Isaiah Evans to Wolves After Julius Randle Trade, Watch Highlights of No. 33 Pick in 2026 NBA Draft

The Minnesota Timberwolves landed one of the potential steals of the 2026 NBA draft Wednesday when they landed Duke guard Isaiah Evans with the No. 33 overall pick.

Minnesota ended up with Evans through a trade with the Brooklyn Nets that also involved Julius Randle:

While Evans was overshadowed by names such as AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson and his own college teammate, Cameron Boozer, in this draft, he showed plenty of talent as a key playmaker for the Blue Devils as they won the ACC regular season and tournament championships before making the Elite Eight.

The guard averaged 15.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game while shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 36.1 percent from deep. He also scored in double figures in three of Duke's four NCAA tournament games, including when he poured in 25 points in the Sweet 16 win over St. John's.

Here is a look at some of his top highlights from his final collegiate season.

Highlights

Scouting Report

One of the first things that jumps out about Evans' game is his shooting, and B/R's Jonathan Wasserman pointed to another high-profile collegiate shooter as a pro comparison in Jordan Hawkins.

Hawkins attempted 7.6 three-pointers per game in his final collegiate season at UConn and is now part of the New Orleans Pelicans' backcourt rotation. By comparison, Evans averaged 7.4 three-point attempts this past season with the Blue Devils.

"There have been signs of Isaiah Evans' improved burst for slashing to the rim," Wasserman wrote. "Regardless, he'll be eyed by teams for his off-ball shooting, which has looked similar to last year, only with double the minutes and shots."

Evans was also part of a loaded 2024-25 Duke team that featured Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, but he jumped into a much larger role as a sophomore. In fact, he was second on the team in scoring behind only Boozer and saved some of his best games for the biggest moments.

In addition to the Sweet 16 performance, Evans scored 20 points in the ACC tournament championship game win over Virginia and 32 points during a victory over Florida State in that same tournament.

Minnesota surely hopes he can provide some of that clutch scoring at the NBA level as it pursues a playoff spot.