Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:
I thought Philadelphia was going to get pick #11 this year. What happened with that? That is the pick I would want to move down to #3.

That was the Miami pick that would have gone to Philly if they dropped out of the top 10 (you know, the pick many fretted over because we took Young instead of the pick). Well, it turns out we would not have had the pick after all. Flip dodges another bullet!

Flip needs to follow his own advice and take the 2 way player. He will take Towns.

zigzag22 wrote:Wildwolf----WTF?! The dude lost his father a week ago, still attended the combine, and just won the lottery 5 hours ago and you're already saying he has lost control of the situation?! Are you f*cking serious?!

It's embarrassing how much garbage some of you are eating up from the media. These guys all recycle the same rumors because it's May. No top prospect is doing anything right now other than shoot jumpers by himself and post up folding chairs. If you think Flip, on May 19th, has made his mind on who he wants to draft at #1, you should buy some of these magic jumping beans I have.

I'm saying Bill Duffy has way more of an infliuence on how Flip operates than it should. We have FOUR BDA clients on the team already (Bazz, Bud, LaVine, Wiggins), was trying to trade for Klay Thompson (another Duffy guy) before Wiggins, and Okafor is a Duffy guy too. Historically agents have always had their way when it comes to this team. Historically, when a player or his agent make it seem like they don't wanna be here, this team backs off. There's too much of a track record that shows Flip isn't too fond of dealing with one client for a bunch of players on his team... unless you're Bill Duffy.

WildWolf2813 wrote:

zigzag22 wrote:Wildwolf----WTF?! The dude lost his father a week ago, still attended the combine, and just won the lottery 5 hours ago and you're already saying he has lost control of the situation?! Are you f*cking serious?!

It's embarrassing how much garbage some of you are eating up from the media. These guys all recycle the same rumors because it's May. No top prospect is doing anything right now other than shoot jumpers by himself and post up folding chairs. If you think Flip, on May 19th, has made his mind on who he wants to draft at #1, you should buy some of these magic jumping beans I have.

I'm saying Bill Duffy has way more of an infliuence on how Flip operates than it should. We have FOUR BDA clients on the team already (Bazz, Bud, LaVine, Wiggins), was trying to trade for Klay Thompson (another Duffy guy) before Wiggins, and Okafor is a Duffy guy too. Historically agents have always had their way when it comes to this team. Historically, when a player or his agent make it seem like they don't wanna be here, this team backs off. There's too much of a track record that shows Flip isn't too fond of dealing with one client for a bunch of players on his team... unless you're Bill Duffy.

I don't understand how you can play the history game with Flip on this one. He hasn't specifically turned away from a guy who says he doesn't want to be here yet so how is it fair to say because his predecessors have he's just going to fall in line with what has massively failed for this organization in the past? The agent is literally going to have zero affect on this top pick. If the guy we draft refuses to play for us, the agent doesn't make a dime and his player comes off looking really bad with no options to go anywhere next year in his control. That's usually when agents get fired for making bad business decisions.

This is the NBA. Rookies don't have any power so kicking and screaming isn't going to do anything. This whole Towns and Okafor don't want to be here is made up by people who take their quotes and make up their own interpretations on them. I don't imagine either of them care if they end up in MN and it's just their agents who make this shit up because they stand to make more money from a guy in LA over MN.

I just listened to the funkadelic on KFAN and I think Flip sounded more on the fence than what I thought he would be. Based on that I wouln't rule out Russell either. If you are one of those people that want to email Flip the link to various articles I think it's lilely he has already read them. I think part of the reason he spent more time talking about Okafor is he does want to defend the guy a little because whether it's local or national media (or us here lol) people are downplaying his strength for scoring in the post. Flip isn't much different that us here in this forum he likes to point out and say hey now wait a minute... He praised Towns defense and also did says it's hard to get a sense of him because of limited minutes. That hasn't stopped him before although Lavine wasn't a #1 overall pick.

Lip maybe you were referring to a moment in the 1500 interview but the KFAN spot where Flip said Okafor and then it was "other guys" not just refering to Towns. If that was the moment you were referring to it may have been easier to catch that because I was listening for it. :)

I was interested how candid he was about using assets to move up. The way he talked it sounded like getting at least into the late lottery might be possible.

Talking about Prozingus Flip I think put him and Mudiay in the catagory of having some work to do so yeah more risk but he clearly likes Prozingus a lot.

I may have to try and find the 1500 spot in the next couple days and see what he had to say there.

monsterpile wrote:I just listened to the funkadelic on KFAN and I think Flip sounded more on the fence than what I thought he would be. Based on that I wouln't rule out Russell either. If you are one of those people that want to email Flip the link to various articles I think it's lilely he has already read them. I think part of the reason he spent more time talking about Okafor is he does want to defend the guy a little because whether it's local or national media (or us here lol) people are downplaying his strength for scoring in the post. Flip isn't much different that us here in this forum he likes to point out and say hey now wait a minute... He praised Towns defense and also did says it's hard to get a sense of him because of limited minutes. That hasn't stopped him before although Lavine wasn't a #1 overall pick.

