LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves made University of Georgia standout Anthony Edwards the first overall selection in the 2020 NBA draft on Wednesday.
The Timberwolves, who finished 19-45 in the coronavirus-disrupted 2020 season, opted for Edwards, who averaged 19 points per game as a freshman, to bolster a roster that includes young stars Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell.
The 2020 draft comes barely four weeks after LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers clinched the NBA Finals after a virus-disrupted season.
And it comes just five weeks before the 2020-21 campaign tips off on December 22.
That means the NBA’s newest top recruits face being thrown in at the deep end after an unprecedented last leg of their journey to the league.
“We’ve all had to do our best, whether that’s agents, players, colleges, pros, so we’re thrust into that, too, and it makes for a lot of unknowns,” said Golden State general manager Bob Myers, whose Warriors had the second overall selection. “It makes for a lot of variables that we’re not accustomed to dealing with.”
The uncertainty mounted for the Warriors on Wednesday with word that star guard Klay Thompson, on the brink of returning from a torn left knee ligament that sidelined him for all of the 2019-20 campaign, had suffered a lower right leg injury in training.
The Warriors confirmed that Thompson was injured, but offered no details on the nature or severity of the problem.
© Agence France-Presse
