Wolves win the lottery!!!

[WildWolf2813]

Here's one and only one nugget of optimism.

Drafting the #1 pick overall is the kiss of death if you wanna win a title. The only ones to win a title with the team that drafted them were David Robinson and Tim Duncan & LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The link: they needed two of them.


If the Wolves intend to keep the pick, they better nail the selection.

[Lipoli390]

6 pages in and no one thinks Edwards would be a good fit? I know what everyone thinks of Wiseman but Edwards was never even considered as an option. He's there for the taking. Does BPA apply with the way this roster is currently constructed or no ?
Or is he not considered the top player to you guys?

I know Russell for sure wants him here.


Edwards to me, his floor is Dion Waiters. High ceiling though and is a tough customer, so it's up to the team to gauge whether he wants to be a winner.

Wolves just have really good assets with poor timing. Forget about Booker and Simmons would be nice but that's all up to whether Brand wants to blow up the process.

Not a lot of guys the Wolves can circle around and pry away.


What I really wanna see is how they value the 17th pick. When they traded for Butler that was awesome, but then they drafted Justin Patton and screwed that up. They have to find guys who can elite at even one thing. If there's an elite rebounder, get him. Elite speed, get him. Shot blocking? Three pointers? Get him. The first pick shouldn't be an excuse to take the rest of the night off.

Absolutely great point, Wild!!

[Duke13]

Take Edwards and call it a day. The guys physical tools and skills set are through the roof. Please don't tell me his floor his Waiters

[worldK]

Here's one and only one nugget of optimism.

Drafting the #1 pick overall is the kiss of death if you wanna win a title. The only ones to win a title with the team that drafted them were David Robinson and Tim Duncan & LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The link: they needed two of them.


If the Wolves intend to keep the pick, they better nail the selection.

How about Magic and Hakeem? They won with the team that drafted them.

[Lipoli390]

Rosas said today that his drafting philosophy is always to take the best player available and that's what they'll do in this draft. He didn't hedge or equivocate at all on that point. So if the Wolves stay at #1, we can expect them to take the player they consider to be the best player in this year's draft. Nearly every credible basketball analyst considers Edwards or Ball to be the best player in this draft, although a few have bestowed that top ranking on Wiseman. Interestingly, Jay Bilas said today that one could consider Okongwu the best player.

But we don't know who Rosas and his cohorts in the Wolves front office consider the best player in the draft. I think this fair to assume they probably align with the vast majority of analysts and mock drafts that are based on what team GMs have said privately. That would mean the Wolves are likely to take Ball or Edwards if they keep the top pick. I agree that Ball and Edwards are the most talented players in this draft. However, my view of best player doesn't turn solely on who has the most talent.

My view of best player also turns on the how likely it is that a particular player will play up to his talent once he gets to the NBA. That's where motor/competitiveness and basketball IQ come into play. And that's where I wonder about Ball, Edwards and Wiseman. All three have developed reputations among analysts for having questionable motors. That's the ultimate red flag for me. It's the Wiggins flag. That's why my best player available list starts with Okongwu and then goes on to include Toppin, Avdija, Haliburton, Hayes and Vassell. My next tier of best players starts with Patrick Williams who might have more upside than any other player in this draft. As we get closer to the draft, Williams might climb into my first tier.

I'm not as down on this draft as some. Yes, it doesn't have a Zion Williamson or Ja Morant -- two players who I had no doubt would become great NBA players barring injury. But from a pure talent perspective, Ball, Edwards and Wiseman can become great NBA players. I think Okongwu can become a perennial NBA all-star. And there are a lot of other prospects who could become really good, possibly all-star caliber players, even great players. That list includes Toppin, Avdija, Hayes, Vassell and Patrick Williams in my view. Tyrell Terry reminds me of Steve Nash. Josh Green Saddiq Bey, Aaron Nesmith and Kira Lewis are all impressive talents. So see the Wolves draft picks this year as a great opportunity to add additional long-term building blocks to this franchise.

[WildWolf2813]

Here's one and only one nugget of optimism.

Drafting the #1 pick overall is the kiss of death if you wanna win a title. The only ones to win a title with the team that drafted them were David Robinson and Tim Duncan & LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. The link: they needed two of them.


If the Wolves intend to keep the pick, they better nail the selection.

How about Magic and Hakeem? They won with the team that drafted them.

They were before the lottery. Sorry if I didn't clarify.

