The Minnesota Timberwolves are on a roll. They're on the verge of making their second consecutive Western Conference Finals appearance, a first-time achievement in franchise history. In the meantime, Tim Connelly and the front office will continue to make moves to advance the organization forward. After all, the Wolves didn't get here with Connelly taking time off during the playoffs. As they do so, they'll likely be coming to a realization: That their 31st-overall second-round pick they own in the upcoming draft isn't nearly as valuable a selection as it might have been in years past.
I'll explain. Before, a 31st-overall pick, the first selection in the second round of the draft, likely would have been seen as a gold mine. The biggest reason being that you are getting the chance to select essentially first-round talent, and you may get to pick up a guy who should have gone in the early or mid-twenties that simply fell further than expected.
On top of that, there used to be tremendous value in teams having second-round picks, because those players would not be on guaranteed contracts, which in turn saved the team a lot of financial capital. But now, with the introduction of NIL (name, image, likeness) in collegiate sports, the equation has changed significantly.
A lot of NCAA players will return to school for NIL money
Players now have much more incentive to return to school if they are projected to be taken as a second-rounder as opposed to a first-rounder (no guaranteed contract). With NIL, many of these guys will have the ability to return to their university and receive a significant payday instead of trying and ultimately failing to earn guaranteed money as an NBA player.
The result of this circumstance being that the Timberwolves may end up selecting someone who is projected as a pick in the 40s or 50s on a lot of big boards, simply because the others will return to the NCAA ranks for what will ultimately turn out to be more significant paydays.
So really, this pick, although it's one selection away from being a first-round selection, may actually have the reverse value of what it initially seems to have. The "most valuable second-round pick" may not actually turn out to be the cheat code it once was.
This isn't the greatest scenario for Minnesota, but it's also not like we haven't seen Tim Connelly succeed with this hand of cards before. He's found some gems with late picks even in the NIL era, and Wolves fans don't need to be too concerned.