The NBA Finals begin on Thursday night with an exciting matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. Both teams are defensive powerhouses with multiple scoring threats, which should make for a hard-fought matchup. The matchup has additional intrigue because it marks another year where both Finals teams built the core of their roster through the draft.
The Warriors drafted their three most important players, Steph Curry (2009, pick 7), Klay Thompson (2011, pick 11), and Draymond Green (2012, pick 35). They also drafted the majority of their best role players including Kevon Looney (2015, pick 30), Jordan Poole (2019, pick 28), and Jonathan Kuminga (2021, pick 7). They got the Kuminga pick via the infamous Andrew Wiggins–D’Angelo Russell trade.
The Celtics have also drafted incredibly well. Jayson Tatum (2017, pick 3) and Jaylen Brown (2016, pick 3) generate much of the offense. Defensive Player of the Year and two-time NBA Hustle Award winner Marcus Smart (2014, pick 6) provides defensive energy and a passionate personality. Robert Williams (2018, pick 27), Grant Williams (2019, pick 22), Payton Pritchard (2020, pick 26), were all great finds by the Celtics later in the draft. Each player has contributed to their Finals run with their unique skill sets.
That’s encouraging for the Minnesota Timberwolves because the super team era did not favor them. For many years, super teams created through trades ruled the NBA. While there have been many dominant superteams throughout NBA history, the modern Big 3 era began in 2007 when the Celtics traded for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in the same offseason. After having only 24 wins in the previous season, Boston’s bolstered roster won 66 games in the regular season and went on to win the NBA Championship.
Despite not winning another championship together, Garnett, Allen, and Paul Pierce continued to make deep playoff runs through the 2011-12 season. Several other teams copied this formula and had success with it, including the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, who traded for superstars to assist LeBron James in winning championships.
For a time, the Wolves and other small-market franchises like the New Orleans Pelicans had nearly become developmental teams that the big-market teams would eventually poach the best players from. In addition to KG, the Wolves also traded Kevin Love to a championship team after the front office couldn’t build a team around him. They sent Love to Cleveland in 2014 and won a championship with LeBron in the 2015-16 season.
New Orleans traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers to play with LeBron, and they won the championship in 2019-20 — the season after he arrived in LA. Similarly, the Milwaukee Bucks won a title the season after the Pelicans traded Jrue Holiday to them. While Milwaukee is a small-market team, they already had two established stars in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
Of course the super team era is not officially over yet. Several teams like the Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Brooklyn Nets, acquired all their stars through trades or free agency. However, the classic big-market strategy of raiding everyone else’s cabinets hasn’t been as successful in the past two seasons. Injuries to the league’s aging superstars has kept all of the superteams somewhat dormant. They’re left crossing their fingers that everyone will be healthy in time for the playoffs.
Additionally, the Lakers and Nets saw the downside of trading all their young players and draft assets for superstars. Both teams lacked depth when their stars were injured. They also lacked chemistry and the ability to mix egos, leading to drama in their locker rooms and clunky play on the court.
To have a team with several max salary players, a front office needs to do a great job drafting role players on the margins, as the Celtics and Warriors have. Luckily for the Wolves, that’s one of the ways they have been decently consistent in the last several years, despite several changes in their front office. Undrafted free agent signings Jordan McLaughlin and Naz Reid have become valuable rotation players. Second-round pick Jaylen Nowell has started to carve out a role as one of Minnesota’s most lethal microwave scorers in spot minutes.
It helps that they have a pair of No. 1-overall draft picks in Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards on the roster. However, these were still savvy picks. Before the Wolves drafted KAT in 2015, many draft analysts considered Towns and Jahlil Okafor neck-and-neck in the race for the No. 1 pick. Now it looks like an easy choice. Similarly, many believed Edwards, LaMelo Ball, and James Wiseman as approximately the same level of prospects. While we still don’t know which one of those three players will be the best long-term, we can safely say that the criticisms of the Timberwolves picking Ant first-overall were unfounded and overblown.
Additionally, Jaden McDaniels was a steal at 28. He’s already a great defender with positional versatility. McDaniels has the opportunity to develop into one of the league’s preeminent 3-and-D wings. He also has the potential to do even more if he can put on some extra muscle and get more comfortable with scoring and creating off the dribble.
Even more encouraging? Minnesota’s new President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, is best known for his drafting acumen. He found stars and role players for the Denver Nuggets all over the draft. During Connelly’s tenure, the Wolves got Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Juancho Hernangómez in a trade with Denver. The Nuggets had drafted so well that they couldn’t fit those players into their rotation.
The Wolves are likely still a couple of years, and a few smart roster moves away from contending. However, their recipe for roster-building parallels what many teams that compete for championships have been doing for years. Grow your core through the draft, be patient, and make moves around the edges when the time is right. Will Minnesota continue to execute those plans? We don’t know. But with a young core brimming with talent and a front office crowded with smart minds, the Wolves should be on the right path to making deep playoff runs for a while.
