The NBA regular season is over. That means we know more than we used to about the June draft, though we don't know anything really definitive yet about where the Wolves will pick.
That's because
1) They tied for the sixth-worst record in the league with the Knicks (31-51), and the pre-lottery slot for each team will be determined by a blind draw on Tuesday (and yes, it will be televised)
2) Even after that is settled, there is the matter of the actual lottery, which doesn't happen until May 16.
But there's a pretty good chance the Wolves will end up picking somewhere between sixth and eighth, depending on how it all shakes out. They'll have about a 1 in 20 chance at the No. 1 pick and about a 1 in 5 chance of moving into the top three.
For now, let's look at the likeliest outcomes — the Wolves end up either in their pre-lottery draft slot or one spot lower, which could be sixth/seventh or seventh/eighth depending on the blind draw — and look at some potential scenarios:
• The Wolves draft Kentucky guard Malik Monk. Several mock drafts have Minnesota taking the 6-4 scorer/shooter, who had a smooth freshman year for the Wildcats.
That would hardly be a bad thing since Monk has a game you could see translating to the NBA nicely, and there's a decent chance he would be available at one of the aforementioned likely slots, but one also has to wonder if the Wolves really need another young (19) scorer.
