2024 Wolves Draft thread

[Q-is-here]

Top 5 realistic picks for me at 27 (I'll be at the draft)

1. Baylor Scheierman. He rebounds and shoots threes. He checks off everything we need.
2. Jaylon Tyson- tough kid, big time scorer, and NAW's potential exit looms large, so address this early.
3. DaRon Holmes. Kinda like him as a small ball 5, change of pace guy. If the long term goal is to pay Naz Reid and make him a starter, Holmes and Miller give us 2 cracks at it and could be a good bench pair together.
4. Tyler Kolek- Not super excited about this but he's a shooter, upperclassman, plug and play guard for a team I hope is not disregarding the position.
5. Nikola Djurisic- kinda has a motor issue, BUT off talent alone he's really really good. That guy thinks he's gonna be awesome. Kinda reminds me a bit of McDaniels in terms of temperament.

Top 5 picks I don't want at 27.

1. Tyler Smith- super young, has upside and TC has an affinity for Ignite guys, but this guy is so far away defensively that I don't think it's ever coming
2. Ryan Dunn- might be the best defensive player in the class, but a 6'7'' Josh Okogie is still Josh Okogie. Offensively he sucks.
3. Johnny Furphy- I don't think he's ready to help us and won't be of help for a while.
4. KJ Simpson- talented guy and I might be open to it at 37, but man I don't know how this team's gonna find a PG successor. I know it's not him. I don't want him as anything more than a backup.
5. Kevin McCullar- older prospect. Not a great shooter. He's the kind of guy Glen Taylor used to like; okish players on great teams with pedigree.

I agree with your stay-aways. I like KJ, but like you at 37 not 27. Among the five guys you like, Kolek and Scheierman are the two who interest me although I think we’ll have to trade up a few spots to get Kolek. I’m intrigued by Jaylon Tyson’s toughness but I hate to draft someone with a questionable perimeter shot. We’re loaded at the 5 so I wouldn’t use one of our precious few picks the remainder of this decade on another big unless he knocks our socks off. Djurisic is intriguing but any whispers of motor issues are a giant red flag that says STAY AWAY.

Heh, agreed Lip. Anyone that was a poor shooter or has a poor motor is a FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT DRAFT!!!! for me. Just a little PTSD from our past drafts!

[WildWolf2813]

Top 5 realistic picks for me at 27 (I'll be at the draft)

1. Baylor Scheierman. He rebounds and shoots threes. He checks off everything we need.
2. Jaylon Tyson- tough kid, big time scorer, and NAW's potential exit looms large, so address this early.
3. DaRon Holmes. Kinda like him as a small ball 5, change of pace guy. If the long term goal is to pay Naz Reid and make him a starter, Holmes and Miller give us 2 cracks at it and could be a good bench pair together.
4. Tyler Kolek- Not super excited about this but he's a shooter, upperclassman, plug and play guard for a team I hope is not disregarding the position.
5. Nikola Djurisic- kinda has a motor issue, BUT off talent alone he's really really good. That guy thinks he's gonna be awesome. Kinda reminds me a bit of McDaniels in terms of temperament.

Top 5 picks I don't want at 27.

1. Tyler Smith- super young, has upside and TC has an affinity for Ignite guys, but this guy is so far away defensively that I don't think it's ever coming
2. Ryan Dunn- might be the best defensive player in the class, but a 6'7'' Josh Okogie is still Josh Okogie. Offensively he sucks.
3. Johnny Furphy- I don't think he's ready to help us and won't be of help for a while.
4. KJ Simpson- talented guy and I might be open to it at 37, but man I don't know how this team's gonna find a PG successor. I know it's not him. I don't want him as anything more than a backup.
5. Kevin McCullar- older prospect. Not a great shooter. He's the kind of guy Glen Taylor used to like; okish players on great teams with pedigree.

I agree with your stay-aways. I like KJ, but like you at 37 not 27. Among the five guys you like, Kolek and Scheierman are the two who interest me although I think we’ll have to trade up a few spots to get Kolek. I’m intrigued by Jaylon Tyson’s toughness but I hate to draft someone with a questionable perimeter shot. We’re loaded at the 5 so I wouldn’t use one of our precious few picks the remainder of this decade on another big unless he knocks our socks off. Djurisic is intriguing but any whispers of motor issues are a giant red flag that says STAY AWAY.

Djurisic's motor issues are more like McDaniels than they are, say, Wiggins.

As far as staying away from bigs, we're not as loaded as we'd like to admit. We have guys who CAN play the 5, but who's Rudy's backup? Garza? We know Towns's backup is Reid, but for how long? Sure, we have Miller, but he might a 3/4 instead of a 4/5. Also, we're out of picks next year, so any kind of young controllable talent will do.

