Don't expect a franchise-altering move from the Timberwolves on draft night

The Timberwolves don't have a first-round pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

It's the first night they will have to swallow hard and deal with what they gave up to get Rudy Gobert from Utah last summer. The Utah Jazz will be making that selection at No. 16.

As things stand, some coffee might be needed if you want to see who the Wolves will select at No. 53 with what is currently their only pick, a late second-rounder.

That can change, of course, as the flurry of draft night trades commences and the Wolves look for opportunities to move around the board.

The Wolves would love to find a way to get back into the late first round, but President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly said Wednesday not much had materialized on that front.

"We've had a lot of conversations. I don't think anything is close for us to get in the first round," Connelly said. "Generally, a lot of the calls are kind of theoretical until the last 24 hours. We'll see."

There's a reason Connelly is looking around to move up. As he said, the history of the 53rd pick isn't filled with a "murderer's row of NBA guys."

If the Wolves aren't able to move up the board, Connelly said they'll be looking for someone they can work with to develop long term.

"A really good guy. Someone that could fit culturally," Connelly said. "Oftentimes if you see the picks they make in the second round, it's who the person is as much as the talent. We'll probably prioritize a guy that can further add to the culture."

As for any franchise-altering moves, don't bet on them for the time being. Connelly again reiterated the organization's desire to keep continuity with last season's roster, which barely played together at all.

Even though the NBA rumor mill is in full churn around the idea that the Wolves would move Karl-Anthony Towns, Connelly's public comments have been consistent since the end of the season: a Towns trade or any other deal involving one of the Wolves' high-salaried players is highly unlikely.

"We have a core and we're excited to run it back," Connelly said. "There were some highs, there were some lows. Our inability to win enough games versus teams that have worse records really came back to bite us. … You can point to specific games and we weren't good enough. Then you look at long stretches of basketball where we thought we looked like a viable team.

"We're pretty excited about our core. [Chris Finch] is an elite coach. Having the year under his belt and hopefully a healthy year, we think we can be pretty good."

The Wolves had players at their facility working out as Connelly was speaking Wednesday morning. Among them were impending free agent Naz Reid, a positive sign for his desire to stay with the team. There were last year's first-round pick Wendell Moore Jr. and second-rounder Josh Minott, who Connelly said have both been "A-plus" in attacking their offseason workouts.

After the draft comes free agency, and with it a delicate balancing act Connelly will have to walk next year. He must keep the Wolves competitive while not making them vulnerable to punitive salary-cap repercussions once likely extensions for Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards come on the books for the 2024-25 season.

The new so-called second apron, which will be $17.5 million above the luxury tax line, will limit the ability of teams that hit that mark to sign free agents and trade future draft picks. There's a lot of uncertainty around the league — and for Connelly — concerning how teams will react to that, but for the immediate future, he likes his team even if draft capital is in short supply.

"We have to have long-term approaches to everything, but we're really excited about next October," Connelly said. "We have a gym full of guys right now, the energy has been fantastic. Again we have a great coaching staff, great ownership, so we're really fired up about next year.

"I do think, at times, you can be overly-focused on the three-to-five years out and then not be thinking about what it's gonna be like October 28th at Target Center."