Minnesota Timberwolves Select Josh Minott, Matteo Spagnolo in Second Round

After wheeling and dealing across the late first spherical of the 2022 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves stayed lively within the second spherical.

The Wolves chosen Memphis freshman ahead Josh Minott at No. 45 general after buying the choose and a 2023 second-rounder from the Charlotte Hornets for No. 40, per the Charlotte Observer’s Rod Boone. At No. 50, Minnesota chosen Italian guard Matteo Spagnolo of Vanoli Cremona.

The group additionally traded the No. 48 choose, which turned Baylor wing Kendall Brown, to the Indiana Pacers for a future second-round choose, per the Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski.

Minott is a wager on upside and improvement. The 6-8 ahead averaged 6.6 factors and three.8 rebounds in 14.6 minutes per sport and solely began 5 of the 33 video games he performed for the Tigers. He ranked ninth on the group in minutes per sport and ranked forty fourth on the Canis Hoopus Massive Board.

Judging Minott by the counting stats belies his influence, although. He’s lengthy and extremely bouncy, and he places these instruments to good use as a defender, particularly off-ball. His 3.1 steal proportion is proof of his skill to fly across the courtroom and make performs.

He’s at present incapable as a ball handler and shooter, which hurts his influence in half courtroom offense. He solely made two of 14 3-point makes an attempt on the season, and he threw some head-scratching turnovers. What he can do is use his spring to complete on the basket as a cutter and transition runner; he scored 1.27 factors per shot across the rim per NBA.com.

Minott is at his greatest within the open courtroom, the place he can eat up house together with his lengthy stride and throw down some thunderous dunks. He was a menace in Memphis’ press and proved himself to be among the best athletes within the class at turning protection into offense. He’s additionally a powerful positional rebounder, grabbing the third-highest proportion of accessible rebounds whereas on the courtroom of anybody on the group.

Minott is more likely to spend a while with the Iowa Wolves within the G League as he continues to develop.

Spagnolo simply averaged 12.2 factors, 3.5 rebounds and a couple of.6 assists per sport as a 19-year-old in Italy’s Serie A. Given the prevailing roster crunch and use of three different picks on the evening, Spagnolo is probably going a draft-and-stash. He ranked 67th on the Canis Hoopus Massive Board.

Spagnolo has a powerful profile as a shooter, connecting on 44.1 % of his makes an attempt from deep and 86.1 % on his photographs from the free throw line. He makes use of the specter of that shot and a few slick ball dealing with to attain nicely within the pick-and-roll, stringing collectively crossovers to get into his pull-up. Spagnolo prolonged his vary on that shot out to 3-point vary this season.

Spagnolo’s skill to complete photographs in site visitors is below larger query — he shot simply 44 % on 2-point photographs — and he’s not an impactful defender; he had solely 19 steals and one block in 25 video games in 2021-22.

Standing 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, Spagnolo doesn’t have to be a defensive legal responsibility, though his footspeed is an actual query mark. He has to work more durable to maintain faster gamers from blowing by him, and he dedicated a regarding 2.2 fouls per sport.