[WildWolf2813]

Take Edwards and call it a day. The guys physical tools and skills set are through the roof. Please don't tell me his floor his Waiters

1. He's not a good shooter.

2. He's not a willing defender.

3. The things he's good at are things we ask of Beasley and Russell.

4. He thinks he's better than what he is, which is fine except this team has to decide how good he's expected to become.

5. This franchise hasn't shown any indication that they can unlock the talents of guys who have suspect motors. They just got rid of a guy who eerily has similar characteristics to Edwards in Wiggins. Why revisit that? So Ryan Saunders can yell at him at halftime after a crappy first half? High ceiling, but he has the floor of a journeyman.


His biggest asset is that he's a Crean guy, and he's helped develop Wade and Oladipo.

[kekgeek]

I was listening to the Ringer draft lottery show and Russillo mentioned that he is hearing that Sabonis might be asking out of Indiana. He's another guy we can add to the list

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

There's a good argument to be made that we didn't actually win this draft.

Because there's a pretty clear consensus that the draft is very weak with no clear #1 prospect and some real bust potential at the "top," the #1 pick is arguably worse than a later pick because it is more likely to be an overpaid contract. You could take Edwards and pray he's decent, and then the contract will be about fair value at best. Wiseman could end up being a poor-man's Whiteside getting paid twice as much as Whiteside will likely get next year. LaMelo could . . . ugh, I just really don't see it with that kid. Some of us have argued this before, and I was honestly kind of hoping not to win the #1 pick this year.

The fact that the first 6 pages of this thread were all dedicated to trade targets with the pick is evidence that this isn't a crazy idea.

The problem is, because the #1 pick is actually not that valuable this year, it's not going to be nearly as helpful as we'd expect in the trade market. Plus, not that many teams are looking to rebuild, and the Warriors are also going to be shopping the #2 pick, which just further devalues the pick on the trade market.

Damn, it's hard to be a Wolves fan.

*Also, I stand by my earlier claim that no team building around KAT and DLO will ever be a real contender. No defense, no toughness, no leadership, just style over substance. Imagine if we actually added LaMelo. God. Damn. So no matter what, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Rossas can pull something out of his hat here, but I'm not opDOUGistic about the future here.

The Warriors have negative a billion cap space with 4 max contracts on the roster and Wiggins is the only trade chip to go with that number 2 pick to land someone. Who is trading a max contract wing or big (need to basically match salaries) for Wiggins? We got a steal in Russell because he just didn't fit with them with Steph and Klay coming back next year. Who is blowing it up for Wiggins and 2 in this draft? I don't see it. They'll take Wiseman and call it a day as the favorite for the 1 seed next year.

[mrhockey89]

I'm going to echo Lipoli's comment on best player available also involving basketball IQ. How many times have we (the Wolves that is) missed on a guy tabbed as a stud because of basketball IQ or related weaknesses? You know who was the sure-fire BPA at #2 overall that the Wolves took in a 2 player draft? Derrick Williams. You know who the consensus #4 best player was in a 4 player draft? Wes Johnson. Then you have Andrew Wiggins aka Maple Jordan. ALL of these guys were obvious picks by all the experts. Let's see what non-blue chippers we passed up for those 3: Klay Thompson (11) and Kawhi Leonard (15) drafted after Derrick Williams. Paul George (10) after Wesley Johnson. Flip passed up on Klay Thompson to hold out for Andrew Wiggins in the trade.

The Wolves have made some great picks too so my point isn't to point out their misses, but rather that just because a player has a great physical profile, it means nothing if he can't translate it into an effective and efficient NBA player. This is what worries me about Edwards, the strengths/weaknesses for him sound like Andrew Wiggins in a young James Harden body. With that said, all that means to me is that if you take him you better be sure he will improve in all those areas.

Wiseman I like what I've seen out of. I'd be curious why lip feels he's not got the basketball IQ. I feel like that shouldn't be an issue with him. He was very effective in his short college stint (somewhat reminding me of Kyrie Irving's short college stint).

Now that we really do have all the players at our disposal, I can't wait to watch more of these players. I've been mildly surprised that Lavar Ball has kept his mouth relatively shut or at least out of the limelight after making a complete ass out of himself in Lonzo's rookie year.

I'd consider anyone in this draft, starting with Wiseman and Ball. Best player available regardless of position if we trust our front office. We don't want to pass up Michael Jordan because we have Clyde Drexler. The problem will never be with taking best player available, it will be about identifying who the best player actually is/will be. Steph Curry seems so obvious now, but he was passed on by several teams (5, including the Wolves twice). The cream of that draft was Blake Griffin.

As Gersson Rosas said last night after the draft, there are great players in every draft, you just have to be able to identify them.