Wolves 2017 Draft Thread

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

[Monster]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

Q I totally agree with you on Lavine. Someone else gets it. He is a shooter.

[Lipoli390]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

Q I totally agree with you on Lavine. Someone else gets it. He is a shooter.

I also agree with Q on LaVine as a shooter. I also see the potential to be much more, not so much because of his hops but because of his tremendous speed with the ball. And I also still believe he has the potential to become a good defender with his lateral quickness, especially in light of Flip's faith in him on that end of the court.

[Lipoli390]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

I agree with you on LaVine's shooting, Q. But the Wolves could use some redundancy in the 3-point shooting department. And Hield can do more than just shoot. He has nice size, is a pretty good ball handler and was a decent defender in college. If Dunn can at least become our Marcus Smart, then he can be an important piece of the puzzle for us. And perhaps he can become even more. But right now, his offense looks terrible.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

I agree with you on LaVine's shooting, Q. But the Wolves could use some redundancy in the 3-point shooting department. And Hield can do more than just shoot. He has nice size, is a pretty good ball handler and was a decent defender in college. If Dunn can at least become our Marcus Smart, then he can be an important piece of the puzzle for us. And perhaps he can become even more. But right now, his offense looks terrible.

I mean shooting is nice, but if Zach is a two and people think Wiggins best spot is at two then when does Buddy play in the long-run when they are all healthy? Drafting guys isn't just about filling a short term need. There does need to be some level of fit and I don't remember Hield being big enough to play the 3 and none of the 3 can slide down to PG so you just created a logjam that you have to cleanup come the end of their rookie deals anyway.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I'm also excited to see what Ryan Saunders can do with Dunn in the ball handling department. He's one of the best in the league and Dunn with a better handle would go a long ways towards improving his offense. Tweak his shot and handle a little bit and let him actually run the second team and attack the basket and not defer all game long and I'll think we'll see some decent improvement.

[Monster]

I'm also excited to see what Ryan Saunders can do with Dunn in the ball handling department. He's one of the best in the league and Dunn with a better handle would go a long ways towards improving his offense. Tweak his shot and handle a little bit and let him actually run the second team and attack the basket and not defer all game long and I'll think we'll see some decent improvement.

Good thoughts Kahns. Dunn has a couple dribble moves that are pretty good. Its just like you said he needs to tighten his handle up and he also needs to know when is the right time to unleash what he has. I thought he made legit progress in that sense as the season went on. Dunn was clearly a disappointment offensively but we don't know how much the guy can improve. Some guys don't really do much more than basically sorta get better at the things they do well doing it more consistently (Maybe like Bazz or Ellington) and playing within the team but some guys clearly take their game to another level at some points of their careers. Again I think a nice run in the SL would be good for Dunn just to be able to get out and play. I think to some extent he was kinda like Lavine was his rookie year. Both guys are good kids and wanted to do alot of the right things instead of just playing. Lavine was put in a really tough situation but I think some of it has a worthwhile parallel.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Yeah, I'm hoping they give him the keys to the offense and he plays full-time PG in summer league. If everyone recalls last year he played a lot off the ball with Tyus running the point. And ultimately that still might be Dunn's best spot. But we really need to keep developing his floor general skills in the meantime. Summer League is a good place to start.

[Monster]

I wasn't a huge fan of Hield as our pick because I thought he was redundant with LaVine. Same with Redick by the way....

If LaVine gets healthy, he is poised to eventually become one of the premier shooters in the NBA. His defense and play making abilities are still pretty poor, but he is probably one of the most effortless shooters in the NBA. As he matures, he's only going to get better. We'll some day forget about all the dunk contests, because he will be known primarily as an elite shooter when his career is over.

Dunn gives us two attributes that is truly scarce on this team: Defense and toughness. I do see him eventually being our version of Marcus Smart. I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on him yet.

I agree with you on LaVine's shooting, Q. But the Wolves could use some redundancy in the 3-point shooting department. And Hield can do more than just shoot. He has nice size, is a pretty good ball handler and was a decent defender in college. If Dunn can at least become our Marcus Smart, then he can be an important piece of the puzzle for us. And perhaps he can become even more. But right now, his offense looks terrible.

I mean shooting is nice, but if Zach is a two and people think Wiggins best spot is at two then when does Buddy play in the long-run when they are all healthy? Drafting guys isn't just about filling a short term need. There does need to be some level of fit and I don't remember Hield being big enough to play the 3 and none of the 3 can slide down to PG so you just created a logjam that you have to cleanup come the end of their rookie deals anyway.

Yep we are going back to the tricky negatives of all those guards as an option as a pick right? Dunn can he shoot? What is his upside as an older guy? Murray possibly really good offensive player and shooter but will he actually get better and what position does he play and defend? Buddy he is old will he actually be good? How does he play when they already have a couple wing players although Lavine wasn't as proven and he is now but things were pretty promising. Drafting Buddy (or maybe Murray even though he wasn't all that good would have worked out ok since Lavine got hurt, but things would be tricky if Buddy had played well down the stretch like he did with the Kings although clearly that would have been a good problem to have.

Looking back at that draft I am not sure trading down would have been a good move either because some guys people here liked went higher than expected. Maker 10 Sabonis 11 and Prince 12. I'm not saying there aren't gonna be good players after #12 but its not clear what would have been the things to do there. I still think Dunn's defense is possibly so good its worth getting excited about having him here.

[bleedspeed]

Do we see anyone with that Johnny Flynn or Wes Johnson type smile?