Wolves 2017 Draft Thread

[bleedspeed]

Q - Good point on that. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a measurement. That is one of the big things I work on with my personal trainer. The improvements I have made are pretty insane to me.

[slimcalhoun27 [enjin:6640095]]

Isaac is so freakin' skinny and he has narrow shoulders so it's not like he's going to be able to add a lot of weight. His skeletal frame itself is really skinny. Unless a guy is Kevin Durant good, that makes me incredibly wary.

Isaac is skinny, but has solid lower frame, and muscle tone already. Unlike a Durant and Ingram. Both are super lanky and soft in how they played in college, more outside shooters. Isaac has the strength already to play at the rim unlike Durant and Ingram. I don't see him having a problem adding muscle and strength because he is more aggressive on both ends for what I've seen, and not a shoot first player which deters most from learning a more physical play. Honestly, if he is mentally strong between the ears and wants to bulk and play PFin the league, draft him. If he sees himself being a SF and shooter, move on.

[Monster]

Some stuff on the guys in Portsmouth.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/2017/Portsmouth/all/all/2

Also some news on an intruiging guy mentioned in this thread.

https://twitter.com/draftexpress/status/854774154998034433

J. Jeanne fully intends on staying in the draft, and joining the NBA next year, @Boundiaye tells us. Will not accept draft and stash offers.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Isaac is so freakin' skinny and he has narrow shoulders so it's not like he's going to be able to add a lot of weight. His skeletal frame itself is really skinny. Unless a guy is Kevin Durant good, that makes me incredibly wary.

Isaac is skinny, but has solid lower frame, and muscle tone already. Unlike a Durant and Ingram. Both are super lanky and soft in how they played in college, more outside shooters. Isaac has the strength already to play at the rim unlike Durant and Ingram. I don't see him having a problem adding muscle and strength because he is more aggressive on both ends for what I've seen, and not a shoot first player which deters most from learning a more physical play. Honestly, if he is mentally strong between the ears and wants to bulk and play PFin the league, draft him. If he sees himself being a SF and shooter, move on.

Isaac does not have the strength to play at the rim in the NBA. The guy is 20 lbs away from still being on the small side for a 6'10 player. Durant has 30 lbs on him and Durant is still on the skinnier side of NBA players even though he knows how to use it well. Isaac is not nearly as bad as Ingram, but he's not very close either unless he has the quickness to play the 3 and he's just a wing. Then he has a chance to be productive before he gets the physical profile to help him actually be productive. I think best case scenario is he plays like Giannis who just uses ridiculous length to make up for any strength issues. We'll see how Isaac measures out. He's definitely a 3 though until he puts on 30 lbs.

[Monster]

If Isaac has to play PF then I am less interested. I would like to here from the people that only see him being successful there. I see him as a possible PF because of his length and the way the game in evolving but I would hope he can guard wings or at least SFs. To me some guys having extraordinary length really can make up for a lot. Brewer is/was a guy that was skinny and didn't have extraordinary length to make up for it. Really though the problem with Brewer is/was that he simply isn't skilled enough offensively to be a starter or high level player. I think his lack of skill is more what held him back than anything physical although he would have had some problems guarding some guys.

I really felt like Porzingis length was so insane for how athletic and how well he moved and how much skill he had that he wasn't going to take forever to figure it out. He came along more quickly than I would have guessed but I was also not shocked either. There have been a few "raw" players taken in the last 3 or so years that are well ahead of schedule so...maybe we get one of those guys.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Isaac is so freakin' skinny and he has narrow shoulders so it's not like he's going to be able to add a lot of weight. His skeletal frame itself is really skinny. Unless a guy is Kevin Durant good, that makes me incredibly wary.

Isaac is skinny, but has solid lower frame, and muscle tone already. Unlike a Durant and Ingram. Both are super lanky and soft in how they played in college, more outside shooters. Isaac has the strength already to play at the rim unlike Durant and Ingram. I don't see him having a problem adding muscle and strength because he is more aggressive on both ends for what I've seen, and not a shoot first player which deters most from learning a more physical play. Honestly, if he is mentally strong between the ears and wants to bulk and play PFin the league, draft him. If he sees himself being a SF and shooter, move on.

