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Tim BontempsESPN
The Minnesota Timberwolves won the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery on Thursday night and the right to the first pick in the draft later this year.
The Timberwolves, who finished the season with the third worst record, will be followed by the Golden State Warriors, who finished the season with the worst record, and then the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls in draft draft on October 16. .
“There are a lot of steps left in this journey for us, but today was an important step,” Timberwolves president of basketball services Gersson Rosas said afterward. “We are excited about the potential level of play we can add to our organization, but at the same time we will be very aggressive and look to every way to improve this team. We have two young stars in Karl- Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell that we build this together [with]. We’ve got a great young core that is young and one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the NBA. We have a lot going for us.
“But this allows us to take a big step in talent acquisition, whether it’s in the concept or the brand, whatever that may be. It positions us really well ahead.”
The irony in the Wolves and Warriors who were the last two teams to receive their picks Thursday night was that the two were engaged in a blockbuster trade by this year’s deadline, sending Russell from Golden State to Minnesota in exchange for Andrew Wiggins and a top-3 protected pick for first round in next year’s draft.
Russell and Stephen Curry – who started the season as the starting backcourt of Golden State – were the last two faces on screen representing their respective organizations before it was decided that Minnesota would get the first overall pick for the first one. times since drafting Towns in 2015.
“That’s why we brought D’Angelo here,” Rosas said. “He’s one of the faces of our organization, and he’s a closer, as he left last night. We’m excited.
“This is what it’s all about. We’ve building this the right way, step by step. We want to make sure we do things the right way, and the opportunity … you want to be in a situation where.” t hard work fills opportunity and you get a break like this, and that’s where we are tonight. “
While Minnesota is building around pillars in Towns and Russell that are in their mid-20s, the Warriors are in a completely different place. Golden State obviously made it to the past five NBA Finals – and won three titles – before injuries decimated the roster this season. They plumped to be the worst team in the league because Curry missed all but a handful of games with an injury to hand and Klay Thompson sat out the entire season with a torn ACL.
“It’s weird,” Curry told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols before the draft contract was announced. “You showed that clip from the journey we’ve been on for the past five or six years. … We want every experience in the league, so now we’re in the lottery trying to come up with a high concept choose.
“We’ll see what happens, but it gives perspective on what team we’ll have next year with the boys coming back from an injury, Klay, what Draymond [Green’s] been this last year, even I got out of hand. … That, we are apparently confident and know what we are capable of and we will see how it all shakes. “
Now armed with the second pick, the Warriors were able to enter the trade and aggressively pursue talent to upgrade their roster to their veteran core of Curry, Thompson and Green to try to put themselves back in the hunt for the championship next season – presumably all three stars are back to full force.
“I know there’s a lot of narrative going on around us and what we’re going to do with it, but we really know nothing at this point,” said Warriors president of basketball care Bob Myers. “We found out half an hour ago that we had the number two, so that’s the first step for some clarity. And now it’s going to be, ‘Shall we keep one in there?’ We do not fully master the design, but all you want are two guys to be happy, that makes it a little simpler.
“But I have no idea what the value of that choice is, how many people desire it, and I do not think I will know that at any moment. That is something that could play out over the next few months. But normally it is number two. pick is pretty good, so I imagine we’ll be happy – I think we’ll be happy with what options, whatever route we take, we’ll be pretty happy about it. “
Myers also said Curry, Thompson and Green will have input on what the team is doing with the selection.
“Those guys, I feel like they deserve a right to say what they want,” Myers said. “And I also deserve the right to listen and do what we think is right. It’s a mutual respect.
“They’ve always been cooperative and thoughtful, and whether it’s a minimum player, we ask their opinion, sometimes we ask their opinion on trades. If boys win three championships for you, I think they deserve that.
“I hope they enjoyed what we did. We were not perfect, but I think we gave those three guys some good tools to win with and I think they would say the same thing … but I think not that they are the type, and they do not want the responsibility either, pushing us in a direction we do not want to go in. That is not something they have ever done before. “
The Hornets and Bulls follow the New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies in jumping up from the seventh (Bulls) and eighth (Hornets) spots in the draft, respectively – although not managed to be very happy as those two teams did a year ago .
For Charlotte, the team will have a young building block to place next to point guard Devonte ‘Graham, the team lottery representative, and forward Miles Bridges and PJ Washington.
“I think I’ve been pretty consistent with what we need,” said general manager Mitch Kupchak. “I do not think our team is in the development stage where we could say ‘Hey, we need a big one or we need a guard or we need a wing’ and we continue with maybe better talent to to fill a position. We are not exactly at that moment. We have to add talent to this team, no matter what position it is. “
Chicago, on the other hand, gets a little lucky early on in the role of executive vice president of basketball services Arturas Karnisovas, who took over from John Paxson earlier this year as the team’s top decision-maker.
The Bulls, who are looking for a new coach following the dismissal of Jim Boylen last week, will add another young player to a core of guards Coby White and Zach LaVine and big men Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter, Jr.
“I do not think you should approach in an emergency [number] four, “said Karnisovas.” You get the best talent. That’s what we’ll be looking for, the highest upside player. “
Instead of the regular meeting of representatives of the 14 teams that participated in the lottery, this year’s lottery drawing was done cleanly, with all 14 teams being represented in a Zoom teleconference, because the ping- pong balls were drawn in Secaucus, NJ for who will choose where in the draft, scheduled for Oct. 16.
Unlike last year, when Zion Williamson and Ja Morant were the clear first and second picks in the draft, this crop of prospects is wide open this year, with no consensus on who should go where. However, two of the potential options are LaMelo Ball, the younger brother of New Orleans Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball, and Georgia guard Anthony Edwards.
Ball, who spent the season in Australia, said the experience was beneficial for him.
“I think it made me a better basketball player that I am today,” Ball said. “I really started to take things seriously and just saw the world differently.”
Edwards, meanwhile, said playing at Georgia prepared him for the ups and downs of life in the NBA.
“I feel like it’s preparing me because I learned how to handle bad games,” Edwards said. “I had a lot of bad games, so it taught me how to take them on the can and move on to the next one.”
The other piece of business from the lottery was that the Memphis Grizzlies did not move up from 14th place – meaning that pick will go to the Boston Celtics because it was top-6 protected. The Celtics now have three first-round picks (14th, 26th and 30th) in this year’s draft.
ESPN’s Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez and Royce Young contributed to this report.
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