[Coolbreeze44]

With where we are as a team, and this not being a great draft, I'd really hate to see us take a chance on young guy who MIGHT develop into a really good player. We don't need low floor/high ceiling types in this draft. We need at least one contributor that can be plug and play. The ideal scenario would be a guy like Jaquez in terms of game and maturity. I realize that's a really high bar, but even a poor man's version of him would be ideal. It wouldn't have to be Jaime's position, just someone that can play in the league for 10 years and knock down open 3's.

Speaking of Jaquez, with Butler on his way out of Miami, is it possible we could pry him (Jaquez) out of there for KAT? Honestly, if push came to shove, I'd do the trade straight up with filler. But I'd be really curious whether you guys think Miami would be willing to give him up.

[WildWolf2813]

With where we are as a team, and this not being a great draft, I'd really hate to see us take a chance on young guy who MIGHT develop into a really good player. We don't need low floor/high ceiling types in this draft. We need at least one contributor that can be plug and play. The ideal scenario would be a guy like Jaquez in terms of game and maturity. I realize that's a really high bar, but even a poor man's version of him would be ideal. It wouldn't have to be Jaime's position, just someone that can play in the league for 10 years and knock down open 3's.

Speaking of Jaquez, with Butler on his way out of Miami, is it possible we could pry him (Jaquez) out of there for KAT? Honestly, if push came to shove, I'd do the trade straight up with filler. But I'd be really curious whether you guys think Miami would be willing to give him up.

where would Jaquez play? McDaniels is our SF and should only be that.

EDIT: On top of that, if Miami moves on from Jimmy, it makes it that much more important to keep Jaquez, not pivot to a Bam/KAT frontcourt with nobody really to facilitate them. For that to work,

Team A gets Jimmy
Miami gets KAT
MIN would have to get whatever bad contracts either Miami or Team A has + Jaquez-- so it would be MIN getting Jaquez + Herro to render NAW useless + pick from Team A.

[Carlos Danger]

This is the latest draft.net mock draft. It’s very similar to all the other mocks with some relatively minor differences. For example, all the mocks I’ve seen have Reed Sheppard going in the top 3. This one has Kolek going slightly lower than most others. It has Scheierman going in the second round rather than late first as in other mocks. The biggest variance between mocks seems to be Nikola Topic.

1. Atlanta Zaccharie Risacher 6-9 200 SF/PF France Intl.
2 Washington Alexandre Sarr 7-1 225 C France Intl.
3 Houston Reed Sheppard 6-3 180 PG/SG Kentucky Fr.
4 San Antonio Stephon Castle 6-7 210 PG/SG UConn Fr.
5 Detroit Matas Buzelis 6-10 195 SF/PF G-League Fr.
6 Charlotte Donovan Clingan 7-3 280 C UConn So.
7 Portland Cody Williams 6-8 180 SF Colorado Fr.
8 San Antonio Tidjane Salaun 6-9 210 PF France Intl.
9 Memphis Ronald Holland 6-8 195 SF G-League Fr.
10 Utah Dalton Knecht 6-6 210 SG/SF Tennessee Sr.
11 Chicago Devin Carter 6-3 195 PG/SG Providence Jr.
12 Oklahoma Cty Carlton Carrington 6-5 195 PG/SG Pittsburgh Fr.
13 Sacramento Ja'Kobe Walter 6-5 200 SG Baylor Fr.
14 Portland Jared McCain 6-3 205 PG/SG Duke Fr.
15 Miami Tristan da Silva 6-9 215 SF Colorado Sr.
16 Philadelphia Isaiah Collier 6-4 205 PG USC Fr.
17 LA Lakers Yves Missi. 7-0 230 C Baylor Fr.
18 Orlando KyShawn George 6-8 210 SF Miami Fr.
19 Toronto Rob Dillingham 6-2 165 PG Kentucky Fr.
20 Cleveland Nikola Topic 6-6 200 PG Serbia Intl.
21 New Orleans Zach Edey 7-5 300 C Purdue Sr.
22 Phoenix DaRon Holmes 6-10 235 PF/C Dayton Jr.
23 Milwaukee Jaylon Tyson 6-7 220 SG/SF California Jr.
24 New York Terrence Shannon 6-7 225 SG Illinois Sr.
25 New York Kel'el Ware 7-1 230 C Indiana So.
26 Washington Tyler Kolek 6-2 195 PG Marquette Sr.
27 Minnesota Cam Christie 6-6 190 SG Minnesota Fr.
28 Denver Kyle Filipowski 7-0 230 PF/C Duke So. Fr.
29 Utah Johnny Furphy 6-9 190 SG/SF Kansas Fr.
30 Boston Pacome Dadiet 6-8 210 SF France Intl.

