NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year

The Minnesota Timberwolves were high enough on Jarrett Culver that they surrendered stretch 4 Dario Saric to switch spots with the Phoenix Suns to grab Culver at No. 6 overall in the NBA Draft.

Because the Suns couldn’t take on Saric’s contract until after the start of the new league year, Culver didn’t officially become a member of the Timberwolves until July 6 and was held out of Summer League play as a result.

New Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas wasn’t bothered by the exchange, however, per NBA.com.

"“We’d love for him to play here, but realistically he’s too important to us. The way things are, not having the chance to do the full training camp with our team and not having played five-on-five in such a long time. He’s too important. “He’s doing practices and doing individual work, but for him and us we decided the best thing was to have him not participate.”"

Culver is a classic local-boy-makes-good story. A product of Coronado High School in Lubbock, Texas, Culver wasn’t heavily recruited and wound up staying at home and committing to Texas Tech.

He made a huge leap as a sophomore for the Red Raiders, leading the program to its first-ever Final Four appearance while averaging 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals in 32.5 minutes per game on 46.1 percent shooting overall, hitting 30.4 percent on 4.2 3-point tries a game.

That last part will be a work in progress for Culver, who will have to evolve as a shooter to successfully man the 2-guard position at the NBA level, but at 6’5″ and 195 pounds heading into the draft, the kid that won’t be 21 until Feb. 20 has room to grow.

The fact he is likely slated to compete with second-year man Josh Okogie for playing time will allow him to post some stats as a rookie should he come out ahead of Okogie in that battle.

Minnesota went its first 25 seasons without having a Rookie of the Year before getting two in a row with Andrew Wiggins in 2014-15 and Karl-Anthony Towns in 2015-16.

Culver has work to do to become the Timberwolves’ third winner, but the odds are good he’ll get the minutes to make a run.