Wolves Draft Thread

[TAFKASP]

Jaylen Clark is the pick at 53. Great defender with the sort of toughness and motor I like. But he has absolutely no offensive game. He’s strictly a one-way player. I still might have been OK with this pick except for the fact that he’s coming off Achilles surgery. I don’t get it.

Tim Connelly hasn’t done anything thus far this offseason to give me confidence in him as our head basketball guy.

I'm pretty sure the only person you'd have confidence in is named Lipoli390! LOL

[WildWolf2813]

I left last year's draft very unhappy at everything that took place.


Last night I walked out at least being happy TC tried to address stuff. The Leonard Miller pick could be nothing, but it also could be awesome. Really good value.

The Clark pick, I guess we'll see when he's recovered from his Achilles injury, but sound logic there too.

I think I woulda preferred an actual PG like Colby Jones or a deadly shooter or rebounder, but TC is going after athletes he can mold. Not a bad night at all

[Lipoli390]

I had no clue about this draft class other than the top 3 guys. And since we didn't have any high picks, I wasn't motivated to pay much attention. But reading this thread was entertaining. I have to pick on Lip a little bit. We are used to him flip flopping on topics from game to game, but I'm not sure we've ever seen him flip within the same thread. It took all of about 2 hours for him to go from sour to psyched about our two picks. He is an absolute gem on this board.

Now we can look forward to summer league knowing we have some guys to check out and evaluate. And I'm still hoping for the game changing KAT for Scoot trade. The rumor mill will be fun for a couple weeks.

Cool - Actually, I have flipped in the same thread at least a few times. I can’t remember the specific instances, but I know I’ve done it.

I think the last time I flipped in the same thread was actually in last year’s draft thread. It was the same dynamic. TC picked two guys I hadn’t looked into at all - Kessler and Minott. But I quickly read about them and watched video of them right after they were selected and I changed my view. Maybe it was the next day, but I’m sure it was in the same thread a quick turn-around like last night. Same dynamic that FNG pointed out. When they don’t pick they guys you want, you’re disappointed. But when you get over the disappointment and look objectively at who they actually selected you change your tune.

Here’s something interesting though. With prior Wolves front office regimes, my opinion never flipped. Whether it was Ebi over Josh Howard, cash over Gobert, Bazz over Giannis, Flynn over Curry, Dunn over Murray or Buddy, Patton over Collins or Anunoby - my initial disdain for the pick never wavered and turned out to be well founded. But in TC’s two drafts so far, I’ve flipped on all but one of his five picks. I flipped quickly on Kessler, Minott, Miller and Clark by simply taking a closer look at them and getting over my initial disappointment in not taking my favorites. The only one I didn’t flip on is Moore and I remain unconvinced that he was a good pick. I didn’t hate the Moore pick; I just thought we should have done better.

So what does all this mean? To me it means we have a competent front office when it comes to drafting. In the past, when I looked hard at the selections our front office made those selections still didn’t make sense and often made even less sense the more I learned. In contrast, looking at TC’s draft selections, I can always see sound logic and analysis behind them. Of course, TC’s trade acumen is an entirely different story. I recall TC once commenting before he got here that he hasn’t been very good at trades. But I liked the Kyle Anderson free agent signing and the DLO trade, so it’s a mixed bag on that front. But I’m definitely impressed by TC’s draft acumen so far.

[Monster]

I left last year's draft very unhappy at everything that took place.


Last night I walked out at least being happy TC tried to address stuff. The Leonard Miller pick could be nothing, but it also could be awesome. Really good value.

The Clark pick, I guess we'll see when he's recovered from his Achilles injury, but sound logic there too.

I think I woulda preferred an actual PG like Colby Jones or a deadly shooter or rebounder, but TC is going after athletes he can mold. Not a bad night at all

Miller averaged around 11 rebounds a game last year. What more are you looking for there?

[Sundog]

If you like the Minott pick, I think you gotta like the Leonard pick. Both are high ceiling, high motor players that’ll take time to develop — TC is looking ahead a couple of years on both and I think that’s appropriate.

Clark is a similar high motor player, and we just have to assume the team did its due diligence on the Achilles injury.

Finding lottery-type players in the second round is exactly what we hope TC can do for the Wolves.

[Monster]

Lip has flipped in the same post at least a couple times!

I knew that Lip
Was gonna come around on Miller because he fit a lot of the things Lip looks for in a prospect youth, potential, rebounding, former guard that grew into a guy with length. The only thing holding me back from assuming Lip would claim he was a future HOFer is that his standing reach is under 9’. Anyway Lip just having some fun I can’t really knock you seriously when I did so little research on this draft.

