The 2024 NBA Draft is on Wednesday and Thursday night this week and the Minnesota Timberwolves have two picks in the top-40. How they use those two draft picks is yet to be determined but there’s no doubt they will have options at both No. 27 and No. 37.
Of course, the Wolves could stick and pick on night one, and could have some very high-ceiling options to choose from, at that spot. Minnesota Gophers freshman guard Cam Christie is expected to go somewhere around or between their two slots in the first forty picks, too.
Brooklyn Nets coming for Minnesota Timberwolves 2024 1st round NBA Draft pick
But it sounds like they have options to trade their No. 27 pick, as well. According to Darren “Doogie” Wolfson (KSTP, SKOR North), there’s at least one team, the Brooklyn Nets, that has already contacted the Wolves on a possible trade for their first rounder.
Judd: ‘Do we expect the Wolves to stand pat and make their picks? What is your expectation, as far as what Tim Conley’s strategy is going to be, in a draft where the first round pick is not that high, which is a good thing?’
Doogie: “I mean, they’re open minded. Judd, the Brooklyn Nets are on the lookout for a pick. The Brooklyn Nets have interest in pick 27.”-Mackey & Judd – SKOR North
Obviously, the first question from anyone reading this is, ‘what do you Nets have to offer the Wolves?’, and that is a fair follow-up to ask. The answer, at least in regards to the 2024 NBA Draft, is… nothing. The Brooklyn Nets do not currently have a draft pick this week.
Does a draft day trade between Timberwolves and Nets make sense?
That is why they are poking around with the Timberwolves, to see if they’d be interested in offloading pick 27. The problem, however, is that the Wolves are already DEEP into the luxury tax, as a 2nd apron team, and won’t be able to take on salary in a deal.
Not only that, but in a perfect world, president of basketball operations, Tim Connelly, would hit on No. 27 and it would be a player who can contribute early, and on a rookie contract, something that would be of the utmost value for a team like Minnesota.
The Nets do have Phoenix’s 1st round pick in 2025 and a protected 2nd round pick from Miami, if the Wolves did choose to plan for the future, instead of investing in a 1st round pick this year.
Nonetheless, whether it is Brooklyn or another team, Wolfson makes it very apparent that the Wolves are, and will be, open for business, all the way up until they are on the clock Wednesday night.
“If you’re the Wolves. when looking at the salary cap landscape. When thinking about luxury tax ramifications, second apron [ramifications], when you think about having that pick 27 contract, plus that pick 37 contract on the books the next few years, that’s advantageous, when thinking about paying all these other guys big time money.
So I don’t know if I see a match [with the Nets], but [the Timberwolves are] certainly listening, absolutely listening, “open minded”. So, I can’t sit here and tell you, ‘no way, no how, 100% they’re selecting a player at pick 27’. I cannot do that because they will listen all the way until they are on the clock. There’s all sorts of different scenarios.”
Darren Wolfson on the the chances that Minnesota trades pick 27 in the NBA Draft (Mackey & Judd)
No matter the scenario, someone will dawn a MN Timberwolves hat on Wednesday night, when a name is called at pick 27. That’s because Minnesota is not allowed to trade their first round pick until the draft starts.
In the NBA, in-draft trades cannot be made official until days after the draft is complete, which leads to a lot of awkward post-draft interviews and photo sessions every single year.
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