Why the Timberwolves were the BIGGEST winners of the 2024 NBA draft

Why the Timberwolves were the BIGGEST winners of the 2024 NBA draft

the last team I expected to make my first post draft video on was the Minnesota Timberwolves but here we are after the first round they are my biggest favorites of the night and let me tell you why the Minnesota Timberwolves ended up trading a 2031 unprotected first round pick and a 2030 protected first round swap for the eighth pick which ended up being Rob Dillingham and then they drafted teren Shannon Jr with a 27th pick the first thing I want to remind everyone that thinks it’s stupid to trade a 2031 pick when you don’t know how good or bad the team will be in 2031 maybe you’d be partially right I mean we don’t know what will happen in 2031 but I don’t think it will really matter most likely the pick in 2031 won’t end up being a top eight pick and if the Wolves believe in dealing himam enough there’s no reason not to draft him in my opinion he’s a top Six Prospect in the draft and he’d be a perfect fit next to Anthony Edwards and if you already trading most of your picks for the next 6 years in the gobear trade what is two more years and some people may think that sounds dumb but you aren’t trading a pick seven years down the line for a 30-year-old you aren’t trading it for a 28-year-old Macau Bridges you are trading it for a 19-year-old so if Dillingham is who they think he’s supposed to be you’re giving up a pick in a year where both Anthony Edwards and Rob Dillingham will be in their Prime and if you think that Dillingham can contribute immediately then that’s even more reason to do this trade because your window is now now what makes Dillingham so good and a good fit next to Anthony Edwards well first of all dillingham’s biggest strength is his handle and while he has really good highlight tapes of him completely embarrassing defenders in high school like he’s at Rucker Park at Kentucky he showed he can do the simple moves and get past 99% of Defenders I’m confident that he has the best handle in the draft but that would mean nothing if he wasn’t such an elite shooter shooting 44% from three at Kentucky this was with a variety of different shot diets like catch and shoot threes dribble pull-ups and moving threes off and off ball screen while I think 44% isn’t sustainable at the NBA level he is definitely a top five shooter in the draft and I could see him having season shooting 40% from three in the NBA Dillingham can get to the rim at will and is uncatchable in the Fast Break unfortunately one of his flaws as a prospect as his size as he is 61 62 and only6 5 lbs but luckily in Minnesota he has a great mentor who is also a very short light guard in Mike Conley Dillingham will probably play a six or I guess I should say seventh because Naz just won Sixth Man of the Year seventh man role under Conley next season but because Conley is getting up there in age he’ll probably be tasked with a starting point guard role in year two or three I also think Minnesota’s great defensive system and defensive Personnel will be able to hide dillingham’s bad defense better than any other team that thought about drafting him the fit next to ant fits exceptionally well because Rob can help ant take some possession off an is clearly a good on ball Defender but he seemed to be out of energy and stamina by the end of the fourth quarter of each game versus the Mavericks because he was tasked to do so much both offensively and defensively and Dillingham is very versatile in being able to play on and off the ball so he’s just the perfect fit I feel like his ceiling is a Darius Garland Tyrese Maxi type of player and his floor is probably a good offensive punch Off the Bench but that’s his worst case scenario in my opinion then the Wolves draft teren Shannon Jr at pick 27 who just recently beat a sexual assault case less than a month ago which is obviously great to find that he isn’t guilty and I truly think Shannon can offer something to this wolves team that they desperately could have used in this year’s playoff run he is a 23-year-old win now player that has good motor great athletic tools and can get to the rim at will While most of his points were scored off of on ball creation one thing that seriously made me mad about this team during the playoff run is how stagnant the offense was every time Anthony Edwards was trapped everyone would just stay at the three-point line and watch him struggle and no one would get open the Dallas Mavericks did this very well against them but then the Mavericks tried the same thing against Boston and it failed because Drew holiday was able to read the defense off the ball and find Open Spaces I think terrence’s game could mold perfectly into an off ball cutter after a couple years of practice add that with good defense and maybe even an above average three-point shot also I’m recording this before the second round and I believe the wolves have the 37th pick so I’m just not going to include that in my video I’m sorry so with two great draft picks both potentially being NBA ready from year one how does this change the dynamic of the team well if we assume that the Wolves sign both of these draft picks and they bring back Wendell Mo then they only have 12 players on the roster and are already above the second apron luxury tax which if you didn’t know is a salary threshold that severely limits your ability to do things for your team right now Kyle Anderson and Monte Morris are not signed with the team and I believe Monte Morris is definitely not being brought back he didn’t see the court consistently at all during the playoffs and it looks like they just drafted his immediate replacement in Dillingham but they do have bird rights so it is possible but I do think they’ll bring Kyle Anderson back so Terence Shannon’s playing time next year will probably consist of the G league for the most part and then maybe playing some minutes with the Wolves if there is bad injury Lu but I could be wrong it’ll be interesting to see the Wolves handle Leonard Miller’s minutes versus Shannon’s because Miller just spent the entire year with the g-league but he’s still only 20 years old so the guy that they just drafted is already three years older Leonard Miller is also a guy who I think can cut very well and he’s even already shown it he’s just not much with the ball versus Shannon I think is great with the ball and I think he has potential to be a great cutter I also love the idea of drafting a guy in the late 20s who is 23 years old because if he hits his prime by 26 27 I mean you’ll be paying a guy who’s in his prime like $3 million a year which is huge in today’s NBA Market as we see role players making $40 million a year overall there’s still a lot to talk about with this Timberwolves team like Carl Anthony towns and Rudy goar combining for over $90 million next year and neither of them are the team’s best player but as for the draft they’ve absolutely killed it for two years in a row and it’s just very impressive as they entered the draft not having a top pick and being able to trade into number eight they set themselves up perfectly to take advantage of this hopefully 6 to sevene Championship window now all that’s left is to actually get over the hump this is one of many offseason videos that I’m going to be doing so if you guys made it to the end and would say you could tolerate me I would appreciate if you guys subscribed and liked the video and comment your opinion on the video and some future video ideas you’d like to see anyways peace out