The Minnesota Timberwolves currently do not have a pick in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft, but that is not stopping President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas and his staff from exhausting every avenue to improve the Wolves' roster ahead of the 2021-22 NBA season.
Part of that strategy includes co-hosting a draft workout at Mayo Clinic Square July 8-11 with the Utah Jazz. The workout will include upwards of 40 players looking to impress ahead of the Draft.
"Just because we don’t have a pick on whatever day today is doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a pick on draft night," Rosas told media earlier in the week.
"The worst thing you can do is be caught unprepared."
Even without a pick, the workouts in Minneapolis can help the Wolves front office identify future players to acquire as undrafted signings or even via trade in the future. Rosas hopes to showcase the Twin Cities and the amenities of Mayo Clinic Square.
"For us, selfishly, the opportunity to have prospects come in and see the market during this time period, and get a look and evaluation of players we typically wouldn't have gotten -- all of those things came into consideration when we mapped this out," Rosas said.
Furthermore, almost every NBA franchise will have representatives in town for the workouts. Rosas hopes the atmosphere can breed more in-person trade discussions that executives haven't been able to have since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
"Trade will always be the primary platform of team-building for us," Rosas explained. "It gives us creativity, it gives us the opportunity to acquire players who address in different shapes and forms.... This is not an exact science, a lot of it is based on relationships, communication, and the opportunity to meet needs on both ends of teams and get to a point where both teams are in win-win situations."
The 2021 NBA Draft takes place on Thursday, July 29.