Minnesota Sports Forum

Nice clips Q. We might need to find our future starting PG this draft, sigh.

I wish we would have given Scotty Wilbieken a 10 day contract this season to play PG instead of Lavine. Not happy about Flip's coaching this year.

Camden wrote:I'm liking Stanley more and more every week guys.

I was down on him during non-conference play, but am really liking what I'm seeing recently. Would not be surprised if Philly took him at any point in the top 3. If we could get a solid PF in FA, I'd be all for drafting him. I don't know if I can take another year with Thad as our starting PF.

northernhoops wrote:

Camden wrote:I'm liking Stanley more and more every week guys.

I was down on him during non-conference play, but am really liking what I'm seeing recently. Would not be surprised if Philly took him at any point in the top 3. If we could get a solid PF in FA, I'd be all for drafting him. I don't know if I can take another year with Thad as our starting PF.

I'm still a Thad believer, but I wouldn't mind trading K-Mart to Chicago for Taj Gibson straight up. I mentioned this idea preseason and still like it for both teams.

Draft Stanley in the top-five.

Rubio
Wiggins
Johnson
Gibson
Pekovic/Dieng

Depending on who the coach is, that could be a pretty damn good defensive squad.

Edit: A trade involving Kevin Martin for Terrence Jones would be even more ideal, but I kept it simple.

The good news is that the top of the draft continues to look strong. Russell and Stanley playing well could make for some interesting decisions for those picking in the 2-5 range. We'll see if they can keep it up. Hopefully they can. The stronger the draft class, the better.

Honestly I think Stanley or Russell or Mudiay would be all be great. It seems like PF is one of the easiest positions to get talent at.

Hicks123 wrote:And can we dismiss Emmanuel Mudiay from our conversation? I know we just resigned Rubio, but I am still not convinced he is our future. I am not going to even talk about skill level as this debate has been worn out over the years, but simply from an injury level, he is obviously a HUGE risk. Some will argue that none of his injuries are the same, thus he is not "injury prone", but I disagree. Some guys can stay on the court over the course of a career, and some can not. Assuming Rubio comes back within the next couple weeks, he will have missed 100 games over 3 1/2 seasons. This is certainly not a solid trend, and is extremely discouraging.

Physically, Mudiay plays a Westbrook style game. We have all seen what a game changing, physical, scoring PG can do to influence a game. Westbrook is as big a game changer on many nights as we see in the NBA. I honestly don't know anything about this guy other than seeing his physical makeup and stats from China.....but I wouldn't pass him over JUST BECAUSE we have Rubio.

If Rubio isn't our future, we don't have one.

Rubio's lingering injury and the wolves' inability to win without him is making the draft discussion much more interesting. Although the Wolves competed last night for the first time in a while, they also moved into the cellar of the NBA for the first time this year...remarkably behind the NY Tankerbockers and the Philadelphia Seventy-tankers! Cool has predicted that we win the lottery this year, but right now they would win not because of good fortune but because they have the most ping pong balls. I don't expect it to last if Rubio comes back because we will certainly pass the Knicks, Sixers and Bryant-less Lakers, but we do have the most ping pong balls right now. And who knows when Rubio returns...his injury is much more serious than anyone imagined.

As others have noticed, the draft discussion is changing with the continuing improvement of Russell and Johnson...both are playing like top three talent. I continue to be a Towns fan, but right now I think there is no question that Okafor has to be the first pick, And I stay far away from Mudiay. The combination of not having anything other than high school and China experience to evaluate plus his serious injury makes him way too high a risk to be considered in the top 3.

LST, If you strip away the vets and look at our younger guys, here is what we've got:

Rubio - Premier ball handler, distributor, and defender. Shot gradually improving, but will never be a big-time scorer.

Wiggins - Emerging 2-way wing without any one glaring weakness, but no clear strengths either.....yet.

Muhammed - Instant offense, outstanding cutter, high-energy, poor handles, still pretty weak defensively.

Dieng - Big man with a pretty unconventional set of skills; emerging as a facilitator out of the high post. Gets pushed around in the paint way too easily, making it tough for him to anchor a defense.. Right now is a 3rd or 4th big in a playoff-caliber C/PF rotation. Can he get better given his age? Is PF a better spot for him?

Hummel - Consumate glue guy that can be plugged into a number of positions and generally play mistake-free ball. He'll never hurt your team but he can't carry a big load either, so his value rises with the talent level of the rest of the team around him.

AB, GRIII, Daniels, and LaVine - Too unproven to really know what we've got. One or two of these guys could be out of the league in two years, whereas one or two of them could eventually be a major factor in our rotation. We just don't know.


So when I look at that list, we have holes all over the place that potential top 5 picks could fill:

- Besides Rubio, who else can put pressure on a defense off the bounce and make plays for others? (Russell, Mudiay)

- Who here can physically control the paint? (Okafor, Towns)

- Who here can hit the 3-pointer with accuracy AND volume? (Russell, Oubre - although I'm skeptical that this is something easily identified at the college level)

- Who here is a plus perimeter defender besides Rubio and may be Wiggins someday? (Johnson)

The bottom line is we need to take the best player available wherever it is we pick, because I can't think of an area that doesn't need some serious shoring up.

Solid analysis, q, and I largely agree. I just don't want to take a chance on the Congo kid, but I'm confident that almost anyone else in the top 6-7 will help us.

"Dieng: Right now is a 3rd or 4th big in a playoff-caliber C/PF rotation."

I'm not sure that's a bad thing at this time. Second-year NBA player that would be a playoff team's first big off the bench? Contributes in all categories. Sure, he has things to improve on, but he has the potential to be a starter on a playoff team. I wavered on that myself early in the year, but it's his offensive ability that keep me believing as of late. (Didn't expect him to be as skilled as he is scoring the ball)