Detroit Pistons: How will other team needs effect their pick?

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Detroit Pistons Andre Drummond and Minnesota Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns. (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images) /

#3 Minnesota Timberwolves

Pick Odds: Pick 1 (14%), Pick 2 (13.4%), Pick 3 (12.7%), Pick 4 (12%), Pick 5 (14.8%), Pick 6 (26%), Pick 7 (7%), Average pick of 4.1
Biggest Needs: Wings, Defense
Big Board: Obi Toppin, Isaac Okoro, Deni Avdija, Tyrese Haliburton

Contrary to the Cavaliers, the Timberwolves might be in one of the best spots in the NBA thanks to their bright future of D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns.

One of the only things that they have in common with the Cavs is their similar positional needs.

They’re set for the future at the point guard and center positions, and with Malik Beasley, Josh Okogie, and Jarrett Culver being good shooting guards and small forwards, Obi Toppin would be an excellent pick for the Wolves as well.

As I said for the Cavs, Toppin is an NBA ready player who can play both forward positions meaning he’d be a great fit for the Timberwolves.

Isaac Okoro would be another intriguing pick for the Wolves as I would compare him to a Trevor Ariza type 3-and-D wing. Adding his defense to the defense of Okogie and Culver, that defense would cancel out the poor defense of D-Lo and KAT.

Currently the NBA comparison for him would have to be Andre Roberson as he can defend positions 1-4 but his shooting is very much in question.

He would be undersized for the power forward position but being next to a unicorn in KAT, the Wolves could make it work and would have a very interesting lineup of Russell, Beasley, Culver, Okoro/Toppin, Towns.

Onyeka Okongwu would, again, be my dark horse pick for Minnesota. He’s listed as a center in this draft, but I would say that he’s more of a traditional power forward, more of an undersized center.

His shooting is not great but better than the likes of people like Andre Drummond, but not at the level of his teammate Towns. The fact that he would be playing alongside of Towns, would make him an acceptable fit if the Wolves slide to pick six or seven and the other two forwards are taken.

I know this is running long so the other dark horse candidate could be Tyrese Haliburton, and I’ll go into much further depth on him later but his defense would be a great compliment to D’Angelo Russell’s offense and would allow D-Lo to play off ball if that’s what he and the Timberwolves want him to do.

Anthony Edwards has been mocked here a lot but I just don’t see him going here with Malik Beasley already on the team (assuming he’s resigned or a deal is matched).