Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

Camden wrote:1. To some degree, Minnesota needs to hit on all or most of their draft picks moving forward, as well as undrafted free agent pickups, due to the quantity/quality of outgoing assets in the Rudy Gobert trade. This is an area that Tim Connelly has been good at in his career -- scouting and talent acquisition. He'll have to continue to prove that.

2. The Timberwolves may have already found their version of Malcolm Brogdon in Wendell Moore Jr. this past summer, but it's too early to know if he'll stick or not as a meaningful contributor. The physical profile and well-roundedness of his game, albeit with a limited ceiling, should leave us optimistic, I feel. His development shouldn't be ignored or cast aside.

3. The fact Minnesota didn't draft a pure point guard prospect this summer -- when they had ample opportunities to do so -- leads me to believe at least one of several possibilities.

a.) The Wolves have much more belief in D'Angelo Russell than this board does or wants to admit. The fact they didn't include him in the trade with Utah and instead opted to trade multiple mid-level players -- Patrick Beverley and Malik Beasley -- to match salaries says something to me. Others will say, "Well, the Jazz just didn't want Russell." And that might be true, but they also didn't want Beverley, and Beasley didn't have much of any value around the league either if you believe the reporting involved. Russell's expiring status would have made him an easy salary to take back for Utah. Minnesota didn't go that route.

b.) Minnesota might be confident they already have their limited, low-usage distributor in Jordan McLaughlin. It's entirely possible that Connelly and the front office either value him and think there's more to extract out of him without reducing his effectiveness, or they simply don't plan on spending much -- in salary and draft capital -- on the point guard position moving forward, similar to how most NFL teams don't value the running back and inside linebacker positions. Perhaps they believe they have their replacement already and can backfill the position cheaply in order to beef up other areas on the roster.

c.) They have their eyes set on another established young-ish point guard that would hold down the position for the foreseeable future should they be able to acquire him. The options here are limited because Minnesota has few tradable mid-level contracts currently, but a name that makes a lot of sense to me as a trade target -- no matter what the plan is at point guard -- is Chicago Bulls' fan favorite Alex Caruso. Another interesting trade target actually plays for Minnesota's opponent tonight in Monte Morris.

Cam - I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to what the Wolves front office was likely thinking when they passed on drafting a PG and passed on signing any undrafted free agent PGs. But as Q suggested, I suspect the font office's view of DLO has probably changed over the past couple months.

Personally, I don't think Moore an NBA-caliber PG right now and don't know that he'll ever be. I think Caruso would be a great fit for the Wolves. Among other things, he'd bring some of the high energy and toughness we lost when Connelly traded Vando and Pat Bev. Monte Morris is an interesting idea too.

Alex Caruso is an example of all the roster spots an NBA team has available to them are important and you never know when you will find a guy that's a nice player. Heck the Lakers may have found another undrafted guy in Austin Reaves who can play.