Timberwolves' Slump Gives Jazz's Draft Stock a Major Boost

While the Utah Jazz attempt to get back on track entering the new year, there’s a development that fans should be keeping an eye on moving forward. The Minnesota Timberwolves are spiraling out of control with no clear end in sight, which bodes well for the Jazz, who are in possession of their 2023 first-round draft pick in a loaded class.

Currently, the Timberwolves have lost six games in a row, including a 12-point home defeat against the last-place Detroit Pistons on New Year's Eve.

NBA senior writer John Krawczynski of The Athletic recently tweeted his thoughts on where things stood following the defeat.

“An absolutely inexcusable performance from the Wolves. Up and down the roster, coaching staff, everyone. Out-worked by a tanking team on your home floor. 16-21. Rock bottom, here they are," Krawczynski tweeted.

DET 116, MIN 104

An absolutely inexcusable performance from the Wolves. Up and down the roster, coaching staff, everyone.

Out-worked by a tanking team on your home floor.

16-21. Rock bottom, here they are.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) January 1, 2023

Minnesota is currently eighth from the bottom in the NBA standings, which would give the Jazz a 26% of landing a top-four pick and a 6% chance of being No. 1. The Timberwolves heading all the way to the bottom isn’t realistic, but what is in the cards is being knocked down a couple of spots to the No. 6 slot. Just one more Minnesota loss would put Utah on pace for a guaranteed top-nine selection and an 8.3% chance for the top pick.

There’s a lot of basketball left to be played, but can the Timberwolves turn it around? Backup center Naz Reid was asked to solve the mystery of what's holding his team back.

“Not really," Reid said. ”We know. We know. We know why and you know, I’m gonna kind of keep that in-house. But we know why. That’s why I said before, I feel like we can change this. We know we can change it. So we just got to buy into the things that we could know.”

One has to wonder whether some of the players still aren’t on board with the big lineups that the Timberwolves had to instill due to the Rudy Gobert trade. Minnesota's leading scorer, Anthony Edwards, is on record stating he isn’t a fan.

“The smaller we go, the better it is for me,” Edwards said back in October after the overtime loss to the Jazz.

Whether the Timberwolves can flip the script remains to be seen, but it isn’t pretty if we take a snapshot of what lies ahead. It’s possible All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns could be back as early as January 6, but calf strains are the type of injuries that linger. It’s really anyone's guess on when he’ll actually be 100%.

Also, Minnesota's next seven out of 10 games will be against teams in the playoff hunt before its schedule does lighten up a bit towards the end of January. The Jazz have never owned the No. 1 pick in the history of the franchise, but wouldn’t that be something if Danny Ainge’s first-ever draft pick with the Jazz was Victor Wembanyama?

Funnier things have happened. Stay tuned.

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