The Timberwolves moved up last year in the second round of the NBA draft to take a stab at a player with a lot of potential in Leonard Miller.
As a teenager, the lengthy Miller showed he could score in the NBA G-League, while also rebounding at an elite level. His potential is limitless.
Later in the second round, Minnesota nabbed Jaylen Clark, the then-reigning collegiate defensive player of the year who was fresh off a ruptured Achilles’ tendon.
Neither player was expected to contribute last season for either health or developmental reasons, and that’s how it played out.
But there’s strong reason to suggest a different approach should be taken into this week’s NBA draft — now a two-day affair, with the first round slated for Wednesday and the second round on Thursday.
What’s more certain now than it was this time last year is the Timberwolves are a true championship contender. The Wolves are close to lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy. Their roster is talented and deep.
That might be considered a reason to continue to take developmental project players who can work on their games in the practice facility and down in Iowa in the minor leagues with an eye on the future while the current core battles it out for championships.
But the Western Conference Finals proved Minnesota’s current rotation isn’t quite complete. There are holes — not gaping, but certainly evident and exploitable. The Wolves could use a backup point guard coach Chris Finch trusts wholeheartedly to take some burden off veteran Mike Conley during the regular season and also play some sort of meaningful role in the playoffs.
The lack of proven shooting was a weakness Dallas picked at time and time again. The Wolves sport one of the most versatile rosters in the NBA in terms of defense, which led to them being historically good on that end of the floor.
But, offensively, there is some duplicity on the wings. Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Kyle Anderson all are capable of doing multiple things on offense and certainly show flashes of excellence on that end of the floor.
But when you have to account for so many other things in Minnesota’s offense, it’s an easy copout for opponents to leave those guys open on the perimeter for 3-point looks that, on a game-to-game, stretch-to-stretch basis, may not always be counted on to go down.
When Dallas heavily packed the paint against Anthony Edwards in the West finals, and stuck like glue to Karl-Anthony Towns — who also picked a bad time to not be able to make a jumper — Minnesota didn’t have other places to find offense.
The ability to insert a legitimate shooter who can reliable knock down open three-point shots at a 40 to 45 percent clip would give Finch an additional offensive look to turn to when an offensive spark is needed.
Edwards may not be a point guard, but he showed some playmaking chops this season. And the more shooting Minnesota can surround the young star wing with, the easy his job becomes. Note how simple Jayson Tatum’s passes were at times for the Boston Celtics during the NBA Finals with nothing but legitimate offensive weapons surrounding him.
Ideally, the Wolves could address those needs via trade or free agency. Title contenders would much prefer to rely on proven talent to contribute in May and, hopefully, June.
But the Wolves’ salary cap crunch doesn’t necessarily afford them the ability to swing much in either department. What they do have is two top-40 picks in this draft — No. 27 and No. 37.
And while you won’t find sure-thing stars in that portion of the draft, you can at least take shots and see what you have. Additional COVID years added to college eligibility and led to older prospects in the past couple of seasons, and this draft is no exception. But the fortunate thing for the Wolves is those players may better align with the windows of players like Edwards, McDaniels and Naz Reid.
And those guys may be better equipped to help this team in the here and now. Not in big ways — the current core is certainly set with little opportunity for anyone else to break through. But the Wolves are so close to reaching their ultimate goal, a guy who may be able to come in and knock down a pair of second-quarter triples to tip the scales in a playoff game could prove to be the difference between ending their season in the middle of June, and not.
Minnesota’s chips are so clearly pushed to the middle at the moment for the upcoming season that it would almost seem silly to not do everything in the team’s power to give Finch and Co. as many possible cards to play over the next calendar year.
There’s a chance to add to the deck this week.
