Minnesota Sports Forum

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:06 am We are all going to get more and more pissed about the Gobert trade leading up to the draft. A big part of it is because Kessler had such a good rookie season. It's just such classic Wolves bad luck that the #22 pick would turn out to be a good player. Would we all view the trade at least a little more favorably had we traded pick #26 (Moore Jr.) instead of pick #22 (Kessler) as part of that deal? It's crazy to think about. Here are the last five players drafted at pick #22:

2018 Chandler Hutchison (0.9) Negative VORP
2019 Grant Williams 0.6 VORP
2020 Zeke Nnaji (0.3) Negative VORP
2021 Isaiah Jackson 0.4 VORP
2022 Walter Kessler 2.1 VORP

So, Kessler's one season of 2.1 VORP
The four previous #22 draft picks career combined for (0.2) negative VORP. Unbelievable.

Full disclosure, I did peek at other #22 picks going back a little further and there were some good players taken. Specifically:

2017 Jarrett Allen who now has 11.0 career VORP
2013 Mason Plumlee who is up to 14.4 career VORP.

But there are a lot more misses than hits and I guess that was my point. The draft seems like a 1 in 5 chance and we of course passed the dice when our number came up. Grrr.

AbeVigodaLive wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 1:37 pm I'd put Grant Williams as a pretty solid #22 pick, despite his somewhat mercurial tenure in Boston.

He has a (+0.5) playoff VORP, where he's been an above average player for four years now... including a highly memorable 27-point performance vs. Milwaukee in a Game 7.