Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:I need to retract something I said before. I said I wouldn't draft Jakob Poetl in the top-seven, but I take that back. I'd probably take him as high as No. 3 overall for the Wolves

Cam - I like your take on this. Outside Simmons, Ingram, and Brown this draft doesn't have much for stud upside in my opinion. Seems like a draft full of projects or solid role players and a few starters.

Unless we get a top 3 pick I think we should really be thinking about how the player will fit with what we have. Meaning high IQ and being able to make Towns, LaVine, and Wiggins better.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

Camden wrote:I need to retract something I said before. I said I wouldn't draft Jakob Poetl in the top-seven, but I take that back. I'd probably take him as high as No. 3 overall for the Wolves

Cam - I like your take on this. Outside Simmons, Ingram, and Brown this draft doesn't have much for stud upside in my opinion. Seems like a draft full of projects or solid role players and a few starters.

Unless we get a top 3 pick I think we should really be thinking about how the player will fit with what we have. Meaning high IQ and being able to make Towns, LaVine, and Wiggins better.

Agreed. That's why guys like Poetl and Sabonis are "persons of interest". Neither are sexy picks, but they are both big bodies that appear to be OK grinding it out inside, grabbing rebounds, and scoring buckets inside the paint. And they both seem to be pretty smart players. I suppose Poetl is ranked a lot higher than Sabonis because of his size - he's a true Center whereas Sabonis is more of an NBA PF.

The big question to me is defense. It seems really hard to gauge how a big man in college translates to the NBA defensively. Look at Gorgui Dieng as an example. He helped anchor the #1 defense in the nation when Louisville won a title. I thought he would be a terror defensively in the NBA. Instead, he's turned out to be a sieve in the paint but pretty damn good offensively.

I also suggest that the combine institute some sort of test for lower body strength. How many times a guy can bench press 185 lbs. seems totally useless to me (Kevin Durant did it exactly zero times - he couldn't even do one rep). Instead, they should do a deadlift or squat test. Lower body and core strength seems a gazillion times more critical, especially for a big man, than upper body strength.

I think this is a great year for role players. I love Sabonis for this team. Motor and IQ. Here is a good read on him. He seems like the perfect 4th option for us and he can and will do the things that make everyone else around him better.

http://www.todaysfastbreak.com/nba-draft/what-is-domantas-sabonis-nba-ceiling/

Q12543 wrote:
I also suggest that the combine institute some sort of test for lower body strength. How many times a guy can bench press 185 lbs. seems totally useless to me (Kevin Durant did it exactly zero times - he couldn't even do one rep). Instead, they should do a deadlift or squat test. Lower body and core strength seems a gazillion times more critical, especially for a big man, than upper body strength.

I agree. You can get a sense of this when you work them out, but this would be a good metric. Even could see a hip sled for this.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

Camden wrote:I need to retract something I said before. I said I wouldn't draft Jakob Poetl in the top-seven, but I take that back. I'd probably take him as high as No. 3 overall for the Wolves

Cam - I like your take on this. Outside Simmons, Ingram, and Brown this draft doesn't have much for stud upside in my opinion. Seems like a draft full of projects or solid role players and a few starters.

Unless we get a top 3 pick I think we should really be thinking about how the player will fit with what we have. Meaning high IQ and being able to make Towns, LaVine, and Wiggins better.

If he was an elite defensive center like Bogut, I'd consider it. But I haven't seen anything to give me that impression and I would rather go for the higher ceiling players that we would be in position to draft around 5th overall. I would prefer Ingram, Simmons, Brown, Bender, Dunn and Hield before Poeltl and maybe Valentine as well.

TR - I think Bender is the wildcard of this draft.

Here is a good read on him.
http://upsidemotor.com/2015/08/17/dragan-bender-kristaps-porzingis-fiba-scouting-report-crotia-2016-nba-draft/

TeamRicky, we need to start filling in around our current high ceiling guys with players that compliment them. That's how team-building works when done right. Now, we could even win the No. 3 pick and use that draft position to trade down and pick up a future first (or something) to a team that loves Brown, Hield, etc., but that's with the thought in mind that Poeltl is who you (Minnesota, myself) want.

Also, Poeltl's probably the best defensive big in this draft by a good margin. I'm not sure why you'd be questioning his prowess on that end, to be honest. If you need a reminder, go watch video of Jahlil Okafor struggling heavily against him as just one example. Big Jah finished with a measly 6 points, 8 rebounds (0 offensive) and 4 turnovers in 32 minutes. Poeltl outworked him on the glass, denied post entries and held his ground in the post, allowing for Utah to double when necessary and put Okafor in a tough spot to score the basketball.

Lastly, we tend to get caught up with the prospects that can score the basketball. I do it too. That's a big part of why I like Brown because I think he can fill it up. Hield's intriguing because of his ability to score from anywhere on the college floor too. If this past month has proven anything to me, however, it's that our current group of players have no problem putting the basketball in the hoop. We just can't stop anybody, especially in the paint. Part of that is Towns being a rookie and a little thin, which is to be expected at age 20, but the other part of that is Dieng being just as easy to push around. The difference is Dieng's about to be 27 next year and won't be transforming his body anymore than he already has, while also realizing that he has bad habits that haven't gone away when someone goes right at him.

Poeltl makes a lot of sense to me. Play him with Towns, play him with Dieng, play him with Bjelica or even Dubljevi? if we bring him over. There's always room for athletic, mobile, long, strong, smart, gritty big men on my team.

- Jakob Poeltl is as high as 6th on Draft Express' big board.

- Poeltl (33.3) has the highest PER out of anyone in Draft Express' top-100 prospects list except for Jameel Warney (35.6) who plays for Stony Brook in the America East Conference.

- Poeltl has improved his free throw shooting from 44.4% his freshman season to 67.8% his sophomore (current) season.

- Jakob Poeltl's favorite player to study is Kevin Garnett. Go figure.

- His first name is pronounced "yAA-kuhb".

Cam - As usual. Great stuff. Guarding Okafor is not easy and him being able to shut him down shows he will be fine in the NBA. I would rather have someone else bodying up others bigs then Towns longer term.

What if you just drafted Poetl and the Kings called and offered you WCS straight up for him. What do you do?

I'd rather trade way down and grab Sabonis Jr. than get Poetl. Sabas can actually move his feet and can be useful on pick&roll defense which is way more important than guard Okafor twice per year and Sabas could do it as well. He's also a better rebounder and FT shooter. And Poetl isn't even an elite rim protector to gain some huge advantage over Sabas.