Minnesota Timberwolves: What if … Andrew Wiggins missed those free throws?

The offseason

The Minnesota Timberwolves front office now has a major decision on their hands. The NBA Draft Lottery has come and gone and the Timberwolves are picking 14th (the spot where Denver picked in reality). That’s not high enough to get the top talent that they desired, but not low enough to make sense in a trade, unless it was simply irresistible.

They’re also starting to face some real backlash with Wiggins. He had already expressed frustrations with his role on the team earlier in the season, and now the fans were really coming after him because of his production over the last two years. The stress of fan hate and the anger over his role was enough.

He wanted out, and he demanded a trade; an unusual move from someone who had just been prematurely signed to a max contract in 2017.

Minnesota was initally reluctant, but the noise grew too loud and they made their decision. They decided to get rid of an unpopular player on a long bad contract, for a neutral one on a short bad contract. Just a few weeks before the draft, the Timberwolves traded Andrew Wiggins and the 14th overall pick, to the Charlotte Hornets for Nicolas Batum and the 11th overall pick.

The Hornets got a player who had shown a lot of talent when he had the spotlight and the Timberwolves got out of a bad situation quicker, and a piece to their rebuild.

Now the only question left was Jimmy Butler. He was demanding a trade and since they hadn’t won the win-or-go-home game, he was declaring that he wouldn’t even touch the ball if he was put in, let alone try to score.

So, with their backs against the wall, the Timberwolves essentially just do their 2019 Butler trade in 2018, and get Dario Saric and Robert Covington before the draft begins.

At the draft, Minnesota selects Miles Bridges, a forward who they could run at the two or three spot to fill in any vacancies left by Wiggins and Butler leaving.