11 months ago we saw Connelly pull off the genius draft night trade that got this team Rob Dillingham. It would be far from surprising if we see them utilize their assets to pull another fast one, and add a ceiling-raising prospect to the Timberwolves' bench.