The Timberwolves are Open to Dealing their No. 1 Pick

Usually whenever a team wins the number one overall pick, fans and general managers go right to discussing the opportunity of adding a top prospect to a team’s core, but like many things in 2020, this situation is different. Here’s what the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations had to say about acquiring the top pick:

“There’s a lot of steps left in this journey for us, but today was a significant one…We’re excited about the potential level of player that we can add to our organization, but at the same time, we are going to be very aggressive and look at every avenue to improve this team. We have two young stars in Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell that we’re building this together [with]. We’ve got a great young core that’s young and being one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the NBA. We have a lot of upside.

“But this allows us to take a major step in talent acquisition, whether it’s in the draft or the trade market, whatever the case may be. It really positions us well moving forward.”

You see how Rosas acknowledges discusses the fantastic opportunity of pairing a top pick with D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns… but he also mentioned considering all avenues and perhaps moving the top pick as a major trade asset. This suggests the Wolves may not be fully sold on using the top pick at the moment.

What Rosas said was atypical for a team that just won the draft lottery but he said all the right things. The Timberwolves want to win as soon as possible with Towns and Russell and they need to look at every opportunity to improve their roster to obtain sustainable success, that’s what good management does. It also makes sense to look at all options when there’s not a Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, or Lebron James in this draft. Rosas has made it clear about his philosophy as a “star-hunter,” which makes it likely that Rosas is looking to see if the top overall pick can land you a star. The question now is: What is the true value of the top draft pick this year?