I don't know, man. Isaac has halfway decent muscle definition for his size, sure, but what solid lower frame? Look at his hips (if you can find them). And his shoulders are skinny too. That's the difference between him and KG and Camby, who somebody mentioned. Those guys had wide shoulders and relatively big butts, despite having somewhat narrow waists. Isaac has neither. He's a crafty finisher around the rim, but he shies away from contact, and he does so because he often gets crushed by opponents physically when there's contact. I'm skeptical of that guy.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I wouldn't say Isaac will only be successful at the 4, but that's definitely where I think he would have the greatest impact as a floor stretcher and switcher on defense. That's just the way the NBA is transforming. It's hard to be 6'10 and good guarding and playing on the perimeter all game. There aren't many guys who can do it. Maybe he can. The couple games I saw FSU I didn't really see a guard in a bigs body on the floor as some of his scouting reports have reported. Anthony Davis went through the same transition as a guard who was a late bloomer and I just don't think you can put AD on the wing all game long so why can Isaac do it? I guess I just have to see more that tells me he's a legitimate wing and not more of a mobile 4.

[Lipoli390]

I don't think I'd approach the draft with drafting the most ready to play guy. Look at how many seniors and juniors are projected to go in the lottery Virtually none and I sure don't want to squander our top pick on an upperclassman. I want the guy who will be the best guy in 3, 4 and 5 years down the road when we expect to compete for a title. That said, it wouldn't shock me if a guy like Isaac is a positive contributor to our rotation by the end of the first year or during his second year.

Has anyone suggested that?

I think the bigger question is whether we end up trading the guy we pick.

I agree, Q. That's the big question. I suspect we'll end up trading the pick. If we keep the pick we should simply take the best player available based on our front office's assessment of the player's ceiling and likelihood of reaching his ceiling. If Thibs has several alternatives roughly equal on those two measures, then the next factor to consider should be the match between the player's talents and the team's needs. I see NBA readiness as a factor, but it's should be down the list.

I just don't see any realistic trade that would materially improve the team next season. Relying on trades to substantially improve your team is problematic for one obvious reason -- you have to give up something meaningful to get something meaningful in return. And we also need to be careful about short term trades that would likely get us to the playoffs next season but really hurt our longer term objective to contend for a championship.

We are fortunate to have significant cap space. That cap space gives us what I consider to be the only realistic chance to significantly improve the team next season. And it has the added benefit of not compromising our longer term success.

My sense is, if we trade our pick, we'll have to pair the pick with an existing player to get a meaningful return. Do you agree? If so, who do you think Thibs would likely include in such a package?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Lip, I'm not sure what Thibs is thinking. Based on the end-of-season press conference, he certainly isn't going to trade Wiggins, KAT, or LaVine. So the only two guys left with any real value are Rubio and Dieng (and may be Dunn).

If our pick ends up at the lower end of the range (7 or worse for example), I'd seriously look at seeing if we could parlay that pick into someone like Aminu, Covington, or Jae Crowder. I have no idea if any of those teams would bite and what their current contracts look like, but I'd love any of those three players on our squad.

[Coolbreeze44]

Lip, I'm not sure what Thibs is thinking. Based on the end-of-season press conference, he certainly isn't going to trade Wiggins, KAT, or LaVine. So the only two guys left with any real value are Rubio and Dieng (and may be Dunn).

If our pick ends up at the lower end of the range (7 or worse for example), I'd seriously look at seeing if we could parlay that pick into someone like Aminu, Covington, or Jae Crowder. I have no idea if any of those teams would bite and what their current contracts look like, but I'd love any of those three players on our squad.

Most years Q i might agree with you, but not with the talent in this draft. You should be able to get more than the names you single out.