Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

Camden wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Good rundown Cam. You can find some damn good players in our draft slot. I haven't watched much college ball this year, so I can't really comment on the guys you mention. I am not opposed to drafting an upperclassman that may be more NBA-ready than a raw prospect with upside potential. I'm assuming Okogie won't be back, so finding a hybrid 3/4 would be good.

Agreed on all points, Q. I don't think Minnesota's front office needs to hit a home run with this pick, assuming they don't trade it on draft night, but they also can't afford to miss. They should be looking at surer things versus long-term projects, in my opinion. Ideally, they find a prospect that presents NBA-ready ability with tools that tease at further upside. Obviously, those prospects aren't always easy to come across.

Yet what's interesting is that sometimes the high floor guy ends up having a higher ceiling than anticipated. Look at Desmond Bane as Exhibit A. He's become a key pillar of that Memphis team and is a legit starting SG in this league.

Anything is possible -- joke intended -- when a player has a reliable perimeter shot to build off of, in my opinion. From there they can develop a couple primary moves and counters and you have the makings of a pretty damn good player.

Speaking of Desmond Bane, wouldn't he have been much more useful than Leandro Bolmaro? Some of us here, including myself, liked him just outside of the lottery. Oh the what-if's that come with this organization.

In general you are going to hit some and you are going to miss on some. I promise this isn't a dig at you but where would this franchise be if they would of taken Wiseman over Edwards like you wanted them to. At the end of the day it would of been nice to have Bane obviously but they got a superstar in Ant and a good role player with still some potential in Mcdaniels. I would say the Wolves did pretty good job that draft. Once again every organization is going to have some misses. (Bolmoro isn't a miss yet either)

I haven't watched much college hoops this year. So all I can go on are stats, expert reviews and highlight videos. Of all those, I tend to focus on stats as the best predictor of a player's NBA potential. I tend to favor players who have extraordinary stats in at least one key aspect of the game, especially an area central to the position they play. I've been focusing mainly on college bigs. Among them, I see three that have extraordinary stats in at least one key area relevant to their position.

At the top of my list of college bigs isWalker Kessler, who has averaged 4.7 blocks per game in 25 minutes. That's about as extraordinary as it gets. He also averages a very solid, albeit unspectacular 8.4 rebounds per game. He's also highly regarded among draft analysts and is expected to be drafted somewhere in the teens when the Wolves will probably be on the clock.

Another big I like a lot is Mark Williams, who is averaging an arguably extraordinary 3 blocks per game in 22 minutes.

Finally, as a potential big in the second round or a trade down towards the bottom of the first round, i have my eye on Oscar Tshiebwe, who is averaging an extraordinary 15 rebounds in 31 minutes. He's also averaging 2 steals. I love a big who rebounds and excels as a ball thief. It's probably cliche, but it bears repeating, that rebounding tends to be the more translatable stat from college to the NBA. Right now, Oscar is projected as a mid second-round pick. Obviously, he has weaknesses. But I'd have my eye on him if I were Gupta.

Again, I haven't watched any of these guys in action. But their stats and size intrigue me as potential draft picks for the Wolves this year.

kekgeek1 wrote:In general you are going to hit some and you are going to miss on some. I promise this isn't a dig at you but where would this franchise be if they would of taken Wiseman over Edwards like you wanted them to. At the end of the day it would of been nice to have Bane obviously but they got a superstar in Ant and a good role player with still some potential in Mcdaniels. I would say the Wolves did pretty good job that draft. Once again every organization is going to have some misses. (Bolmoro isn't a miss yet either)

Sure, but that's essentially just conjecture isn't it? We can't say for certain that everything remains the same when players are in completely different environments with different teammates, different coaches, different roles, and even different medical staffs. There's quite a bit of unknown there.

Is Anthony Edwards the budding young star that he currently is if he's playing alongside Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole, and even Andrew Wiggins? Would Edwards get the offensive touches he absolutely needs to develop and be affective? Or, more likely, would he be forced/asked to play a less significant role that hinders his offensive creativity and volume in favor of contending for a championship? Some players will be great anywhere they go, but others are hit or misses depending on where they end up. As Wolves fans, we should know that all too well.

Comparatively, who's to say that James Wiseman doesn't become a star in Minnesota? I think it's fair to say he would have had a lot more freedom last year with a struggling Wolves team than he's had with a Warriors team that expects to contend every year that Curry's healthy. Edwards practically worked himself through his funk all of last year. Wiseman wasn't afforded the opportunity to do that on a playoff team and that doesn't even begin to mention his medical issues along the way, which may have been different in Minnesota if for no other reason than chance.

This is a long way of saying that we don't know if Edwards would be a star anywhere else just like we don't know if Wiseman would be a disappointment had he been drafted by another team. There are too many variables in play to say anything for certain.

I've come around to liking Jaden McDaniels, albeit not as much as some other Wolves fans, but I also don't need hindsight to say that Desmond Bane would have been the better pick. Maybe McDaniels develops into Scottie Pippen and all is well. I also don't see Leandro Bolmaro sticking around as an NBA player so my hopes aren't high there either. He's been less than impressive at the G-League level and the small minutes he's played for the main team this season.

Camden wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

Camden wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Good rundown Cam. You can find some damn good players in our draft slot. I haven't watched much college ball this year, so I can't really comment on the guys you mention. I am not opposed to drafting an upperclassman that may be more NBA-ready than a raw prospect with upside potential. I'm assuming Okogie won't be back, so finding a hybrid 3/4 would be good.

