monsterpile wrote:How would you feel about #7 pick if we had not made the trade.? I would have been a little bit disappointed we dropped to 7. Is there a guy you would be really excited about at that spot?
I looked back at the last few drafts and considered who I would have likely taken at #7 in that draft. Honestly the only guy in that group that remotely exciting is if I picked Halliburton over Toppin. I always love having a pick because there is a chance you find a nice player or even just a player that is good enough to help you win games but it's not the only way to add some pretty good talent. Cam Payne is the latest example of guys becoming a nice player after flaming out.
Every NBA roster spot can mean a valuable player. The 7th pick isn't exactly costly at around 4-5 million a year but there have been guys that ended up not even worth that kind of money. Some teams are finding guys that are playing on minimum contracts that are just as or more valuable than the 7th pick in the draft. Terrance Mann was a 2nd round pick. Who would you rather have from that draft Mann or Colby White? In that draft class the Wolves drafted Nowell and signed Naz as an undrafted rookie free agent and Culver who was picked at #6 costs more than both of them put together and at this point shows less promise.
I'm not saying who cares about #7 but let's also be real about that pick we moved for Russell. It's valuable but it's not a certain value. A roster spot and a little more salary flexibility might be pretty valuable on its own.
It also may be a positive that there isn't another young player fighting for minutes with a young player currently on the roster. Personally I would like to see Nowell get some legit run next season and that's even harder to see (might be tough anyway if people stay healthy) if the Wolves ended up drafting another perimeter player who was obviously going to see minutes.
If our pick had been top 10 protected, giving us the rights to our own #7 pick, I would have looked to trade the pick, perhaps in combination other assets (maybe Culver, Juancho and/or Ricky) for a good defensive big. My top target would have been Holmes. My second target would have been Myles Turner. My third would be Steven Adams.
Personally I don't think having or not having that pick makes any difference in whether or not we could acquire any of those players. If we have to give up a pick that high to make a trade for Stephen Adams or Turner...pass. Why can't we sign the next Holmes or Whiteside? That's what has bugged me about as much as the missed draft picks the fact that we haven't been able to bring in one of these guys that seemingly would make a ton of sense to sign for very little. I'm still annoyed this franchise who can't find a freaking shooter never signed Seth Curry.
I still think signing a low cost FA might be a way to improve the team in the short term. I know he will probably be injured for a chunk of the season but I wonder how much Cody Zeller would sign for.
I'd trade the #7 pick for Myles Turner in a heartbeat. I could see dealing #7 for Adams, but I'd want something more in return.
Unless Taylor is willing to pay the luxury tax and, worse yet, become a repeat offender, I don't see us signing any consequential free agent. Assuming we bring in Bolmaro, we'll only have around $3M to spend. And if we sign Vanderbilt to a minimum contract, as I think we should, then we'll barely have enough room under the luxury tax to sign another minimum salary player.
I'll give Rosas credit for signing Naz Reid and JMac. And maybe Vanderbilt will become our version of Holmes. Rosas is the first head of Wolves basketball operations who has actually done well finding and signing good under-the-radar players.
monsterpile wrote:How would you feel about #7 pick if we had not made the trade.? I would have been a little bit disappointed we dropped to 7. Is there a guy you would be really excited about at that spot?
I looked back at the last few drafts and considered who I would have likely taken at #7 in that draft. Honestly the only guy in that group that remotely exciting is if I picked Halliburton over Toppin. I always love having a pick because there is a chance you find a nice player or even just a player that is good enough to help you win games but it's not the only way to add some pretty good talent. Cam Payne is the latest example of guys becoming a nice player after flaming out.
Every NBA roster spot can mean a valuable player. The 7th pick isn't exactly costly at around 4-5 million a year but there have been guys that ended up not even worth that kind of money. Some teams are finding guys that are playing on minimum contracts that are just as or more valuable than the 7th pick in the draft. Terrance Mann was a 2nd round pick. Who would you rather have from that draft Mann or Colby White? In that draft class the Wolves drafted Nowell and signed Naz as an undrafted rookie free agent and Culver who was picked at #6 costs more than both of them put together and at this point shows less promise.
I'm not saying who cares about #7 but let's also be real about that pick we moved for Russell. It's valuable but it's not a certain value. A roster spot and a little more salary flexibility might be pretty valuable on its own.
It also may be a positive that there isn't another young player fighting for minutes with a young player currently on the roster. Personally I would like to see Nowell get some legit run next season and that's even harder to see (might be tough anyway if people stay healthy) if the Wolves ended up drafting another perimeter player who was obviously going to see minutes.
If our pick had been top 10 protected, giving us the rights to our own #7 pick, I would have looked to trade the pick, perhaps in combination other assets (maybe Culver, Juancho and/or Ricky) for a good defensive big. My top target would have been Holmes. My second target would have been Myles Turner. My third would be Steven Adams.
