The Minnesota Timberwolves have one of the brightest futures in the entire NBA with an exciting young core led by Anthony Edwards who looked like the best shooting guard in the league this past season. The Wolves were very aggressive in this year’s draft as they traded up to the eight pick without giving away any key player.

Let’s dive into each selection they made and the summary of their draft.

The Timberwolves traded into the top ten to land Rob Dillingham out of Kentucky. The 6-foot-2 point guard is arguably the best pure shot-creator and shot-maker in the entire draft. He is wired to score as he plays with unlimited confidence and can score it at all three levels. Dillingham’s pull-up jumper is elite as he has deep range and he is also a tough mid-range scorer.

What makes him an easy fit next to fellow stars is due to his elite spot-up shooting. He’s great at converting shots off the catch due to his great shot preparation, quick shot release and elite shooting ability. Dillingham is more than just a scorer as the Kentucky star is a very good playmaker who plays with a ton of flash.

His scoring gravity opens up the floor for his teammates mixed in with his good court vision which allows him to be one of the top playmakers in the draft. His elite handle combined with his quickness allows him to create space from defenders with ease. On the downside of things, he’s very limited as a defender and will likely be a negative defender in the NBA.

With their other pick in the first round, the Timberwolves added more offensive firepower as they selected Terrence Shannon Jr. out of Illinois. The 6-foot-7 wing was one of the most explosive players in all of college basketball last season.

The smooth lefty is extremely dominant in the open floor as he’s too fast and athletic for opposing players to handle him. He was able to score over 20 points per game while being one of the top scorers in the entire country.

Shannon improved as a shooter each year he was in college which opened up the floor for the rest of his teammates. At the next level, he will be able to bring microwave scoring off the bench while also having the tools to be a versatile perimeter defender. The main question for Shannon is the limited handle as he struggles to create space off the dribble if it’s not a straight-line drive.

The Timberwolves arguably had one of the best drafts of any team this year. They landed an elite point guard in Dillingham who has elite star potential. The talented lead guard will be playing behind Mike Conley who is one of the top veterans in the NBA so that will go a long way in Dillingham’s career.

There’s not a better fit in the NBA for Dillingham. Shannon could be a valuable piece to their rotation down the line as he offers three-level scoring while being able to make high-level athletic plays. The Timberwolves added more youth and elite talent to an already well-established roster. Minnesota fans should be extremely excited for the future.

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Last week, Jabez Reeves, a sprinter at Minnesota State University – Mankato, stretched by himself on the end of the school’s track. He then ran three full-speed sprints, as his coach at Mankato watched on.

Three days later, Reeves was on a flight to Paris, where he’ll compete on the Liberian Olympic men’s 4×100 meter relay team. 

While the team members are clearly tied to Liberia, they also share a strong connection to Minnesota.

“I have a lot of family toward the Coon Rapids, Brooklyn Park area. So for them, just having people that are from Minnesota, putting on and trying to take our name internationally is pretty huge for them,” Reeves said. “It’s just more like an honor thing, just being grateful that I’m allowed to be in this position now.”

Reeves grew up in Woodbridge, Va., but transferred to MSU when another Liberian sprinter — Emmanuel Matadi — recruited him.

Matadi is also the veteran of the Liberian relay team. He ran at Johnson High School in St. Paul. Akeem Sirleaf was a sprinter at North St. Paul High School and now runs for North Carolina A&T State University. And then there’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, who ran for Hopkins High School in Minnetonka and then raced for the University of Florida.

All three of them have state high school championships under their belts.

“When we all talk, we’re all like ‘Yeah, I’m from this part of Minnesota, I’m gonna do what I gotta do to represent this part of Minnesota,’” Sirleaf said. “But when we all come together on that relay, none of that matters. We just focus on the goal, which is to make it to the final and get a medal.”

While the team has a strong Minnesota connection, they rarely get to run together. Getting timing down and baton passes right will be something they’ll work on in Paris before their first race.

But at Olympic Qualifiers in May in the Bahamas, the team looked like a well-oiled machine.

The top two teams in each heat get automatic bids. Liberia was in fifth place as the last leg of the race came, but Fahnbulleh exploded in the anchor leg, pulling his team into second, edging out Switzerland by a hundredth of a second.

The ecstatic team ran to each other on the track, hugging each other.

“That whole relay was just amazing,” Sirleaf said. “I feel like it was a steppingstone for us to put our name out there to the world, to let the world know that, yeah, we’re a small country, but we’re coming.”

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Sirleaf is nursing an injury and will be an alternate in Paris. John Sherman, a 19-year-old from Middle Tennessee State University, will run in place of Sirleaf.

As the Olympic ceremonies open Friday in Paris, the team will come out waving the Liberian flag, a celebration both of their journey and Liberia’s Independence Day, which is the same day.

In 1991, the U.S., and specifically Minnesota, began resettling refugees from Liberia, who were fleeing civil war. Today, Minnesota is home to one of the largest Liberian populations in the U.S., estimated at around 30,000 people. 

“The Minnesota connection is really strong,” said Momodou N’Jie, Joseph Fahnbulleh’s cousin and manager. N’Jie grew up with him in the Hopkins area. He says the community is excited to watch the Liberian-Minnesotans compete in Paris. 

“There’s a lot of different watch parties, not only obviously here in Minnesota … Rhode Island’s another big place and obviously in Liberia,” he said. “I think it’ll be very cool to see all these different watch parties.”

As of Thursday, the exact location of those watch parties hasn’t been announced.

Many families will also be traveling to Paris, which wasn’t a possibility at the Tokyo Olympics because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“I feel like it’s big, because my mom is going to be there. Because [Liberia’s] her native country. So for her seeing me there in Liberia gear, and us on the stage and being the flag bearer and things like that. It’s kind of just huge for her.”

He said racing for the team, representing the country his mother grew up in, will be an honor.

“I grew up around so many Liberians that it almost feels like a duty,” Reeves said. “I kind of felt like I had to run for Liberia just because of where I’m from. And it’s kind of like my birthright, kind of like something that I feel had to be done.”

He said it’s not only his family that’s excited, but the broader Liberian-American community.

“The very first time we qualified, I had almost 1,000 messages, just about ‘Congratulations. We’re so proud of you,’” he said. “I’ve had a couple of run-ins at the airport, like MSP, where people are like, ‘Oh, you’re the Liberian guy!’ It’s super cool to see people happy and excited that we’re doing something for not just ourselves, but for them as well.”

The first race for the relay team will be on Thursday Aug. 8. Fahnbulleh will run the first round of the 200 meters on Aug. 5. Matadi will run the first round of the 100 meters on Aug. 3.