me, he's going to come back better than he was," Pondexter says. "He looks amazing. It's about longevity right now. We're making sure he's not just coming back playing spot minutes, but he's contributing at a level that he's supposed to. He's a tremendous player. He has a hell of a future."

Kathy Willens/Associated Press

On June 26, 2014, the Minnesota Timberwolves went on the clock with the No. 13 pick in the NBA draft. They would choose LaVine, a 19-year-old guard out of UCLA. Their selection began as a mundane enough draft moment but would live on in infamy. Once Adam Silver announced the pick, LaVine buried his head on the green room table, and then, standing up in a state of shock, he said, "F--k me."

Or so webut tallied just 29 wins. In 2016, Dunn, the No. 5 pick, joined the core. As the team jelled, LaVine posted a career year (before getting hurt), hitting 45.9 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from deep and 83.6 percent from the stripe—strong stuff from a volume scorer.

"We were getting really close and really good," LaVine says. Still, he was a complementary player on that team, and he wanted greater responsibility. "I'll always love Minnesota," he says. "But this is definitely something a lot of players ask for, and now that you're in that situation, you can't back out from it."

Fortunately, LaVine will receive help from the two players who arrived alongside him in the Butler trade.

In the backcourt, Dunn makes for an ideal companion. On offense, he's