Utah Jazz Mailbag: Will Timberwolves Gift Jazz An Extra Lottery Pick?
Feb 25, 2025, 2:30 PM
Naz Reid #11 and Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
(Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag where this week we project how the Minnesota Timberwolves might finish in the West.
Each week we will send out a prompt on X and BlueSky asking for the questions you have about the Jazz.
Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s Jazz mailbag.
Jazz Mailbag: Will Timberwolves Send Jazz A Second Lottery Pick?
What do you think Minnesota’s record is to end the season?
Odds their pick is in the lottery?— teefers (@craig_whaleson) February 24, 2025
Question: What do you think Minnesota’s record is to end the season? Odds their pick is in the lottery?
Answer: The Jazz own the Timberwolves unprotected first-round pick this summer by way of the 2022 Rudy Gobert blockbuster trade.
The Jazz have already cashed in one of the four firsts they got from Minnesota in 2023 when they selected Keyonte George with the 16th overall pick after the Timberwolves barely squeaked into the playoffs in the West.
Surprisingly, two years later, the Jazz might have similar luck.
Despite making a deep run to the Western Conference Finals last summer, Minnesota shocked the NBA world when they traded Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle shortly before the beginning of the season.
Reporting for NBA Countdown on injury updates for Minnesota Timberwolves’ Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo: pic.twitter.com/eZfAK0CaD4
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 24, 2025
Towns was an All-Star starter this year and has helped lead the Knicks to the third-best record in the East, while the Timberwolves currently sit in seventh in the West, and would have to win a play-in tournament game to advance to the playoffs if the regular season ended today.
While Minnesota is tied with the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, they sit four games back of the fifth-seeded Houston Rockets, making it relatively unlikely that they can climb any higher than sixth over the final stretch of the NBA season.
Further complicating the issue for the Timberwolves is how close they are to teams 8-10 in the standings.
Minnesota is a half-game up on the Dallas Mavericks, while the Golden State Warriors are a game back at 30-27, and the Sacramento Kings are two games back at 29-28.
NBA STANDINGS UPDATE ‼️
▪️ CLE (1st in East) wins 7 in a row
▪️ DET (6th in East) wins 6 straight
▪️ OKC wins, stands atop the WestDownload the NBA App for more: https://t.co/pBKIAWNToa pic.twitter.com/qsXrZ7tPVS
— NBA (@NBA) February 24, 2025
The Warriors made a huge splash at the trade deadline by adding Jimmy Butler who has helped lead them to a 5-1 record in his six appearances.
Dallas is trying to navigate through myriad injuries in their frontcourt, while the Kings are hoping newly acquired Zach LaVine will jell before the end of the regular season.
Though Randle hasn’t been an ideal fit in the Timberwolves lineup, they were 27-21 before he went down with a groin injury against the Jazz on January 30. In their 11 games since, they’re just 5-6.
Randle is expected to return to the lineup this week, which should give the Timberwolves a boost to close the season.
Furthermore, Minnesota has the easiest remaining schedule among all Western Conference teams, which should help stop the bleeding from the last month.
But, even with Randle and the light upcoming schedule, I expect the Warriors to leap them in the standings due to their experience and the addition of Butler.
If that’s the case, the Timberwolves will have a hard time guaranteeing themselves a spot in the Western Conference playoffs top six, and will have to earn their way into the postseason via the play-in tournament.
At that point, seeding and matchups will become critical.
If Minnesota can’t overtake the Clippers, they could open the play-in tournament on the road in Los Angeles against a dangerous roster led by Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
If the Timberwolves lose that game, they’ll have to beat the winner of a Dallas and Sacramento matchup, at which point the Mavericks might have a fully healthy Anthony Davis to pair with Kyrie Irving.
Related: Jazz Mailbag – Should Team Have Kept Gobert Or Mitchell?
Truthfully, whether the Timberwolves make the playoffs or not is mostly inconsequential for the Jazz. While they would love to see the Timberwolves land in the lottery, it would only give them a 2.4 percent chance of moving into the top four picks of the draft.
With just 24 games left in the regular season, the Timberwolves are unlikely to be able to make up much ground on the teams ahead of them in the standings, meaning they’re likely to send the Jazz a pick somewhere between 14-20 in this year’s draft, which is much higher than I would have anticipated.
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Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops, on Instagram @BensHoops, or on BlueSky.
