Minnesota Sports Forum

I am late at starting this, but the excitement in just starting to build for next years draft. Who do we want?

We do have our first round pick next year, well ours or Utah's. It will be interesting if the wolves play the young guys more this year hoping they grow and make the playoffs but with the knowledge that if we do miss the playoffs like Dallas did this year we still have our pick in a great draft.

I think we have to play the young guys enough to rest vets and see if we can improve. I don't see returning starters or Naz getting better side maybe Ant.

bleedspeed wrote: ↑Thu Jul 24, 2025 3:10 pm I think we have to play the young guys enough to rest vets and see if we can improve. I don't see returning starters or Naz getting better side maybe Ant.

We saw in the playoffs with Indiana and OKC how two teams totally threw out the more traditional 8-man tight playoff rotation and expanded it out to closer to 10 men. The distance covered today by NBA players is a lot greater than even 10 years ago and Indiana was even throwing in full court presses.

Bottom-Line: Depth is more important than ever, but you have to be willing to play it too!

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Jul 25, 2025 11:45 am

bleedspeed wrote: ↑Thu Jul 24, 2025 3:10 pm I think we have to play the young guys enough to rest vets and see if we can improve. I don't see returning starters or Naz getting better side maybe Ant.

We saw in the playoffs with Indiana and OKC how two teams totally threw out the more traditional 8-man tight playoff rotation and expanded it out to closer to 10 men. The distance covered today by NBA players is a lot greater than even 10 years ago and Indiana was even throwing in full court presses.

Bottom-Line: Depth is more important than ever, but you have to be willing to play it too!

I think you bring up a good point that while the Pacers and OKC did have a lot of depth I think most teams that get to the finals do have and play depth guys to get there.

Without going too in depth I think there is an angle/argument that the Wolves going into this season have more depth than they did going into last season. Beringer's play and athletic ability on display makes most people think he could probably contribute at least some next year. Edwards if he is still around is more capable. The Wolves 3 rookies from last year should be more ready. Clark was a pretty big question mark even with sole summer league success. Rocco is the only guy I don't really think of as a guy that could play. Minott had some steam about him being ready but I'm not sure Miller is that much behind what he was. I think it's likely the Wolves sign someone in FA that's capable of playing minutes if called on. Nix had already played in the NBA so it seemed like he could have played some decent minutes as a defender so I guess that's a spot that I had more confidence in than Newton but Newton might have a better floor upside as a complimentary player if he gets it.

Back to the draft...i have no idea who will be a available and right now I don't know if the Wolves will have a great need at a position or 2. Maybe a ball handling guard will be a top priority or a developmental PF or forward. They have potentially 3 picks they cpuld use to add players so...they could be in a solid position to add another worthwhile young player or 2. Hard to believe they have all the young talent they do and draft picks...

Speaking of the 2026 draft, it looks like Jonathan Givony is leaving ESPN to focus on DraftExpress. I had thought that ESPN effectively bought DraftExpress (and Givony along with it) and therefore eliminated it as a competitive entity, which made sense since Givony would now provide the expertise and analysis for ESPN that he used to do for DX. Of course, he seemed buried in relative obscurity there and had corporate bosses to answer to. It sounds like he retained the DraftExpress legal entity the whole time, but perhaps just couldn't use it for contemporary draft analysis while employed by ESPN (??). Well, that's now changed!

Anyway, I really, really, really, really hope that the DraftExpress website comes back, as it was the absolute go-to place for learning about draft prospects....and they'd start really early with guys. I think I remember them writing about Rubio when he was only 14 or 15 years old, LOL. Where is his sidekick Mike Schmitz these days? Those two were a hell of a team.