Personally I don't think having or not having that pick makes any difference in whether or not we could acquire any of those players. If we have to give up a pick that high to make a trade for Stephen Adams or Turner...pass. Why can't we sign the next Holmes or Whiteside? That's what has bugged me about as much as the missed draft picks the fact that we haven't been able to bring in one of these guys that seemingly would make a ton of sense to sign for very little. I'm still annoyed this franchise who can't find a freaking shooter never signed Seth Curry.
I still think signing a low cost FA might be a way to improve the team in the short term. I know he will probably be injured for a chunk of the season but I wonder how much Cody Zeller would sign for.
I'd trade the #7 pick for Myles Turner in a heartbeat. I could see dealing #7 for Adams, but I'd want something more in return.
Unless Taylor is willing to pay the luxury tax and, worse yet, become a repeat offender, I don't see us signing any consequential free agent. Assuming we bring in Bolmaro, we'll only have around $3M to spend. And if we sign Vanderbilt to a minimum contract, as I think we should, then we'll barely have enough room under the luxury tax to sign another minimum salary player.
I'll give Rosas credit for signing Naz Reid and JMac. And maybe Vanderbilt will become our version of Holmes. Rosas is the first head of Wolves basketball operations who has actually done well finding and signing good under-the-radar players.
What are the chances Turner plays more than 60 games next year? If we are going all in on a young big let's freaking blow the Cavs out of the water with an offer for Jarrett Allen or something.
You have seemed so confident that some team will take Culver because they will value him as a project then with at least some salary savings there why can't this team at least sign a vet min big and stay under the Lux tax?
I'll also say that for years McHale and Flip were able to find under the radar guys in free agency. Did that end after Flip left? Was it his eye for talent or was it because he was also not coaching those guys? Coaching and developing guys matters in the process too. Like you said Rosas has been able to find some guys around the margins. It hasn't all been successful though. I thought the Vonleh and Jordon Bell signings were good moves (sort of the moves I have been wanting the team to make for years) and they didn't work out so I will admit I was wrong about them also.
Also I'll be honest if the Wolves seriously want to make their team better for this year and beyond they need to be willing to dip their toes in the Lux tax a little this year if needed. I've seen better teams than the Wolves sell off assets to get under the Lux tax and it's worked out ok for a team like Denver. I think this team should be willing to at least fill out their roster and not be cheap on not adding a 15th spot to avoid the Lux tax this year. It's time to do things to try and win not save every cent. I'm not saying they should go wild and spend the mid level on a multi year deal or anything like that just be willing to fill out the roster on 1 year deals (or multi year deals at or near the vet min) and let's go for actually having a worthwhile season.
You mentioned Vanderbilt. Just for pure fun I'll mention that on 538 RAPTOR rankings he is 123rd in the NBA of guys that played at least 1052 mins. He was right ahead of guys like Stephen Adams and Aaron Gordon. :) of course I'm not going to get too carried away by that stat but him being a positive player in his first real season getting regular minutes is certainly encouraging. I believe they should resign him unless someone offers something pretty significant...like over 4 million a year.
While I admit my gut reaction is that I would always prefer having a pick this year instead of waiting until next (I've never been a delayed gratification kind of guy), I agree 100% with Monster that there would have been a lot of handwringing the past two days on this board had we not traded our pick to GS and ended up with the 7th pick. Take a look at the mock drafts. EVERY one that I have seen has the same 6 players going 1-6, and then a mishmash of players going to GS at7. This doesn't mean that GS won't get a good player at 7. I'm only saying that it couldn't be more clear that the experts see this as a 6-player draft with a big drop off at 7. You know we would be talking about how typical of the Wolves it was to again be one slot too low! I can guarantee we would be bringing up:
1992, when we got Laettner at 3 instead of Shaq or Mourning
1993, when we got Rider at 5 instead of Mashburn, Hardaway and Webber(and even Bradley)
1994, when we got Donyell at 4 instead of Hill, Kidd or Robinson
2007, when all players ahead of Corey Brewer looked very exciting (even if Oden and Jinlian didn't pan out)
2010, when there when we got stuck with Smilin' Wes instead of Wall, Turner and Favors (and yes, I was foolishly excited about Turner back then)
2011, when #2 got us Williams instead of Irving
Every one of those years, I whined and marveled at how our pick seemed to be just one short of where I wanted us to be, and this year is no different. Now, I know you can go back and find great players that were drafted after our slot in those years...we've done that here before. I'm just talking about how lottery night FELT in those 6 years, and I can guarantee 2021 would have been a repeat. I'm with Monster here...we would have been bemoaning our bad luck had we ended up at 7.