Thanks for posting that. I've been watching the mocks and they are starting to settle in for the top ten. But still seem all over the board after that. Topic is another guy to watch. He was top ten before his ACL. Since then, I've seen him listed anywhere from just outside of top 10 (when the mocks first started coming out) to now in the 20's. I think it's really less of pick # vs. tier # outside of the top few guys. There doesn't seem to be a ton of separation talent or physical ability wise. It just depends on team needs and how they like a guy.

I have pretty low expectations for two reasons:

1.) Our low draft position
2.) The fact that Finch probably isn't going to play anyone drafted this year anyway.

[Monster]

I watched the national championship game and thought Edey looked like a far better prospect than Clingan. But I see Donovan consistently rated ahead of him, why is that?

I saw it the opposite way. I thought Clingan was much more mobile and coordinated, which makes him more versatile defensively in the modern day NBA where Centers have to be able to guard in space and close out on shooters. Edey reminds me a bit of Roy Hibbert, who eventually got played out of the NBA once pace and space started to take off. He's just so slow and plodding. Not sure his soft touch in the post can make up for all his liabilities.

the irony is that he tested similarly to Clingan at the combine.

I also think Clingan is the better overall prospect because he moves much better but I am a little surprised at how high he is projected to go. I think one of the issues with Edey is that I’m not sure he has what is needed to become a good defensive player based on his physical makeup. He has assets but he has to be about to have the defensive intelligence to use it. I’m not saying he is dumb but I think he has to have it or he just isn’t going to be a starting level player. Having said that it’s also possible he improves his ability to move etc. Garza is a guy that made pretty big strides in that area.


That’s about all the knowledge I have about this draft. I hardly know who most of these guys are. I’m probably just gonna do some research on whoever we get and go from there. I just haven’t felt like taking the time to do my usual draft research.

[Monster]

This is the latest draft.net mock draft. It’s very similar to all the other mocks with some relatively minor differences. For example, all the mocks I’ve seen have Reed Sheppard going in the top 3. This one has Kolek going slightly lower than most others. It has Scheierman going in the second round rather than late first as in other mocks. The biggest variance between mocks seems to be Nikola Topic.

1. Atlanta Zaccharie Risacher 6-9 200 SF/PF France Intl.
2 Washington Alexandre Sarr 7-1 225 C France Intl.
3 Houston Reed Sheppard 6-3 180 PG/SG Kentucky Fr.
4 San Antonio Stephon Castle 6-7 210 PG/SG UConn Fr.
5 Detroit Matas Buzelis 6-10 195 SF/PF G-League Fr.
6 Charlotte Donovan Clingan 7-3 280 C UConn So.
7 Portland Cody Williams 6-8 180 SF Colorado Fr.
8 San Antonio Tidjane Salaun 6-9 210 PF France Intl.
9 Memphis Ronald Holland 6-8 195 SF G-League Fr.
10 Utah Dalton Knecht 6-6 210 SG/SF Tennessee Sr.
11 Chicago Devin Carter 6-3 195 PG/SG Providence Jr.
12 Oklahoma Cty Carlton Carrington 6-5 195 PG/SG Pittsburgh Fr.
13 Sacramento Ja'Kobe Walter 6-5 200 SG Baylor Fr.
14 Portland Jared McCain 6-3 205 PG/SG Duke Fr.
15 Miami Tristan da Silva 6-9 215 SF Colorado Sr.
16 Philadelphia Isaiah Collier 6-4 205 PG USC Fr.
17 LA Lakers Yves Missi. 7-0 230 C Baylor Fr.
18 Orlando KyShawn George 6-8 210 SF Miami Fr.
19 Toronto Rob Dillingham 6-2 165 PG Kentucky Fr.
20 Cleveland Nikola Topic 6-6 200 PG Serbia Intl.
21 New Orleans Zach Edey 7-5 300 C Purdue Sr.
22 Phoenix DaRon Holmes 6-10 235 PF/C Dayton Jr.
23 Milwaukee Jaylon Tyson 6-7 220 SG/SF California Jr.
24 New York Terrence Shannon 6-7 225 SG Illinois Sr.
25 New York Kel'el Ware 7-1 230 C Indiana So.
26 Washington Tyler Kolek 6-2 195 PG Marquette Sr.
27 Minnesota Cam Christie 6-6 190 SG Minnesota Fr.
28 Denver Kyle Filipowski 7-0 230 PF/C Duke So. Fr.
29 Utah Johnny Furphy 6-9 190 SG/SF Kansas Fr.
30 Boston Pacome Dadiet 6-8 210 SF France Intl.

