National Basketball Association

Hitting the lottery: Wolves get No. 1 pick in NBA Draft

Published May. 19, 2015 8:45 p.m. ET

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MINNEAPOLIS -- All day Tuesday, Flip Saunders kept a close eye on his watch, which doubles as a heart-rate monitor.

At 7 p.m., an hour before the Timberwolves learned their 2015 NBA Draft Lottery fate, its screen read "59." That's on the low end of normal for a 60-year-old male like Minnesota's coach and president of basketball operations.

By 8, it had jumped to 125.

BPMs around the Twin Cities rose with Saunders' as NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum read the top four picks from a New York Hilton Midtown ballroom.

First the Knicks. Then the 76ers. When Tatum said "second pick" in the same breath as "Los Angeles Lakers," there was an eruption from those inside the Target Center players lounge -- where Saunders, general manager Milt Newton and assistants Ryan Saunders, Sidney Lowe and Sam Mitchell and other staffers watched the TV broadcast --  along with the several hundred fans packed into the arena's lower bowl for a viewing party Tuesday night.

"Everyone was jumping up and down," Saunders said at about 8:15, his heart rate back at resting-state level, "just like little kids."

The franchise that never can seem to catch a break was awarded the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft via Tuesday draft lottery. When the clock begins ticking June 25 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, they'll select first for the first time in the franchise's history.

That's a 26-season span in which Minnesota's never moved up in the lottery; in eight of their previous 16 ping-pong ball derbies, the Wolves moved down at least one spot.

Not this time, though. Not with Saunders' late father, Walter, who passed away last week, serving as the most sentimental of good-luck charms. And not with owner Glen Taylor, who bought this team in 1994 and has overseen some of its darkest years, representing the Wolves at the lottery for the first time.

"My dad," Saunders said, choking back tears and lifting his index finger skyward. "Sometimes, you have to have luck.

"We didn't move up, but we stayed the same, which is good enough."

The club's inaugural No. 1 overall selection means Saunders will have his pick between centers Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns, considered by pretty much every expert the draft's top two prospects. D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay lead the pool of guards, and forwards Justise Winslow and Kristaps Porzingis are both high-lottery options, but early indications offer a two-man race between Okafor and Towns to join 2014-15 rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio and a young Wolves group coming off a 16-66 season.

That mark earned Minnesota the lottery's No. 1 seed, with a 25 percent chance (250 ping-pong ball combinations out of 1,000) at the first overall pick. The Wolves were guaranteed at least the No. 4 pick but had a 35.72 percent chance to fall out of the top three.

They're the first top-seeded team to actually win the draft lottery since Orlando in 2004 and just the third in two decades under the current system. For a notoriously unlucky -- and, at times, poorly run -- organization that hasn't been to the playoffs in 11 years, this represents a coup of the most hopeful kind.

It took an injury-riddled 2014-15 campaign where youthful development came at the expense of victory to get it here. Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic all missed significant time, and Saunders traded away veterans Corey Brewer, Mo Williams and Thaddeus Young.

"When we lost our guys to injuries, we had to make a decision on which direction we were going to go," said Saunders, who already has the league's past two No. 1 picks in the fold -- Wiggins and Anthony Bennett.

Barring any trades, Minnesota will be the first team in NBA history to have three straight No. 1 overall selections on its roster.

"We made a decision we were going to go into development," Saunders said. "And hopefully what that included was the ability to get a high draft pick. We think No. 1 would be, you never know. You kind of throw up a coin and see what happens. But things fell into place."

It all depends now, of course, on what the Wolves do now that they've stumbled upon the end of the rainbow.

"I think that Flip Saunders probably up to this moment was wishing he would get this," Taylor said. "Now that he has that, I think it is a lot of pressure with our young team. We have to find the one guy that will work in and complement the other guys."

