2012 Draft Scenarios - Minnesota T-Wolves
I contributed over at the excellent NBA Draft Blog, which has been analyzing prospects and breaking down NBA team scenarios for the upcoming draft. You can check out the full article for the T-Wolves picking at #18; which includes our recent draft history, returning players, team and positional needs, and some options that the Wolves have with their 18th overall pick. It's good stuff, and a nice primer for those of you that haven't yet thought much about the (quickly!) approaching draft (this Thursday!)
I also provided the guest commentary for the Wolves, which you can get a snippet of below. Otherwise, make sure to check out the full article for all my commentary, and the NBA Draft Blog analysis of the Wolves draft position for this year:
It's unfortunate that Kahn is still running our draft, as it's quickly becoming very apparent that he has no clue as to what the heck he's doing when it comes to judging actual NBA talent. Even though the #18 overall pick isn't historically a pick that one can expect to come in and turn around the fortunes of a franchise immediately, this is an extremely deep draft. It's possibly the deepest draft in many years. So there is an abundance of talent to be found if one knows where to look (Kahn doesn't!)
With all that said, I personally think the Wolves should bundle the #18 pick with someone like Derrick Williams, in an attempt to move up to the top of the draft. After Anthony Davis, I think the next tier of players #2-#5 all have about an equal chance of becoming future NBA stars, or at the very least, very good NBA core players for many years to come.
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That picture made me smile....just before I kicked myself in the nuts. No longer smiling.
Liked your writeup. I totally buy your tradeup argument despite my personal opinion that Iggy, Martin etc. would be a safer option than another rookie.
"Regardless of what happens, I am hoping against all hope that we don't get treated to another Kahn draft-day-special: which would be drafting any smiley player from Syracuse; or making 68 illogical trades that ultimately lead to Glen Taylor saving 6 million dollars and the Wolves drafting the rights to a 25 year old European player whose name I can't even pretend to pronounce."
First of all, hilarious and true. And of course, don't forget that this player: 1. Will be completely unaware the Wolves even drafted him...Ngombo? He probably has no idea his rights are held by an NBA team. 2. Will NEVER, EVER, EVER even be considered as a potential signee one day.
And with that, I still never understood why teams take Euro prospects in the 2nd round who have zero pedigree. I'm not talking about the Peks/Ginobilis of the world, I mean guys like Henk Norel. Paulo Prestes and Tanguy Ngombo. It is essentially a waste of an asset. Why not take a college guy and at least try him out for the team? Never understood this . It is essentially forfeiting your pick. At least trade it for 2 future picks or some cash, etc....
@WallyWorld Didn't we draft Henk cuz he was on Rubio's team... which would have allowed us to pay them essentially $1 million for Ricky's buyout instead of just $500K. I'm sure stuff like that goes on with what we think are "worthless" picks more times than people know.
@CollegeWolf @WallyWorld Just kinda weird. Especially when some of these guys get picked out of, like, foreign C-Leagues. Not even a knock on Kahn per se... every team in the league does it. Maybe it's just giving foreign scouts some sense of worth.
@WallyWorld Oh yeah don't get me wrong, I agree with ya. It's mind-boggling/sad/depressing.
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@CollegeWolf Yeah Norel made sense for the buyout kickback potential. But all of the other ones not just by the Wolves but every team. I never got it. Why completely waste a pick like that? Is Ngombo EVER going to even come to Minnesota to even work out? No way. So why? Just to give your foreign scouts something to do by keeping tabs on him? An odd trend.
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@WallyWorld This is all very exciting. Trying to predict Kahn's next move is exhilarating. I'm very excited for Glen Taylor, he's going to save millions of dollars over the next week while getting one step closer to selling the team.
I had a vision that they traded the pick for Mike Miller and we all rioted and he never made it out of the airport.
@WallyWorld @Daddyfatsax Multiple trade downs for other "assets." term used very loosely.
@Daddyfatsax So let's predict Kahn's next move. I'll go with Will Barton picked 18th overall. Then....??
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Terrence Ross may be a solid pick at 18. He is as good a prospect as Wes. We drafted Wes in the late lottery right. Damn it.
@Pants80 I could live with Ross, although there are a handful of guys I like better. I can't wait to see how Kahn ruins this draft.
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@Pants80 I think Ross is a good pick at #18, but talk about him going lottery is crazy. He isn't going to be that good. But Wes did go #4, so definitely a better value
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In all my years of doing this, no guest analysis has ever evoked sympathy from me. Minnesota fans, Congratulations. I really feel for you