Thanks for posting that. I've been watching the mocks and they are starting to settle in for the top ten. But still seem all over the board after that. Topic is another guy to watch. He was top ten before his ACL. Since then, I've seen him listed anywhere from just outside of top 10 (when the mocks first started coming out) to now in the 20's. I think it's really less of pick # vs. tier # outside of the top few guys. There doesn't seem to be a ton of separation talent or physical ability wise. It just depends on team needs and how they like a guy.

I have pretty low expectations for two reasons:

1.) Our low draft position
2.) The fact that Finch probably isn't going to play anyone drafted this year anyway.

I’ve definitely thought about your 2nd point a fair amount. I think there is a few things to consider. 1. It’s possible some of those young guys just weren’t that good. 2. This season the Wolves were pretty deep. Even when they were struggling early in the season at PG they still had guys they could play that were vets etc. 3. Finch seems to be willing to play guys they have a vested interest in. Some of that has been circumstances but Nowell they clearly wanted him to figure it out and they Lao needed him…until the acquired NAW. 4. The wolves have gone with young guys with most of their draft picks. Moore even though he was a Jr was still young but at this point it looks like he was not a good selection so it doesn’t matter. It feels like they really need to be getting some sort of value on the court next season from their draft picks where that means the players themselves or in some sort of trade that brings a player. Garza wasn’t a draft pick but he is the younger player brought in by Connelly that’s made the most impact…and he hasn’t played much although it feels like he could have easily played a decent amount more if there was more opportunities. The previous season he lost out on some of those opportunities to Nathan Knight partly due to the fact that down the stretch he had more experience and was signed to the NBA roster. Finch will pull the plug on a guy but he is willing to stick with someone that has some sort of reason to stick it out…this is both a good and bad thing. Can Jaylen Clark make any kind of contribution his first year even just as a defensive wing here and there?

[FNG]

I'm starting to get a little more interested in the draft now that we're only a few days away. One overriding point though: if you watched Cam Christie play live at Williams Arena this season and now see a couple mock drafts that have us picking him at 27, you have some kind of an idea about the quality of available guys late in the first round ( more support for my lack of concern about the (likely) late first round picks we gave up to acquire a stud like Gobert).

I think the type of player (i.e. NBA ready player with less upside or a younger more long-term prospect) will have a lot to do with what the Wolves are doing with SloMo, Morris and JMac. The Wolves were able to begin negotiating with all three of them the moment the NBA finals ended, and they should have a very good idea about which (if any) of the three will be back next season by Wednesday. If they are not going to be back next season, I think Finchie is going to be asking for a more seasoned player who can be a rotation player right now. Shannon might be the most likely guy in this category, although unlike a few takes here, I have a higher level of concern about his alleged rape...even though he was found not guilty. But if our free agents (and especially SloMo) are returning next year (and if TC has no intention of trading any of our core rotation), I think the Wolves pick will be the player with the biggest upside...either a one-and-doner with a high ceiling or a Euro guy like Djurisic. Someone who won't likely help us this season, but who could be a factor down the road in the next Ant-centric Wolves iteration.

What about our core of non-playing young guys...do any of them have a chance of cracking the rotation if SloMo and Morris are gone? I think the fact that Finchie has been reluctant to play any of them in meaningful minutes tells us the answer is likely no. He has seen them in practices many times, and has also watched G League video of them, and I think his mind is made up about Moore, Minott and Miller. I don't think he sees much future with any of them. TC can try to package them to move up in the draft, but other GMs have seen the same video Finchie has, so I'm not sure that helps us move up.

Djurisic is the guy I'm most intrigued with in this draft at 27 and 37. I haven't seen the motor concerns WildWolf mentioned (WW-please post your source...it might impact my opinion), but I do see a terrific athlete with excellent ballhandling skills for a 6-8 guy. His shooting may be a question mark, although he did improve his 3-point shooting from 22% to 33% in the last year.

[Q-is-here]

FNG, One of the problems we have with our current young guys is the mis-match between what position they play and where we have needs. Heck, even Kyle Anderson found himself having to play out of position at times thanks to our depth at C and PF.

Assuming we bring back literally everyone under contract (no trades) and don't re-sign any of our free agents, here is the first two tiers of our depth chart:

C - Rudy, KAT
PF - KAT, Naz
SF - Jaden, Ant
SG - Ant, NAW
PG - Conley, ???

