Minnesotas recent drafts - oh boy/what if

[BballTechnique]

1999 1 23 Devean George United States SF Augsburg
1999 2 30 John Celestand (from Vancouver)[o] United States SG Villanova
2000 1 29 Mark Madsen United States PF/C Stanford
2002 1 27 Chris Jefferies (traded to Toronto)[q] United States SF Fresno State
2003 1 24 Brian Cook United States PF Illinois
2003 2 32 Luke Walton

LOL. Screw all those guys. I just wish we kept Marc Gasol and Toney Douglas.

[sefant77]

Draft "what if" threads suck because of the effect the players would have on their teams, meaning their next pick wouldn't be in the same spot.

Sure but like i mentioned in this case because of the Rubio absense not that much difference with the ping pong balls!

Pretty obvious for me that even with Curry instead of Flynn they would have gotten the #4 pick a year later. Only obvious question mark was the #2 in 2011 with Curry/Cousins instead of Flynn/Johnson.

So you would still look at a Rubio/Curry/-/Love/Cousins core.

[Bubstubbler]

Draft "what if" threads suck because of the effect the players would have on their teams, meaning their next pick wouldn't be in the same spot.

Agreed, but in this case the only thing that would differ would be that Minny probably wouldn't have gotten the #2 pick in 2011 (DWilliams), and would probably have been picking in the mid-to-late lottery. IMO, though, a lot of the guys picked in the mid-to-late lottery in that draft would have been just as valuable to Minny. They'd probably have the same number of wins regardless of whether they have DWilliams or one of these guys: http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_final_draft/2011. They would have been in the market for a sf, so maybe they'd have taken Klay Thompson, Marcus Morris, or Kawhi Leonard. (If they got Thompson, they'd probably start small with Rubio/Curry/Thompson, with Thompson sliding down to sg when only one of Rubio/Curry is in the game.)

Rubio
Curry
Klay Thompson (or Marcus Morris or Kawhi Leonard)
Love
Pek/Monroe

That would've been a great 6-man core.

Rubio gets 3/4 of the pg minutes
Curry gets 1/4 of the pg minutes and 1/2 of the sg minutes
Thompson gets 1/2 of the sg minutes and 1/2 of the sf minutes
some stud sf defender gets the other 1/2 of the sf minutes
Love gets 3/4 of the pf minutes
Pek gets 2/3 of the c minutes
Monroe gets 1/4 of the pf minutes and 1/3 of the c minutes

[gordito]

lol another what if Minnesota would have drafted player x thread. It's been a solid week since I've seen one of these

I don't know, the fact that Minnesota drafted two PGs back-to-back in the high lottery deserves AT LEAST one "what-if" thread per week.

I guess the next best player everyone is mentioning (Curry) is also a PG, albeit closer to a combo guard than Flynn. I didn't follow the draft as in-depth as I do now, so I'm not sure who people expected Minny to take in that situation. Just seemed like a very odd choice the minute I saw it.

[Basti]

One thing few people actually know is that Minnesota apparently had a deal lined up with Sacramento on draft day in 2008. If James Johnson had been available at #18 he and Flynn would have been sent to Sacramento for Tyreke. But Johnson was picked at #16 by the Bulls making the offer invalid. I wish I could find a link to prove this, though.

Not that I think Kahn wouldn't have drafted Flynn anyway without any kind of deal on his mind. Even when he was drafted it was quite a stretch. Unlike Wes Johnson, who at the time when being drafted, was not a stretch. Not that I've been overly happy about what Wes Johnson offered, or rather didn't, but I still never questioned the pick. Cousins showed some huge red flags prior to being drafted. Also, for the record, Corey Brewer was a finished product by the time Johnson was drafted. That didn't really have any kind of affect in terms of which player has more potential.

[License2Lillard]

I know even Minnesota fans will disagree with me, but I really don't fault them for picking Flynn after Rubio. No one was absolutely sure when Rubio was coming over so in theory it could've went like this...

