Article:Best draft fit for Timberwolves? Florida State’s Jonathan Isaac, ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla says

[bleedspeed]

Why do people want two rookies on this team next year? Why trade down? It makes no sense to me unless you are getting an established player back with a pick. There's real quality talent at 6 where we are picking. I don't get why we'd trade that down for 2 lessor prospects on a team already stacked with young talent. Get a high quality prospect or get established talent back. Those should be the only two options we look at. We need quality on this team now, not quantity.

Kahns -- I was about the write essentially the same post as this one. I absolutely agree with you. When you have a top 6 pick, you take the best player available based on upside or trade the pick for a really, really good vet. You don't trade down for two lesser players.

I usually would agree, but history doesn't always say that is the best thing. Flip could have crushed the draft trading down, but he picked the wrong guys, but still got solid guys in Shabazz and Dieng. I was all for trading down the year we picked DWill. That would have worked out better for us in the end. I also was not sold on picking a 23-year-old SF in Wes Johnson and trading down ws the right call. I think you have to understand who you like and where you feel they will get picked. If OG is the guy you want and you know other teams don't value him you trade down to where you think you can get him and pick up the assets. I think it all comes down to tiers. In the NBA it is tougher than other sports picking BPA because it really is different on who is BPA for your team vs another.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Good stuff Bleed.

Look at all of the game changing talent from lower in the draft - Draymond Green, DeAndre Jordan, Rudy Gobert, Isaiah Thomas, practically the entire San Antonio Spurs roster....

I don't have really strong opinions about this draft, but it's entirely possible that after workouts, interviews, background checks, and hours of game tape, Thibs sees a couple of prospects currently mocked much lower in the draft that he thinks he can mold into elite role players (or better). If he can get two guys on rookie contracts that fit the culture he's trying to build and don't need to play right away, by all means, go for it. Or may be he falls in love with a guy that is only available in the top 6-8, so be it.

But I think it's really tough for any of us to definitively say that Player X taken at #6 or #7 is going to be better than the combination of Player Y and Player Z taken later in the draft. Even if we were to do it randomly, I bet there is some logic to the "two darts is better than one" approach.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Isaac is definitely my choice...if he is still there when we draft. I'm afraid this kid is going to blow scouts away in workouts and move up. When I watched him last season, I saw a lot of Kevin Garnett potential. It's rare to see a kid with that kind of height and length who can also put the ball on the floor and shoot from the outside. I like his feel for the game, his footwork on defense, his shot blocking potential, his consistent shooting stroke and his length. Unlike most on this board, I really don't get too concerned about whether he can add 30 pounds or not, because I remember that being the discussion about KG when he was drafted, and he overcame his less than ideal NBA frame with his other skills. Regardless of his bulk, I see this kid as having as much upside as anyone in this draft. A steal at 6 if that is where we end up drafting.

[bleedspeed]

LST - I have been getting the same feeling about Issac, but have not done enough research. He is a sky is the limit type guy. Is he the next Anthony Randolph, next Greek Freak, or something in between?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

LST - I have been getting the same feeling about Issac, but have not done enough research. He is a sky is the limit type guy. Is he the next Anthony Randolph, next Greek Freak, or something in between?

Something in between, I think. He's a much better shooter than the GF, but is not likely to have his distribution skills (although I was impressed with his five assists in the first round of the tournament this year). And while he seems to possess a lot of the same skills Randolph had, I don't see the same inconsistency or lack of motor. I first got interested in him when he put up 14 and 13 against the Gophers in our first loss this season. The Gophers were pretty big and physical this year, and Isaac seemed to mix it up inside against them just fine. High ceiling and a reasonable floor, in my opinion.

[bleedspeed]

I was pretty pro-Marquese Chriss last year at this time. I was surprised he fell to 8th. I think Issac will be better than him. I just get a feeling someone ahead of us will nab him. I like a lot of the guys that will be drafted 8-14 in this draft, but certainly, see Issac as a guy that is one tier above them.

[bleedspeed]

Good read. I am wondering if he could make an impact like AK47.

https://sports.vice.com/en_ca/article/jonathan-isaac-is-a-safe-nba-draft-prospect-with-upside

[Monster]

Good stuff Bleed.

Look at all of the game changing talent from lower in the draft - Draymond Green, DeAndre Jordan, Rudy Gobert, Isaiah Thomas, practically the entire San Antonio Spurs roster....

I don't have really strong opinions about this draft, but it's entirely possible that after workouts, interviews, background checks, and hours of game tape, Thibs sees a couple of prospects currently mocked much lower in the draft that he thinks he can mold into elite role players (or better). If he can get two guys on rookie contracts that fit the culture he's trying to build and don't need to play right away, by all means, go for it. Or may be he falls in love with a guy that is only available in the top 6-8, so be it.

But I think it's really tough for any of us to definitively say that Player X taken at #6 or #7 is going to be better than the combination of Player Y and Player Z taken later in the draft. Even if we were to do it randomly, I bet there is some logic to the "two darts is better than one" approach.

Well said Q. I saw a couple tweets about Justin Jackson today. I'm not sure about his defense but man wouldn't it be sweet to have a shooter with nice length to this team while adding another intruiging player too? I'm not suggesting trading down with him as the top target just that there are some guys with some pretty legit positives outside of the top 10. When the Wolves are slotted to pick you are hoping to pick a guy that has a fairly well rounded game.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I find it tough to predict these things, but I'll bet there are usually a few guys taken after the 6 to 9 pick every draft who are better than that pick. The question is how many, and how likely would we be to get one of them?

Regardless, my interest is in OG specifically. I get the sense that he's the kind of guy whose weak offensive game and injury could make him fall further than his impact on the court defensively. Especially with the way the league is going, he just seems like the kind of defensive player who could really change the game for us. He's obviously not the passer or leader Draymond Green is, but he's got the physical ability to have that type of impact defensively. I'm not saying he's a future DPOY candidate, just that he's got the ability to play that super-flexible role for us defensively.

Seriously, if you haven't watched videos of this guy or checked out his measurements, I'd encourage you to do it and then compare him to some of the other forward prospects. I'd rather have Josh Jackson because of the passing and consistent defensive intensity, but if we don't get the lottery luck to get there, getting Anunoby AND another asset (depending on the asset) might be better than Markkanen (how will he help our defense?) or Isaac (intriguing, but I see a skinny guy who wants to be more of an offensive player, and that's not what we need). Anunoby's got big holes in his game, particularly those FTs. But I still kind of like the possible defensive role he could play for us.

Note: Anunoby's pre-draft combine measurements are in, and his wingspan isn't quite as crazy as was rumored, but at 7'2.3" he's still got a bigger wingspan than Isaac.