I realize I didn't go 10-deep here, but due to the fact KAT and Ant can play two positions, we pretty much have the 2-5 slots covered with good players. The one glaring hole is backup PG since SloMo could play this role when he was the backup SF playing with both NAW and Ant as the guards (and of course in the regular season we saw a spell where Finch used all three of his pure PGs in the rotation).

Bottom-line...I think we use one of our draft picks or bundle them to move up for a more mature PG AND we sign a free agent PG to a vet minimum deal. That could be JMac or Monte, TBD.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think the other position of need is a wing shooter/scorer. Josh Minott is the closest thing we have among the current young guys to help out at SF, but he's not a good shooter or defender. He's athletic as hell and has some surprisingly good passing chops. But if he can't knock down the open 3 or stay in front of other wings, he is completely useless to us no matter how fast he can fly up and down the court.

[Lipoli390]

This is the latest draft.net mock draft. It’s very similar to all the other mocks with some relatively minor differences. For example, all the mocks I’ve seen have Reed Sheppard going in the top 3. This one has Kolek going slightly lower than most others. It has Scheierman going in the second round rather than late first as in other mocks. The biggest variance between mocks seems to be Nikola Topic.

1. Atlanta Zaccharie Risacher 6-9 200 SF/PF France Intl.
2 Washington Alexandre Sarr 7-1 225 C France Intl.
3 Houston Reed Sheppard 6-3 180 PG/SG Kentucky Fr.
4 San Antonio Stephon Castle 6-7 210 PG/SG UConn Fr.
5 Detroit Matas Buzelis 6-10 195 SF/PF G-League Fr.
6 Charlotte Donovan Clingan 7-3 280 C UConn So.
7 Portland Cody Williams 6-8 180 SF Colorado Fr.
8 San Antonio Tidjane Salaun 6-9 210 PF France Intl.
9 Memphis Ronald Holland 6-8 195 SF G-League Fr.
10 Utah Dalton Knecht 6-6 210 SG/SF Tennessee Sr.
11 Chicago Devin Carter 6-3 195 PG/SG Providence Jr.
12 Oklahoma Cty Carlton Carrington 6-5 195 PG/SG Pittsburgh Fr.
13 Sacramento Ja'Kobe Walter 6-5 200 SG Baylor Fr.
14 Portland Jared McCain 6-3 205 PG/SG Duke Fr.
15 Miami Tristan da Silva 6-9 215 SF Colorado Sr.
16 Philadelphia Isaiah Collier 6-4 205 PG USC Fr.
17 LA Lakers Yves Missi. 7-0 230 C Baylor Fr.
18 Orlando KyShawn George 6-8 210 SF Miami Fr.
19 Toronto Rob Dillingham 6-2 165 PG Kentucky Fr.
20 Cleveland Nikola Topic 6-6 200 PG Serbia Intl.
21 New Orleans Zach Edey 7-5 300 C Purdue Sr.
22 Phoenix DaRon Holmes 6-10 235 PF/C Dayton Jr.
23 Milwaukee Jaylon Tyson 6-7 220 SG/SF California Jr.
24 New York Terrence Shannon 6-7 225 SG Illinois Sr.
25 New York Kel'el Ware 7-1 230 C Indiana So.
26 Washington Tyler Kolek 6-2 195 PG Marquette Sr.
27 Minnesota Cam Christie 6-6 190 SG Minnesota Fr.
28 Denver Kyle Filipowski 7-0 230 PF/C Duke So. Fr.
29 Utah Johnny Furphy 6-9 190 SG/SF Kansas Fr.
30 Boston Pacome Dadiet 6-8 210 SF France Intl.

Thanks for posting that. I've been watching the mocks and they are starting to settle in for the top ten. But still seem all over the board after that. Topic is another guy to watch. He was top ten before his ACL. Since then, I've seen him listed anywhere from just outside of top 10 (when the mocks first started coming out) to now in the 20's. I think it's really less of pick # vs. tier # outside of the top few guys. There doesn't seem to be a ton of separation talent or physical ability wise. It just depends on team needs and how they like a guy.

I have pretty low expectations for two reasons:

1.) Our low draft position
2.) The fact that Finch probably isn't going to play anyone drafted this year anyway.

I think Monster and Q addressed your second reason pretty thoroughly. I’ll boil it down to this. Our young guys (Miller, Minott, Moore) just weren’t good enough to crack the rotation of a team competing for a championship. I’m not sure any of them, except maybe Minott, would have gotten any time on a lottery-bound team. Moore is a bust, but I still have hope for Minott and Miller. Also, as Q and Monster pointed out, none of our young guys provide what we need most positionally (backup PG) or skill-wise (perimeter shooting).