Minnesota Sports Forum

I voted option 1. I think that a player like Hield will be exactly what Thibs is looking for (Personally I'm excited about the top 7 or so prospects for various reasons on this team so this is going to be a very enjoyable draft for me).

Good discussion in this thread about the precived value of the #5 pick from the fans. I don't think it's worth enough to snag an prime all-star player like Butler but I also think it's worth more than Korver. I just hope we don't break off several pieces of our young core for one really good player and lose our depth.

Cam -- The Korver idea is an interesting one and probably comes closer to approximating the trade value of our pick. Like you, I wouldn't do that deal if I were deciding for the Wolves.

I think you've done a nice job of identifying a more realistic group of vets who might be obtainable with our #5 pick without also giving up KAT, Wiggins or LaVine. The guy on you list I'd be interested in is Kenneth Faried. I'm wondering if the #5 pick plus Bazz plus Payne would be enough. If so, I'd pull the trigger on that deal. I don't think Denver would do that deal, but who knows.

Otherwise, as I've mentioned before, my strong preference is to keep the pick and take the best of who's available from the group of Dunn, Murray, Hield and Bender. My next choice would be to trade down for 2 1st round picks if it meant getting Sabonis. Unfortunately, Sabonis seems to be climbing up the boards of most NBA teams so I don't think trading down for him is a realistic scenario anymore.

Yeah, it's really difficult to determine what kind of vet we get for #5, but I think it's quite situational. The best team we could deal with would be a team that is rebuilding and wants draft picks, but also has a good vet who is redundant on his team in a skill that we need. I'm not fond of this option, so I haven't really thought of any names.

I do think I wouldn't pull the trigger unless the vet was substantially better than Korver. He's 35 and coming off a season where his PER was under 10. I think yesterday's rumor about Russell gives us a better idea of what #5 could bring us if we wanted to trade it...a young combo guard who was the #2 pick in last year's draft, is a gifted ball handler and distributor, and made his threes at the same rate the last half of his rookie year at the same rate as Korver.

I think if Murray played for any other team, he wouldn't be valued as much. The Kentucky track record has been good lately with Towns and Davis, and I think Booker had a good year. I just don't wanna dip my hand in the well again this year.

BizarroJerry wrote:I think if Murray played for any other team, he wouldn't be valued as much. The Kentucky track record has been good lately with Towns and Davis, and I think Booker had a good year. I just don't wanna dip my hand in the well again this year.

Well, that's certainly an opinion, but whatever university he went to wouldn't have changed his skill set. He still would have lit up the college scene from 3P-range. We're talking about a guy who was the best shooter not named Steph Curry in freshman history. That stroke would have been pure in a Kentucky uniform or a Florida Gulf Coast uniform.

To your point, couldn't he be valued even more if he went somewhere besides Kentucky? I think he would have had more opportunities to showcase all of his game, specifically as a primary ball-handler and facilitator. Think of the role D'Angelo Russell had at Ohio State. At a different school, Murray probably gets asked to do a lot more of that than he was at Kentucky.

And with the unbelievable amount of success Calipari has had the last several years at churning out good NBA players, I don't see why now would be a good time to ignore that. Clearly something about going to Kentucky is good for players transitioning. I don't know how much it matters or what Calipari's done differently than other coaches -- or if it's just ridiculous talent he gets -- but the proven track record isn't worthy of dismissal, IMO. Ride that wave.

I'm looking more at some of the latest mocks and I wonder if the team's you would hope to trade down with likely just stay where they are and just take a nice player that falls to them. There is plenty of uncertainty after the first 2 picks and I am starting to think the draft would have to fall just right for the Wolves to get a team to give up enough to move up. Right now I don't know if so see it but a lot of these small move up trades nobody sees coming so who knows.

Fair points Cam. I think evaluating Kentucky players can be difficult as they are normally freshman that play with other all americans.

So watching Murray as much as you did, forgetting stats for a moment, how did he look when he wasn't shooting open threes?

The poll for this thread asked us to predict what the Wolves will do draft night. My vote fell into the trade for a veteran category because that's what I think Thibs really wants to do. It might be Butler if Thibs is willing to give up Andrew or Zach.

Interestingly, the vast majority of votes on what the Wolves WILL do reflected what I think the Wolves should do -- i.e, keep the pick. For this team, that seems to be a more sensible thing to do. I might think differently if weren't going to have cap space this summer, but we will have space to sign players as good as Noah or Deng.

lipoli390 wrote:The poll for this thread asked us to predict what the Wolves will do draft night. My vote fell into the trade for a veteran category because that's what I think Thibs really wants to do. It might be Butler if Thibs is willing to give up Andrew or Zach.

Interestingly, the vast majority of votes on what the Wolves WILL do reflected what I think the Wolves should do -- i.e, keep the pick. For this team, that seems to be a more sensible thing to do. I might think differently if weren't going to have cap space this summer, but we will have space to sign players as good as Noah or Deng.

Lip, I voted the Wolves will keep the pick, not because I disagree on what Thibs wants to do, but it's always so tough to predict a trade of pick for player. I don't think Thibs will trade the pick for a "solid" veteran, and will only do so if he can get a guy like Butler or possibly RUssell in return. And because I think both of those are ultimately unlikely to actually happen in practice, I voted he'll keep the pick.

Here is a really important question:

Who are the Knicks fans gonna booooo since they have no draft picks?