2025 NBA Draft Round 1 Thread: Selection and Trade Tracker
It’s amazing how time flies when your favorite (men’s) basketball team plays almost into June. What used to be over a two-month wait for the NBA draft has now been shortened to just a few weeks for Minnesota Timberwolves fans.
Those of us who have been frequent visitors at Canis Hoopus for over a decade are used to coming together and celebrating the most fun time of the season: The NBA draft. But now, it seems like a mere footnote as we await another deep playoff run. How quickly things change.
Let’s dust off our keyboards one more time and party like it’s 2015. Let’s pretend we’re the most promising, yet unproven, plucky young little brothers of the association and enjoy the 2025 NBA draft!
2025 NBA Draft Round 1
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 @6:00 pm CT
Barclays Center (Brooklyn, NY)
ABC/ESPN
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Another season, another game five exit in the Western Conference Finals. It’s hard to chalk that up as a disappointment, given the expectations and early-season returns post-Julius Randle trade. The vast majority of fans headed into the offseason optimistic and satisfied with how things went.
However, the Western Conference is only looking tougher next season.
Not only did playoff teams get better (Houston Rockets), but the teams that missed out on the play-in tournament are loading up their clips to pursue a postseason appearance of their own (San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers). Even the older teams that made big trades mid-season are expected to reload around their stars (Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers). The only teams that stand to flounder, as it currently stands, are the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, and New Orleans Pelicans (Health pending as usual).
When you zoom out and take a look at the NBA landscape, Minnesota is just sixth in 2026 title odds according to FanDuel, who has them at +1400 behind OKC, CLE, NYK, HOU, and ORL. It feels like some real recency bias due to the trades to me. That said, it appears Minnesota’s President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, is willing to bet on continuity, though.
For now.
If they truly do decide to “run it back” by bringing back key players like Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and/or Nickeil Alexander-Walker, then Connelly may be anticipating a second-season bump in a way that the Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns pairing experienced in their second go-around. The 2023-2024 Timberwolves were leading the league atop the Western Conference standings for the vast majority of the season.
This draft and offseason will stand to provide very intriguing signs of what’s to come for the future of the Wolves. Will they keep trying to “win now,” no matter the price tag and long-term viability? Or will they pivot into a “new” chapter, more focused on youth and changing style of play?
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Two words: A trade.
It’s been widely speculated that Tim Connelly is not looking to walk away with multiple incoming rookies on the books. Whether that’s packaging picks 17 and 31 to move up in the draft, or trading down for potential draft and stashes (Hugo González??), there’s a high probability for movement. Just a year ago, Connelly traded into the top 10 seemingly out of thin air, then a day later, traded completely out of the second round just to get off Wendell Moore Jr’s contract.
The current collective bargaining agreement has made building a contender different from what some of us Millennials (or elders) remember. One must be actively aware of their team’s cap sheet and make sure they avoid falling into the dreaded “Second Apron.” In fact, that’s why Karl-Anthony Towns no longer plays for the Timberwolves.
Will the Wolves be motivated by the Western Conference arms race and trade their picks to add more established talent? That may be likely, though tricky given the uncertain pending contracts of Randle, Reid, and Walker.
If Minnesota doesn’t find the right deal and ends up finding better value in just drafting the best available player, then our Andrew Carlson did a great job perusing through some names to keep an eye on.
Let the games begin!
Round 1:
