Report: Minnesota Timberwolves ‘would love to trade’ No. 1 pick

Peter Dewey
2 Min Read

The Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly would “love” to trade down from the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

According to The Athletic’s Zach Harper, Minnesota would rather trade down since there isn’t a consensus top choice in this coming draft.

“The Timberwolves would love to trade this selection,” Harper wrote. “It feels like every few years we get one of these ‘down draft classes’ in terms of clear top talent. And we hope a few years removed from it, we’ll wonder why everybody was so down on it. In 2020, the NBA Draft Lottery brought about more confusion than anything else, especially for Gersson Rosas and the Wolves. Since there is no consensus top guy, we see a lot of names kicked around for this top selection. We don’t even have a fun two-man argument like we did with Greg Oden and Kevin Durant or Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley or even something like Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams. At least in 2007, 2008, and 2011 we had some debate.”

Unlike last year, which featured Zion Williamson and Ja Morant as the top draft choices, this year’s class is much weaker.

For Minnesota, who already has two established stars in D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns, it may make more sense to acquire another player to help them make the playoffs in a trade.

Moving down a few slots in the draft and getting a valuable role player would greatly improve Minnesota’s chances of cracking the top eight in the Western Conference.

The 2020-21 season will be the team’s first with both Towns and Russell on the roster going into the year.

Last season, Minnesota finished No. 14 in the Western Conference with a putrid 19-45 record.

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Peter is a graduate of Quinnipiac University where he covered the MAAC and college basketball for three years. He has worked for NBC Sports, the Connecticut Sun and the Meriden Record-Journal covering basketball, football and other major sports. Follow him on Twitter @peterdewey2.