The 2025 NBA Draft is inching closer, and the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to want to take their approach to this all-important time of the year very carefully. It would be very tempting for the Wolves to deal away their 17th-overall pick that they're getting from the Detroit Pistons, but if you consider the circumstances, they are going to want to keep that pick and use it to select a prospect.
This goes against conventional wisdom when it comes to the draft, because the common thought is that a team who's actively contending for a title would want to package that pick in a trade and send it to a team that's in a rebuild, and looking for more young prospects. A team that's currently in the middle of their title window would want less unproven players, not more of them.
But given the state of the league and the way we've seen other successful franchises do things, Minnesota is going to want to go the other direction here and keep their pick. The primary reasoning here being centered around the idea of the team having more affordable contracts going forward as opposed to being handicapped by having too large of a payroll and having to pay a few players far too much.
The Timberwolves have to keep their first-rounder
In one sense, trading a first-round pick for an established player might seem like the final step that comes before a championship ring in Minnesota. But with so many sizeable contracts already on the Wolves' roster, that would really be a pretty short-sighted move, in the grand scheme of things.
As we fix our eyes on the NBA Finals, we can begin to think about what the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers did to put themselves in a position to be three and two wins away from an NBA championship, respectively. When looking at OKC, we can see that they surrounded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with a plethora of first-round draft picks.
For Indiana, they built their roster using cap-conscious moves as well as their own brand of smart drafting. They have one of the most affordable rosters in the NBA, and it's clearly a strategy that's paid off for them. The Timberwolves would do well to learn from both these teams.
Drafting well 12 days from now is going to be huge for Minnesota. If they can find another reliable contributor and develop him into a legitimate rotation guy on a rookie contract, it could be the difference between extending their window of contention or having it close prematurely. Trading this upcoming draft pick may seem like an enticing option, but keeping it is what's going to have a higher chance of the Wolves maintaining their overall success for a longer period of time.