Clark seems like a little bit like a guy that went in the first round (and like at least one wing defender picked in the first round in every draft) that Jay Bills talks about is a excellent defender but has a ways to go but is an excellent cutter! The draft drinking game for Jay Bills used to be when he said wingspan but now it should be when he says a guy is a great cutter. Lol I’m not actually saying I think Clark is a 1st round talent because I really don’t know but a guard winning DPOY in college does seem pretty impressive. It seems like an Achilles injury isn’t as worrisome as it used to be either. Even if the Wolves found a Josh Okogie type at 53 that wouldn’t be the worst thing. I think Clark profiles as a better rebounder but Okogie has his advantages too. Guys that can legit guard 1-3 can be pretty useful. I’m curious to watch some games of Clark (and Miller) and see what they look like in more than highlight clips.

With the draft over I think a couple things stand out:

It seems like the Wolves must have some ideas of what they will do to improve the guard situation and feel fairly confident in it. They don’t have a completely bare cupboard so maybe they feel more excited about Moore or Spagnolo or NAW than anyone here. Maybe they feel confident they can acquire a guard in a trade or FA. I’m not getting my hopes up but it feels like there is something the Wolves are thinking that isn’t apparent to us yet. Maybe it’s that big trade some people are hoping happens.

Connelly isn’t locked into drafting guys based on just need or position or whatever. I mean it’s very possible that Naz leaves and NAW isn’t resigned so these picks would make sense if those guys are gone but it seems like the Wolves want those guys back.

Connelly isn’t afraid to actually add young players to the back end of the roster. I think one of the most frustrating things for me (even if sometimes it made some sense at the time) was when the Wolves under various executives would be like nah we have enough young talent we can’t add more and then sometimes passed on good players in some cases even selling a pick for cash. There are only so many roster spots and I agree you need some adults in the room but sometimes those young players can help right away.

Earlier this week Connelly talked about adding guys that were mature culture guys etc. From everything I’ve read about Miller he sounds like a guy that works hard, plays hard and good guy. He is young but a guy that’s gonna be out there doing all he can to be his best. Sounds like Naz. Miller might be young with potential etc but he doesn’t sound like a guy that’s a wild swing either. Meanwhile Clark is a do shit guy (max effort) and an elite level defender. That sounds like a guy to help build culture also. It feels like Connelly followed through with some of what he said a couple days ago including being aggressive to go up and get a guy. I thought it might take a bit more than two future 2nds to get up to 33 but San Antonio might be betting on one of the Jazz or Wolves to be bad in a few years to get a good high 2nd later. That might be a solid bet. lol

I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with the 2-way contracts. At times the Wolves organization has seemed like they wait a while to sign guys. Sometimes that may have worked out fine and sometimes I’ve been frustrated with them waiting so long. Maybe the will act more quickly. Maybe they are gonna try and sign a more experienced player with one of those spots like they did last season. I’m not against that strategy. Since they actually drafted 2 guys maybe even keeping a guy like Matt Ryan around on a 2-way isn’t a bad idea. I’m hoping for more but I actually think he can play and might have solid role play upside even if he isn’t all young and stuff. There is lots of talent out there hopefully the Wolves can find and develop more players.

[Coolbreeze44]

John K said there were a lot of inquiries regarding Jaden's availability last night. Not surprising but glad to see the Wolves had no reciprocal interest.

[Carlos Danger]

I think one of the things I took away from this draft is to not get too worked up about trading or not having draft picks. I came into this draft with very little interest because I assumed we'd pull some unknown Euro with pick #53 and that would be it. But good GMs can seemingly manufacture draft picks at will and that's what TC did for this draft. That's not to say he didn't overpay for Gobert. But rather - I certainly don't look at the Gobert trade as crippling to the franchise. It's a bump in the road. TC has made a couple nice moves since then including the DLO trade and this draft day trade. Don't worry - be happy.

[KG4Ever]

Had the Wolves kept #16 who would be your pick? Whitmore, Hood-Schifino, Kris Murray, Keyonte George or someone else.

Brandin Podziemski! Or maybe Hood-Schifino.

I'll go on record as taking Kris Murray had we kept pick 16. His identical twin brother was one of the top rookies last year and think he was just what Sacramento needed. If Kris is 80-90% as good as his brother, Portland got a good one.

[KG4Ever]

Jake Stephens is still unsigned. I had not heard of him until this week, but after checking him out, he seems to be a similar player to Luke Garza and I would be happy if we signed him at least to get a good look at him this summer. I know he played in a weaker conference, but he did have better blocks, three point percentage and assists compared to Garza. He's also about 30 pounds heavier than Garza. Why not sign him and check him out. We might need another big if we lose Naz (I don't consider Miller to be a center), especially one that is a stretch big like Naz. He also might turn out to have more upside than Knight or Ryan.