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[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I watched some of that Denver-Houston game last night. What an embarassment of riches Denver has in terms of depth. Their perimeter depth is ridiculous. Gary Harris and Jamal Murray out, no problem. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are here to save the day. Beasley was picked 19th in 2016 and Morris was a 2nd rounder in 2017. In fact, among all their guard and wing talent, only Murray was a lottery pick (#7).

I'm jealous.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I watched some of that Denver-Houston game last night. What an embarassment of riches Denver has in terms of depth. Their perimeter depth is ridiculous. Gary Harris and Jamal Murray out, no problem. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are here to save the day. Beasley was picked 19th in 2016 and Morris was a 2nd rounder in 2017. In fact, among all their guard and wing talent, only Murray was a lottery pick (#7).

I'm jealous.

I didnt watch it, but was just about to post the same thoughts after looking at the box score. And you didn't even mention Torrey Craig who scored 22 points in 34 minutes. I'm sure you all remember Craig's storied college career during hie 4 years at basketball powerhouse South Carolina Upstate. How the Wolves passed on this future NBA star when they noticed his 41% career shooting in college is beyond me.
You'd like to think the Wolves are catching a break playing the Nuggets tonight with their second and third highest scorers out and on the back end of a BTB. But the Nuggets are something like 6-1 playing on back ends, have won 5 in a row, and are now tied for first in the Western Conference. Hard to see us winning this one.

[Monster]

I watched some of that Denver-Houston game last night. What an embarassment of riches Denver has in terms of depth. Their perimeter depth is ridiculous. Gary Harris and Jamal Murray out, no problem. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are here to save the day. Beasley was picked 19th in 2016 and Morris was a 2nd rounder in 2017. In fact, among all their guard and wing talent, only Murray was a lottery pick (#7).

I'm jealous.

And just think they haven't even nailed every move. They gave up a 1st and Nurkic to get Plumblee and then paid him. Traded away the pick that netted Utah Mitchell and ended up with Tyler Lyndon and Lyles. Overall they have done a pretty good job like you said. Morris played 3 games last year and is now playing terrific basketball.

I saw that Thabeet is trying to make a comeback (good luck with that..) and it's a reminder that good franchises can Whiff on a bigtime pick and still be good. It would be nice to be out of those franchises for 10 years.

[Monster]

FWIW James Nunnally signed in Europe and already had a nice outing his first game. I'd be more disappointed that we let him go if guys like Deng and Bayless didn't show some value and having a roster spot open that the team could use on a ball handling guard made sense. Financially he did well making over $750,000 between the Wolves and a 10 day with the rockets and likely a nice contract to go back to Europe.

https://www.talkbasket.net/36215-james-nunnally-shines-in-his-debut-with-armani-milano

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

Jazz have offered Rubio + FRP for conley.

[Lipoli390]

I watched some of that Denver-Houston game last night. What an embarassment of riches Denver has in terms of depth. Their perimeter depth is ridiculous. Gary Harris and Jamal Murray out, no problem. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are here to save the day. Beasley was picked 19th in 2016 and Morris was a 2nd rounder in 2017. In fact, among all their guard and wing talent, only Murray was a lottery pick (#7).

I'm jealous.

And just think they haven't even nailed every move. They gave up a 1st and Nurkic to get Plumblee and then paid him. Traded away the pick that netted Utah Mitchell and ended up with Tyler Lyndon and Lyles. Overall they have done a pretty good job like you said. Morris played 3 games last year and is now playing terrific basketball.

I saw that Thabeet is trying to make a comeback (good luck with that..) and it's a reminder that good franchises can Whiff on a bigtime pick and still be good. It would be nice to be out of those franchises for 10 years.

Good point, Monster. The good NBA organizations make plent of mistakes. But when viewed in totality, they make a lot more good moves than bad. The Wolves whiffed on taking Dunn instead of Murray or Hield. But the next year they could have taken John Collins instead of Patton. And the next year they perhaps could have traded Butler for D'Angelo Russell or something similar before Butler went public with his trade demand and reduced his trade value. The Wolves whiffed trading down instead of taking McCollum, but could have still hit a home run taking Giannis instead of Bazz. Even after whiffing twice passing on McCollum and Giannis, they could have hit a home run taking Gobert instead of selling their pick for cash, hence, another whiff. Then count up all the other 1st and 2nd round picks where the bat made not contact with the ball.