Agreed on all points, Q. I don't think Minnesota's front office needs to hit a home run with this pick, assuming they don't trade it on draft night, but they also can't afford to miss. They should be looking at surer things versus long-term projects, in my opinion. Ideally, they find a prospect that presents NBA-ready ability with tools that tease at further upside. Obviously, those prospects aren't always easy to come across.

Yet what's interesting is that sometimes the high floor guy ends up having a higher ceiling than anticipated. Look at Desmond Bane as Exhibit A. He's become a key pillar of that Memphis team and is a legit starting SG in this league.

Anything is possible -- joke intended -- when a player has a reliable perimeter shot to build off of, in my opinion. From there they can develop a couple primary moves and counters and you have the makings of a pretty damn good player.

Speaking of Desmond Bane, wouldn't he have been much more useful than Leandro Bolmaro? Some of us here, including myself, liked him just outside of the lottery. Oh the what-if's that come with this organization.

Yeah, I was really high on taking Bane in that draft. We don't need homeruns right now (though that luck would be nice), we need to round out our lineup/bench with more sure pieces.

Bane would be awesome to have. I liked him alone with a number of other wings that had played plenty in college and went earlier or later than him including Aaron Nesmith. I think the Wolves should be looking for a shooter like many of us wanted in that draft.

Bolmaro is a rookie that came over from Europe who has had a minor injury and Covid. Some people have given up on him already. I have not.

One of the advantages of selecting Bolmaro was being able to keep him over in Europe for at least one season. The Wolves had a roster crunch last season and Cam I'm particular made a solid argument to keep him there this season as well. At this point that looks like it would have been better. Still Bolmaro is a cheap prospect that after this season still will be a guy that can be a cheap player/prospect for up to 3 years. I feel pretty confident that there are teams out there. That probably still value Bolmaro as a prospect on some level...including the Wolves.

The Wolves other than Culver have done a pretty nice job when it comes to picking perimeter players. Nowell is a nice enough young player that has struggled to get playing time. This a big reason why a lot of us are willing to deal Beasley right? Maybe we could trust the Wolves process and see what Bolmaro does a year from now or whatever. Bolmaro doesn't need to be a home run either. I think he has several paths to being a worthwhile rotation player for this roster or possibly another if he is dealt.

I'm glad Cam kicked off a draft thread and I hope to get a chance to see some guys play in the next few weeks. What I like about where the Wolves are now is they have a number of picks and a couple tradeable assets where they could move around in the draft or make deals for players during the draft. They could also mostly sit tight and make picks and go for there. I think the Wolves could pick a guy anywhere outside the top 10. The conversation about Bane McDaniels etc show how the Wolves can get a valuable player with a pick/s in that range. Hopefully some of the seemingly wise Wolves draft selections and other ways of adding young talent continues. It's certainly the most impressive stretch we have seen for many years...or maybe ever. Maybe it will end up not being that amazing but it's looking pretty good right now. Especially in light of how underwhelming this franchise has been in that area.

I don't see Bolmaro making it. He seems to be more along the lines of dead weight.

Just go for shooters, defenders, and rebounder. Not a player that is the trifecta, just any that excel at either 3.

TheFuture wrote:I don't see Bolmaro making it. He seems to be more along the lines of dead weight.

Just go for shooters, defenders, and rebounder. Not a player that is the trifecta, just any that excel at either 3.

So you want the same players the Wolves have been drafting for years. Okogie much?

D'Natagal wrote:

TheFuture wrote:I don't see Bolmaro making it. He seems to be more along the lines of dead weight.

Just go for shooters, defenders, and rebounder. Not a player that is the trifecta, just any that excel at either 3.

So you want the same players the Wolves have been drafting for years. Okogie much?

Okogie is a good defender, he is not a Thybulle or OG type defender.

TheFuture wrote:

D'Natagal wrote:

TheFuture wrote:I don't see Bolmaro making it. He seems to be more along the lines of dead weight.

Just go for shooters, defenders, and rebounder. Not a player that is the trifecta, just any that excel at either 3.

So you want the same players the Wolves have been drafting for years. Okogie much?

Okogie is a good defender, he is not a Thybulle or OG type defender.

Oddly, I think Josh Okogie has regressed as a defender. I think he was stickier and more affective on that end a couple seasons ago. It's felt to me that this season and parts of last season that he's pressing, trying to be an impact defender and make plays that he ends up getting out of position either by gambling or helping too much. Still a plus on that end overall, but not as disciplined and therefore worse than he's been.

And in the meantime he hasn't developed his shot whatsoever. He's a bricklayer from three and has lost touch at the free throw line. It makes me, a fan, think that he doesn't really work on his game much. If he could shoot near league average from three on respectable attempts and hit 70-percent of his free throws he'd potentially be looking at a mid-level deal this summer. He just never really developed.

Unfortunately, Bolmaro has been struggling a lot in the G-League. That's not a good sign for someone that has prior Euroleague/ACB league experience. Most of the prospects that make it out of the G-League and become good NBA players were top 10-15% type players in the G-League. Right now Leandro isn't even among the top 5 players on the current Iowa team. Oh, and it should come as no shock that his outside shot has regressed.

As for Okogie, he might be one of the most frustrating of a long line of draft pick failures for the Wolves. It's simply amazing that a guy who was a decent college 3-point shooter (38% on 173 attempts, so that's no fluke) literally turned into one of the worst perimeter shooters in the NBA. I get that you can't automatically book a guy as a long-range sniper just because of his college track record, but the fact that Okogie can't even make wide open catch and shoot 3's at a solid rate is just pathetic. And then we rinse and repeat with Culver in the next draft! Argh!!!