Lip maybe you were referring to a moment in the 1500 interview but the KFAN spot where Flip said Okafor and then it was "other guys" not just refering to Towns. If that was the moment you were referring to it may have been easier to catch that because I was listening for it. :)

I was interested how candid he was about using assets to move up. The way he talked it sounded like getting at least into the late lottery might be possible.

Talking about Prozingus Flip I think put him and Mudiay in the catagory of having some work to do so yeah more risk but he clearly likes Prozingus a lot.

I may have to try and find the 1500 spot in the next couple days and see what he had to say there.

Is there a link to these interviews?

I read where Flip said the goal is to get two way players. If that's the case then Towns is your guy.

Man this isn't an easy decision. The good thing is we have three worthy options for the first pick. Watching a lot of YouTube this morning and for you Towns people, I wouldn't discount Okafor just yet. It just seems like the Duke offense didn't space as well as the Kentucky offense. When Okafor gets the ball he gets crowded in a hurry. It seems like Towns gets more space to work. Both have nice post games, but Okafor's is already on an advanced pro level. That footwork and body movement will be tough to stop. With the NBA going to small ball Cs he may be able to dominate more. Okafor's post game is rare. This is a closer race than some on this board give it credit. I covet Towns defense and rebounding, but man Okafor is good too. I wonder how we would view these guys if we flipped their teams. I wonder if Okafor would have been more aggressive defensively if he had more help and depth behind him. Kentucky had more quality bigs coming off the bench. Duke had very little. I also wonder if Towns went to Duke if he would have produced more and got to expand his offensive game to more than just post play. For all the credit Towns get for his jumpshot, he shot only 8 for 28 according to draft express. Anyways, here are some videos for you guys:

Towns:
http://youtu.be/qq90u5OG-bY
Okafor:
http://youtu.be/wNgjYxttRL0

TRKO wrote:Man this isn't an easy decision. The good thing is we have three worthy options for the first pick. Watching a lot of YouTube this morning and for you Towns people, I wouldn't discount Okafor just yet. It just seems like the Duke offense didn't space as well as the Kentucky offense. When Okafor gets the ball he gets crowded in a hurry. It seems like Towns gets more space to work. Both have nice post games, but Okafor's is already on an advanced pro level. That footwork and body movement will be tough to stop. With the NBA going to small ball Cs he may be able to dominate more. Okafor's post game is rare. This is a closer race than some on this board give it credit. I covet Towns defense and rebounding, but man Okafor is good too. I wonder how we would view these guys if we flipped their teams. I wonder if Okafor would have been more aggressive defensively if he had more help and depth behind him. Kentucky had more quality bigs coming off the bench. Duke had very little. I also wonder if Towns went to Duke if he would have produced more and got to expand his offensive game to more than just post play. For all the credit Towns get for his jumpshot, he shot only 8 for 28 according to draft express. Anyways, here are some videos for you guys:

Towns:
http://youtu.be/qq90u5OG-bY
Okafor:
http://youtu.be/wNgjYxttRL0

This is exactly why post season workouts have some merit

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

TRKO wrote:Man this isn't an easy decision. The good thing is we have three worthy options for the first pick. Watching a lot of YouTube this morning and for you Towns people, I wouldn't discount Okafor just yet. It just seems like the Duke offense didn't space as well as the Kentucky offense. When Okafor gets the ball he gets crowded in a hurry. It seems like Towns gets more space to work. Both have nice post games, but Okafor's is already on an advanced pro level. That footwork and body movement will be tough to stop. With the NBA going to small ball Cs he may be able to dominate more. Okafor's post game is rare. This is a closer race than some on this board give it credit. I covet Towns defense and rebounding, but man Okafor is good too. I wonder how we would view these guys if we flipped their teams. I wonder if Okafor would have been more aggressive defensively if he had more help and depth behind him. Kentucky had more quality bigs coming off the bench. Duke had very little. I also wonder if Towns went to Duke if he would have produced more and got to expand his offensive game to more than just post play. For all the credit Towns get for his jumpshot, he shot only 8 for 28 according to draft express. Anyways, here are some videos for you guys:

Towns:
http://youtu.be/qq90u5OG-bY
Okafor:
http://youtu.be/wNgjYxttRL0

This is exactly why post season workouts have some merit

Both guys do so many of the underrated things well. Both handle the ball well for bigs. Both are great passers. Both have great hands. They seem to be model citizens. I know Towns is considered more athletic, but I think they are very similar athletically. Towns plays with more intensity, especially on defense. To me that's the major knock on Okafor over Towns. Okafor has the body and ability to be a plus defender, but he isn't. It's worth investigating if he was told to tone it down because Duke couldn't afford to have him get into foul trouble or if he just isn't an aggressive defender.

Another thing is both of these kids are only 19 and have a ton of room for growth. The Wolves will have back to back first overall picks in two drafts that have game changing talent.

I re-watched the lottery a little while ago and was curious to look again at the reactions of Towns and Okafor. Someone had mentioned that they both looked unhappy with the outcome. Oak was sitting in the front next to Tyus and Towns is behind him, next to WCS. Oak did not have much positivity in his face. Towns had a huge grin, however. FWIW.