Towns is a 6-11 big man from Kentucky who declared for the draft after one collegiate season. His size, athleticism and soft shooting have him atop many a mock draft board, and he projects as an elite-level NBA defender. The second-team All-American's stock rose as the season went on; in the NCAA tournament alone, he averaged 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Okafor left Duke after one collegiate season and is the same height as Towns but a quite different player. Okafor's offensive acumen -- particularly in the low post -- is transcendent for a man his size. He's not the defender Towns is, but that hardly overshadows a freshman year that saw him help the Blue Devils to a national championship and glean ACC player of the year accolades.

Some compare Russell, an Ohio State product, to James Harden. Mudiay spent what would've been his freshman collegiate season playing professionally in China. Winslow and Porzingis are long, athletic forwards who can shoot and expect to hear their name called sooner rather than later in next month's draft.

Saunders didn't hint at any favorites, saying only the No. 1 decision gives him "flexibility." That probably doesn't mean trading the pick, though, he said. Nor does it limit him to a choice solely between Okafor and Towns.

"It's not that simple," Saunders said in the first of what surely will be many statements in the next five weeks that could be taken as gospel, pure posturing or something in between.

Saunders, Newton and their scouting staff already have begun vetting candidates, narrowing their list to six players before the season even concluded, according to Taylor. They'll begin individual pre-draft workouts in the next few days, Saunders said.

The head honcho himself is headed to Cleveland for his father's funeral Friday, but Saunders said the Wolves will have a presence at Okafor's workout Thursday in California.

"The funny thing about my dad is when I would take jobs in Detroit and I went to Washington, I'd come home and he'd still be wearing a Minnesota Timberwolves shirt," said Saunders, who coached Minnesota from 1995-2005 and led it to eight straight playoff appearances. "I couldn't get him to change shirts. He always wanted to keep the Timberwolves shirt on. Maybe because that was my first job and I was here so long, but he was a huge fan and I can remember two months ago when he was watching games and we would talk. He would say, 'You've just got to build and hope you get another good player.' Maybe he had something to do with it."

Saunders contends Taylor might've, too. The original plan was for the owner's wife, Becky Taylor, to sit in the Wolves' chair on stage, but the league sent the team a memo saying that honor is limited to owners, presidents, general managers, players and coaches -- no family members.

"(Becky Taylor) had to back out and be our moral support in the stands," Saunders said. "Glen reluctantly I think went up there. He's good luck.

"We waited 20 years to send Glen to the lottery; we should have sent him a lot sooner."

The draft's top pick has produced 11 names on the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, David Robinson and Oscar Robertson. More recently, Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Anthony Davis entered the league as No. 1 overall picks.

Since the advent of the draft lottery, five No. 1 overall picks have won a championship. Only two of them, Robinson and Duncan, did it with the team that drafted them.

But as the Wolves learned with Kevin Garnett (drafted fifth overall), hitting on one superstar in the draft isn't enough. Fail to build around said luminary, and an organization's efforts become vain.

In Minnesota's case, it landed a future Hall of Famer in Garnett but couldn't keep Stephon Marbury, Latrell Sprewell or Sam Cassell as running mates. As a result, Garnett's eight playoff teams made it past the first round just once, losing in the 2004 Western Conference finals.

But what behooves the Wolves now is this: Whomever they select first on June 25 will be added to an already deep, youthful mix headlined by Wiggins, highlighted by Rubio and strengthened by the promise of Shabazz Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng and Zach LaVine. Kevin Garnett is expected to play at least one more season and provide an unmatched veteran, fan-favorite presence. They also own a pair of high second-round picks (31st and 36th overall) that could be used for depth or packaged in a trade to move back into the first round. And to top it off, the club is in the midst of moving into its new Mayo Clinic Square practice facility and awaiting almost $100 million in renovations to the Target Center.

"A lot of things are going in a positive way," said Saunders, who appointed himself head coach last summer and plans to remain in place till he decides otherwise. "And so there is something for our fans to cheer about, get excited about. We're ready to keep on preparing for the draft, but it's also a boost to the players you have. They're going to be a little excited, too."

Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter

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