But then there’s the draft. And there’s no sugarcoating the fact that TC has been terrible thus far.
Two years ago TC had two late first round picks that he used on Kessler and Moore. He moved around to take Minott in the second round. Kessler seems OK, but he’s not lighting the world on fire and TC traded him away. Moore has turned out to be a complete bust. I loved the Minott pick at the time and I’m not ready to join those who have given up on him. He’s athletically gifted and I love his competitiveness and motor. But he just hasn’t progressed at all as a shooter and I’m beginning to question whether he has an NBA future.
Last year, TC had two second round picks that he maneuvered and eventually used to take Miller and Clark. Miller is physically gifted but didn’t progress at all last season. Worse yet, he showed alarming signs of following in the footsteps of Wes Johnson and Darrick Williams as a guy who lacks the seriousness and competitive drive to be an NBA player. If that turns out to be true about Miller then that’s a shameful failure by TC to fully understand the character of the player before drafting him. TC seems drawn to nice guys and I’m generally OK with that. But I’d feel better if I sensed that TC was drawn to guys who are serious, dedicated, mentally tough and highly competitive. The jury’s still out on Clark because his Achilles injury. But watching him play the role of sidekick to Moore’s clown act on the bench gives me pause.
TC’s main calling card when Wolves ownership made him an offer he couldn’t refuse to lure him out of Denver was his draft acumen. Now I’m wondering if his draft success in Denver resulted from the acumen of someone else in that organization. While TC was drafting Moore and Kessler in the late first round two years ago, the Nuggets drafted Braun. Right now, any sane Wolves fan or executive would happily trade Moore, Miller, Minott and Clark for Braun or Kessler and Moore for Braun.
Really good basketball executives can make bad picks. It happens. But there comes a point where an executive can’t be considered good at his job if he continues to make bad picks and doesn’t make a number of good ones along with one or two great ones. If drafting is just a roll of the dice then NBA teams shouldn’t spend millions of dollars on basketball front office executives, staff and scouts. Owners could simply review media draft reviews on Google and save a lot of money. Truth is, the best NBA teams have front office executives who draft well. Good drafting is foundation to the NBA success, especially for non-destination franchises like the Wolves. Thus far, TC has yet to prove that he’s good at this fundamental part of his job.
Bottom line is that tomorrow’s draft will be a pivotal moment for TC. He has no transactional flexibility to improve the team, which means any improvement from outside has to come through the draft. Moreover, we only have two first round picks in the next five years and no picks - 1st or 2nd - in 2027. TC has two picks tomorrow - a low first rounder and relatively high second rounder. He needs to hit on at least one of those and come away with a player at least as good as Braun but closer to Desmond Bane for immediate impact or a future elite player who requires development time. If he doesn’t, then I might be happy to see him exercise his option to leave next summer. I how not, because we need organizational continuity. But assuming we trade KAT or Rudy after next season for some future picks, I’m not sure I’d want TC making those picks if he hasn’t shown something more that we’ve seen from him so far.
I know this seems harsh, but this is a highly competitive League. Fans pay a lot of money to attend games and TC is paid a ton of money to make sure the team succeeds. So far, I have to credit TC for helping this team get to the Western Conference finals. It helped that he inherited Ant, Jaden, KAT and Naz. But to TC’s credit, he made a great deal to get Conley and NAW, did a nice job signing Slo Mo and acquired last season’s defensive player of the year. So give him a pass on his multiple draft whiffs the past two years. But no more passes from me. He needs to do something impressive tomorrow.
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), that has always been a reason why I've never been too concerned about what we gave up to bring in a defensive stud like Gobert. Although I liked Vando, nobody would call him a skilled player. And I was happy to jettison the other players in the deal. And since I mostly don't like players drafted in the late 20s, and I think this iteration of the Wolves should finish high in the standings for the next few years, the lost picks didn't and don't concern me either. If I'm not very excited about any of the players we've been talking about the past couple weeks, how can I be concerned about losing out on that caliber of player in alternating years? The 4 first round picks the Knicks just gave up for a player that I don't think will bring anywhere near the impact Rudy has demonstrates that the Knicks value late first round picks about as much as I do...not much.
