By finishing the season with 12 consecutive losses, the Wolves guaranteed themselves the NBA’s worst record (16-66, third-worst in team history) and thus the best chance to win May’s draft lottery.
They’ll own a 25 percent chance to win the June draft’s No. 1 pick, but more important, they now know they can’t draft any lower than fourth, which allows themselves a shot at one of four players: big men Jahlil Okafor from Duke and Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns or guards D’Angelo Russell from Ohio State or Emmanuel Mudiay, who played in China this season.