In the entire 30 year draft history of the franchise, the Wolves have hit 2 home runs, KG and KAT. They've hit one triple, Kevin Love. I'd say they've hit two doubles with Wally Z and LaVine. The Dunn pick looks like a sacrifice fly in that it helped bring in Butler. I think the at-bats with Tyus and Okogie are still in progress. So that's 5 extra base hits and 1 sacrifice fly in 30 years. And actually, I think it's 5 total hits because I can't even see any singles in the Wolves draft history. In fact, I think it's fair to say that the rest of the 1st and 2nd round picks during in the Wolves history have been strikeouts or weak infield popups. Some of them like Ebi, Bazz and Patton have been 3-pitch strikeouts. Selling a 1st round pick is automatically a 3-pitch strikeout, but doing it with Gobert available means you hit your head with the bat on your 3rd swing and knocked yourself out.

Correction - I think the Rubio pick was a base hit. You might even call it a double except for the fact that DeRozan and Curry were both available when we made that pick. So let's call it 5 extra base hits, 1 single and 1 sacrifice fly in the Wolves 30-year draft history.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Good post, Lip. I'm not meaning to nitpick or be a wise ass with my addition to your comment, but I think Nikola Pekovic was good enough for a handful of years to be considered a "double" in your analogy -- or maybe a single and stolen base, I don't know. He was a solid, steadying force in the middle of the Wolves lineup that kept bodies off the glass and always made opposing bigs work. I can remember Amar'e Stoudemire talking about his matchup with Dwight Howard and a reporter asked him about going against the strongest center in the league and Stoudemire corrected him by saying Nikola Pekovic is the strongest big in the game. DeMarcus Cousins on a different occasion called him one of the five strongest centers in the game. Take their word for it, those guys were feeling the physicality from Pek night in and night out.

Lastly, Corey Brewer is probably a single when it's all said and done. I know, I'm digging deep here, but he's somehow stuck around in the league for over a decade. He's a legitimate NBA player and while he wasn't ever a core piece, he wasn't a strikeout either.

[AbeVigodaLive]

If you want to know what the NBA is becoming look no farther than the lakers going after AD.

Reports are the lakers will not include KCP in any trade. Now KCP sucks (relatively) but he is a rich paul client so he won't be traded because of that. Agent politics are becoming huge. Reminders me of shoe companies in college basketball. Highly recommended the book "play their hearts out" the demitrus Walker story, its probably my favorite sports book of all time

Yep. This issues has been bubbling beneath the surface for some time. And more than any of us could probably fathom.

I'm sure it's a headache for every team in the league in one way or another.

It's literally becoming LeBron James' league right now.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I watched some of that Denver-Houston game last night. What an embarassment of riches Denver has in terms of depth. Their perimeter depth is ridiculous. Gary Harris and Jamal Murray out, no problem. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are here to save the day. Beasley was picked 19th in 2016 and Morris was a 2nd rounder in 2017. In fact, among all their guard and wing talent, only Murray was a lottery pick (#7).

I'm jealous.

In the entire 30 year draft history of the franchise, the Wolves have hit 2 home runs, KG and KAT. They've hit one triple, Kevin Love. I'd say they've hit two doubles with Wally Z and LaVine. The Dunn pick looks like a sacrifice fly in that it helped bring in Butler. I think the at-bats with Tyus and Okogie are still in progress. So that's 5 extra base hits and 1 sacrifice fly in 30 years. And actually, I think it's 5 total hits because I can't even see any singles in the Wolves draft history. In fact, I think it's fair to say that the rest of the 1st and 2nd round picks during in the Wolves history have been strikeouts or weak infield popups. Some of them like Ebi, Bazz and Patton have been 3-pitch strikeouts. Selling a 1st round pick is automatically a 3-pitch strikeout, but doing it with Gobert available means you hit your head with the bat on your 3rd swing and knocked yourself out.

I'm even higher on the Kevin Love move. If KAT is a HR... so is Love. Remember, conventional wisdom and projections had OJ Mayo there. The Wolves went against that and dropped down for Love and alleged sharpshooter Mike Miller. With KAT, they simply went chalk.

Miller promptly refused to shoot in MN for some inexplicable reason. But he was a good asset at the time.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I've mentioned Monte Morris before. And I'm excited to see him play for 35 minutes to see him in action more. But the stats are ridiculously good. Check out that efficiency. It's off the charts GREAT.

10 ppg
3 reb
4 apg
49% fg
45% 3fg
0.7 TO !!!!!!

And he's essentially a rookie. Drafted #51 last season... and only played 3 games as noted.