Would you take Jahlil Okafor if you had the chance?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Shabazz never lied about his age he honestly thought that's how old he was, and he is a great person even after being raised by a scumbag

Is this Shabazz? Otherwise, how would you know what he knew. I'm not sure what Shabazz has done to be considered a great person. He broke rules at NBA rookie camp, he sulked as a teammate got the clutch basket at UCLA and he lied about his age, knowingly or unknowingly as you suggest. He's volunteered with kids so he ain't all bad.

I read that quote. I thought Bloop was trolling though.

[WildWolf2813]

I agree that Gasol is a good comparison for Towns in terms of size, rebounding, defense and passing, but he also has Nowitzki type range on his jumper. He could be a legitimate 3-point shooter in the NBA. To me he looks like the best prospect of the incoming freshmen, but I don't think he will go #1. With two seven footers ahead of him at Kentucky, he isn't likely to get as much of an opportunity to showcase himself as Okafor will. Kentucky was a really odd choice for Towns to make.

Towns is ahead of the other bigs. By the end of the season this won't be much of a debate in terms of who has better pro potential. Okafor is made for college ball. Towns is made for the NBA.

and Towns to UK was years in the making. Calipari coached the DR National Men's Basketball Team and used that as a good convincing tool for Towns.

[Lipoli390]

As for who the Wolves should seek in a draft if they get a super high pick?

When you have the opportunity to take the very best... don't worry about positions. The Wolves won't be a playoff team... which means they have A LOT of holes. There's no reason for a rebuilding team to worry about plugging specific positions. It's about accumulating talent.

Yes! Well said Abe.

[WildWolf2813]

As for who the Wolves should seek in a draft if they get a super high pick?

When you have the opportunity to take the very best... don't worry about positions. The Wolves won't be a playoff team... which means they have A LOT of holes. There's no reason for a rebuilding team to worry about plugging specific positions. It's about accumulating talent.

I almost never agree with this logic with this team.

1. that best player always winds up being a PF of some sort when our needs are elsewhere

2. this team can't ever fill needs adequately.

I ONLY subscribe to the BPA theory on one condition:

if the player is so good at that position that you're willing to build around him and jettison the incumbent somewhere else. For example, if Karl Towns is available, I'm kicking Thaddeus Young and/or Anthony Bennett to the curb; he's that good. Emmanuel Mudiay on the other hand, I don't think will ever be better than Rubio, so why waste my time guaranteeing that one of my supposed pieces to the future suffers because I can't make a long term executive decision?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Mudiay's a star. Dominating grown men in China as an 18 year old. I get your point in terms of draft strategy, but that kid is going to carry a franchise one day.

Not to mention Mudiay has the size and scoring ability to play off guard. If he's available you take him.

[Monster]

Mudiay's a star. Dominating grown men in China as an 18 year old. I get your point in terms of draft strategy, but that kid is going to carry a franchise one day.

Not to mention Mudiay has the size and scoring ability to play off guard. If he's available you take him.

I only know anything about him because I still follow DX on twitter but is dominating in China really that impressive? Serious question. I'm not sure that league is even as good as the D-league.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Mudiay's a star. Dominating grown men in China as an 18 year old. I get your point in terms of draft strategy, but that kid is going to carry a franchise one day.

Not to mention Mudiay has the size and scoring ability to play off guard. If he's available you take him.

I only know anything about him because I still follow DX on twitter but is dominating in China really that impressive? Serious question. I'm not sure that league is even as good as the D-league.

There's former NBA players playing (and hooping well) in China. Not to mention any time you play older, more physically developed men, there usually is a difference in difficulty. I'll add that he's also playing professional basketball, where he's having to treat it as a job instead of a student athlete. I'd think that would be a challenge to overcome. But anyways, I think he was averaging 19/7/6 with really good percentages... As an 18 year old. Tough to scoff at that.

[kekgeek]

Mudiay's a star. Dominating grown men in China as an 18 year old. I get your point in terms of draft strategy, but that kid is going to carry a franchise one day.

Not to mention Mudiay has the size and scoring ability to play off guard. If he's available you take him.

I only know anything about him because I still follow DX on twitter but is dominating in China really that impressive? Serious question. I'm not sure that league is even as good as the D-league.

There's former NBA players playing (and hooping well) in China. Not to mention any time you play older, more physically developed men, there usually is a difference in difficulty. I'll add that he's also playing professional basketball, where he's having to treat it as a job instead of a student athlete. I'd think that would be a challenge to overcome. But anyways, I think he was averaging 19/7/6 with really good percentages... As an 18 year old. Tough to scoff at that.

I remember Fran Frachilla (sp) talking about the league Mudiay is playing in and he said it is a very weak league, with a ton of no defense. But it does play great money, but they league won't develop him. Not saying Mudiay won't be good but I won't put any stock in the league that he is playing in.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Ah yes, the ageless argument about drafting BPA vs. BPA at a needs position. I have always come down on wildwolf's side on this one with only one exception. If there is a clear decisive difference between a player available at your slot and the rest of the field...you know, a once in a generation type talent...you need to grab that guy. But that doesn't happen very often, and instead we convince ourselves that a guy is the right guy even if we don't need help at that position, and we end up with an unbalanced roster...think Derrick Williams. History has shown that GM's are not that good at predicting how good a player will end up being in the NBA, hence all the fun we have with revisiting previous drafts. For that reason, unless a James/Durant is available, you need to draft the BPA at a position of need. You don't draft Derrick Williams to stick him behind Kevin Love when you have other glaring needs in your starting five.

I lived in Shanghai for 3 years and am quite familiar with the level of basketball over there...please don't get excited about the stats that Mudiay is putting up in the China league. This is not like Rubio playing well in Europe at age 18...much more like Muhammad dominating the D-League last year. Mudiay may well be the best player in this year's draft, but scouts are not going to learn this from his performance in China.

It's sad that Rubio's untimely injury torpedoed any chance the Wolves had of being relevant this year...they looked so promising in the games he was active. But at least it looks like Flip is going to be able to add one more young piece to the already impressive roster he is building. The college season has started...let the draft scouting begin!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I'm generally a BTA guy - take the best talent available - unless there isn't a big difference amongst a "tier" of players. Then yeah, take the one where you have a positional need.

LST, the problem with Williams wasn't that he played PF - it was that he wasn't very good. In fact, if he had turned out to be a good player, we a) would never have had to sign Cunningham as our backup PF, and b) he'd currently be our starting PF.