Minnesota Sports Forum

Did anyone read this? It was news to me that Steph had made it clear to Minnesota that he didn't want to come here.

Interesting read.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2016/03/01/dell-curry-recalls-suns-near-trade-son-stephen-curry/81191584/

He refused to work out for us which is why Kahn refused to draft him.

Yep. Often times there is more to the story than "Kahn was so stupid for not picking Curry!" Don't get me wrong - Kahn was still stupid. But we don't know just how stupid - lol.

Wow. So who's the bigger bitch, Steph or Lebron?

Worked out well for Steph.

It's gonna be this way until this team shows meaningful progress. In the meantime, this organization has an awful reputation that they can only shake off by winning in spite of everyone else.

I knew about it. I was told by someone I knew in the organization, but I remember it was actually reported at the time. But we still should have drafted Curry. I remember thinking that Curry might not like being drafted by MN, but he wasn't the sort to refuse to play and the NBA's CBA didn't give him that option. I also remember thinking that we would have had great trade leverage with other teams that were reported to be very hot for Curry, including the Knicks, Suns, Warriors and Raptors. My next favorite on the board after Curry was DeRozan. We certainly could have swapped the draft rights to Curry for the draft rights to DeRozan and other assets. Or we could have taken DeRozan instead of Flynn having already taken a pure PG in Rubio.

The point is this: You draft the best player available and let the chips fall, especially when your team, like the Wolves at that time, isn't in a position to focus on filling specific needs. Even worse to take a pure PG like Flynn with the idea that he'd play next to a pure PG named Rubio. So Kahn was an idiot for how he handled that draft, not just for everything else he did. :)

lipoli390 wrote:I knew about it. I was told by someone I knew in the organization, but I remember it was actually reported at the time. But we still should have drafted Curry. I remember thinking that Curry might now like being drafted by MN, but he wasn't the sort to refuse to play and the NBA's CBA didn't give him that option. I also remember thinking that we we would have had great trade leverage with other teams that were reported to be very hot for Curry, including the Knicks, Suns, Warriors and Raptors. My next favorite on the board after Curry was DeRozan. We certainly could have swapped the draft rights to Curry for the draft rights to DeRozan and other assets. Or we could have taken DeRozan instead of Flynn having already taking a pure PG in Rubio.

The point is this: You draft the best player available and let the chips fall, especially when your team, like the Wolves at that time, isn't in a position to focus on filling specific needs. Even worse to take a pure PG like Flynn with the idea that he'd play next to a pure PG named Rubio. So Kahn was an idiot for how he handled that draft, not just for everything else he did. :)

I will add to this that Kahn later admitted he didn't think Curry would be able to translate at this level. It looks even moronic now than when he admitted it. Honestly I can live with that take because I didn't think Curry was worth taking that high but like Lip said I would have leveraged the pick to someone that wanted Curry because it seemed obviously very valuable.

Going into the draft, I really, really wanted Tyreke Evans. He was my 2009 NBA Draft class darling, if you will. Thought he was going to set the league on fire, and he did until Sacramento started playing with his role.

I can't say that I was insanely high on Curry at the time. I was worried about his slight frame and overall strength, and as a result if he would be able to guard his position at all. You knew his scoring/jumper was for real and that he had a supreme feel for the game offensively, though he was still figuring out how to facilitate his teammates on a consistent basis. There were definite question marks at the time, but I was open to taking him and living with the consequences good or bad. The guy that I wanted after we made the Rubio pick, however, was DeRozan. I thought we were building our backcourt of the future with both picks. Obviously, we know how it turned out and it's all history now, but when it gets brought up from time to time it's fun (?) to re-live the pain of the Kahn era...

Honestly, that's not even the Kahn draft error that pisses me off the most. I can forgive him for taking Flynn over Curry and DeRozan. It was ill-advised, sure, but that's nothing compared to taking Wesley Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins just a year later. I can recall watching the draft and being so ridiculously happy that the Wolves, MY Wolves, were going to land a supremely talented big with the body to match the skills. And then... Wesley Fucking Johnson got his name called. Biggest WTF moment ever for me in my history as a sports fan.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I knew about it. I was told by someone I knew in the organization, but I remember it was actually reported at the time. But we still should have drafted Curry. I remember thinking that Curry might now like being drafted by MN, but he wasn't the sort to refuse to play and the NBA's CBA didn't give him that option. I also remember thinking that we we would have had great trade leverage with other teams that were reported to be very hot for Curry, including the Knicks, Suns, Warriors and Raptors. My next favorite on the board after Curry was DeRozan. We certainly could have swapped the draft rights to Curry for the draft rights to DeRozan and other assets. Or we could have taken DeRozan instead of Flynn having already taking a pure PG in Rubio.

The point is this: You draft the best player available and let the chips fall, especially when your team, like the Wolves at that time, isn't in a position to focus on filling specific needs. Even worse to take a pure PG like Flynn with the idea that he'd play next to a pure PG named Rubio. So Kahn was an idiot for how he handled that draft, not just for everything else he did. :)

I will add to this that Kahn later admitted he didn't think Curry would be able to translate at this level. It looks even moronic now than when he admitted it. Honestly I can live with that take because I didn't think Curry was worth taking that high but like Lip said I would have leveraged the pick to someone that wanted Curry because it seemed obviously very valuable.

Monster -- I'd forgotten that Kahn said that. But now I remember. So Kahn drafts Flynn and then hires a head coach whose offense was premised on the triangle, which was absolutely and obviously ill-suited to Flynn's game. Speaking of Kahn's many moments of stupidity, how about his comment to a group of us at a season ticket-holder gathering that Love was at best the 4th best player on a championship contender. Now I know Love's tenure with the Cavs underscores that Love is definitely not the best or even second best player on a championship team. But he to say he's "at best" the 4th best was ridiculous. And even if correct, to say that publicly to a group of season ticket holders was beyond stupid.

It's tough. I don't want to be the guy that supports Kahn. But in this instance, I will say that we have to try and go back in time and look at the info available at that moment (vs. current hindsight). I remember Rubio was supposed to be off the board by our #5 pick. When he fell and was available to us, it seemed like a miracle/no brainer pick. The next pick (Flynn) was a surprise and we all look back at is as a disaster. But when I google mock drafts from that time, Flynn was considered a top 10 guy in many mocks.
http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/06/10/consensus/

I seem to recall the thought process at the time was that it was going to take a couple years to get Rubio over here (which was true). I assume they were thinking if Flynn didn't work out, they'd have Rubio in their back pocket. And if they both work out - they'd have a trade asset. Not really the worst plan.

Also, we all know the draft is a bit of a crap shoot. Thabeet at #2 was also a consenus top 3 pick many hoped would drop to us at #5. As bad as that draft turned out for us....think about if we got Thabeet at #5 and Flynn at #6 - lol!