MINNEAPOLIS — Flip Saunders’ first draft running the Minnesota Timberwolves was a chaotic one, with players falling and then disappearing right in front of them and trades happening every 10 minutes.

When the dust settled, the Wolves came away with UCLA swingman Shabazz Muhammad and Louisville center Gorgui Dieng in the first round. They weren’t the first choices the Wolves would have made, and Saunders knows that they will take some selling with his fans.

“We felt pretty confident that we were going to get one of our guys, but we didn’t,” Saunders said Thursday night. “We moved back. I know it’s not a popular pick with Shabazz. And I’ve been very critical of him. And I told him that when he came in here.”

The draft was shaping up beautifully early for the Timberwolves, who tried to trade up from No. 9 into the top five for a chance at one of the top two shooting guards in the league. They couldn’t make a deal, but with Anthony Bennett and Cody Zeller both surprisingly going in the top four picks, Kansas guard Ben McLemore was sliding down the board.

Then the Kings took McLemore at No. 7 and the Detroit Pistons took Georgia shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope right in front of the Wolves at No. 8, leaving Saunders with few options.

“Our guys at No. 9 were off the board,” Saunders said. “We thought one of them would be there. We had a decision to make, whether we thought who we could get, if he wasn’t there at 9 who we could move back and get at 14.”

With Gonzaga center Kelly Olynyk and a few other players still available, Saunders drafted Michigan point guard Trey Burke for Utah in return for pick Nos. 14 and 21. But the Boston Celtics swooped in to grab Olynyk at No. 13, leaving the Wolves to take Muhammad, a highly touted prep star from Las Vegas who had a rocky one-year stay at UCLA.

Muhammad averaged 17.9 points per game.