Timberwolves’ second-day draft deals don’t add players but save cash

A day after adding two first-round picks on the first night of the NBA draft, the Timberwolves traded down and down and then ultimately out of Thursday’s second round.

The Wolves did so in cost-saving, salary-cap moves, cutting one player from the payroll while not adding another in the second round. They traded up with the Spurs on Wednesday night to obtain Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham eighth overall and then selected Illinois wing Terrence Shannon Jr. with their own 27th overall pick.

When Thursday’s second round was over, basketball boss Tim Connelly and the Wolves management had survived, maybe even thrived in the league’s first two-day draft.

“I think Tim Connelly has slept about 16 minutes in the last four days total,” said Matt Lloyd, Wolves senior vice president of basketball operations. “It’s an exciting two days.”

Lloyd marveled at Vikings General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and his staff’s participation every year in a three-day NFL draft. “I give those guys at the Vikings a lot of credit for getting through a two-day or multiday draft,” Lloyd said. “That is a monster.”

The Wolves remade their roster while strapped by a tightening salary cap, using the cost-controlled draft rather than free agency to do it. By acquiring Dillingham and Shannon, they addressed a need revealed by their run to the Western Conference finals and added ballhandlers who can break down defenses and score.

They traded up to get Dillingham by using draft picks in the 2030s to get into the draft’s top 10. They believe both players can come right in and contribute for a team that is aimed at winning now.

“Rob Dillingham was someone we wanted to go get,” Lloyd said. “So Tim just went and got him. It was savage. It was just an incredible two-day performance and it really has put us in a position to get better.”

Thursday’s moves give them a little more flexibility to re-sign veterans Kyle Anderson, Jordan McLaughlin and Monte Morris in free agency that starts Sunday.

“They all have been so important to the team,” Lloyd said. “It’d be our preference to bring everyone back. They all contributed to 56 wins and [reaching] the conference final last year. It’d be foolish to dismiss the opportunity to bring those guys back. They were all great vets, so we’ll just have to see how it plays out. We don’t control all the variables in free agency.”

Earlier Thursday before the second round began, the Wolves traded former Duke guard Wendell Moore Jr. and the 37th pick in the second round to Detroit for its 53rd pick.

Then during the draft they traded that 53rd pick to Memphis for the 57th pick, which they then sent to Toronto.

Moore, the No. 26 overall pick in the 2022 draft, played in 54 games with the Wolves over two seasons, averaging 1.1 points per game; he averaged 19.2 points in 16 games in the G League with Iowa. He will make about $2.5 million this coming season.

None of Thursday’s deals were finalized by draft’s end, so Lloyd wouldn’t specify just what the Wolves got out of the trades. You can be sure cash and probably future second-round pick(s) are involved.

“We have a lot of balls in the air and logistics, so things aren’t finalized,” Lloyd said. “They won’t be finalized for a while, so I guess we’ll have to be TBD on that one.”