Flynn plays well as a placeholder
Rubio comes over to take over
Trade Flynn for a young wing player
Suddenly the roster is looking solid

With Flynn having little to no value now it's easy to say bad move. It could've been brilliant though. Personally, I would rather take a chance on a wing (Henderson, DeRozan, or even Curry though he's played a lot of PG I think he could've played well beside Rubio) with his pick, but logically it makes more sense than they get credit for. Not a great decision, but it's beaten down more than it deserves to be.

[mandurugo]

I know even Minnesota fans will disagree with me, but I really don't fault them for picking Flynn after Rubio. No one was absolutely sure when Rubio was coming over so in theory it could've went like this...

The Flynn pick was a stretch, but many people didn't think that Curry was going to be able to play point guard. Everyone with a clue knew that Rubio wouldn't be over for two years. The wolves needed a point guard. It turns out that Curry would have been able to play point better than Flynn, but hindsight is a luxury no one has on the clock. They probably should have picked up a mediocre vet to cover for them and taken the bpa, but I agree with you that it wasn't terrible idea to go for Flynn. It just didn't work out.

[Geaux_Hawks]

Agree, flynn pick wasn't a bad choice. Things just didn't work like it should have. I probably would have taken Derozan anyway though, unless that Sacto deal was a sure bet to happen under those circumstances.

[funkatron101]

On draft night virtually every Wolves fan said "WTF" when they picked Flynn. Mainly because he wasn't on anyone's radar. Most thought Curry or Derozen would be picked after Rubio.

We quickly reconciled the fact that Rubio wouldn't be available and that Flynn should be a suitable fill in. Nice idea in theory, but not in reality.

We should have stuck to our gut.

[sisibilio]

Yea picking Wes over Cousins didn't seem that absurd at the time as it does in retrospective. His worst decision by far IMO was picking Williams last year instead of Valanciunas, even if they had to wait 1 year for him.

[funkatron101]

Yea picking Wes over Cousins didn't seem that absurd at the time as it does in retrospective. His worst decision by far IMO was picking Williams last year instead of Valanciunas, even if they had to wait 1 year for him.

Virtually EVERY expert, analyst, etc. pegged Williams at #2. Some even called him the steal of the draft.

You could make an convincing argument that Kahn should have traded down, but he would have been torn to shreds had he not picked Williams at #2.

[sisibilio]

I agree about the hype around Williams, but everyone knew he wasn't a good fit in Minny.
i know, draft for talent trade for need, but Williams, Val and Kanter were equivalent talents at least IMO.

[Roger Murdock]

Draft "what if" threads suck because of the effect the players would have on their teams, meaning their next pick wouldn't be in the same spot.

I totally agree, but it still doesn't change the fact that Kahn has blown it every year.

[john2jer]

Clearly some people don't understand how draft day trades work.

But yeah, the Flynn and Johnson picks were bad. I was big on Derozan/Curry and Monroe/George in those drafts. But yeah, the Flynn/JJ for Tyreke rumors are pretty legit.

[LOOSH]

Picking Williams is fine based of perceived value, but he should have moved down or traded him ASAP, the guy was a horrendous fit on that roster and they had a franchise PF. Kahn draft's have been beyond abysmal -- other than Rubio falling to him and being a no brainer he's pretty much blown every single pick. Not to mention the terrible trade's he has had (Martell Webster for a 1st rounder, Jefferson for a 2, Budinger for the 18th pick ... etc), terrible contracts given (Barea, Darko), and general incompetence (Not giving Love max years, invalid offer sheet to Batum, publicly saying Beasley smoked a ton of weed, summer league interview with C-Webb). If he didn't inherit McHale's awesome draft in 2007 and have Rubio slide on draft night this franchise would be a burning dumpster. If the Wolves don't can this guy soon, he'll run what promise they have into the ground -- only a matter of time, he is completely in over his head.

[Wolves21]

In hin sight ya those draft day picks mostly look like **** under Kahn.Back in '09 when we took Flynn I wanted and would have drafted Curry.I thought even with his little build he could have be a SG in this league and would have played well along side Rubio,and if worst came to worst he would have been a great 6th man.In '10 when they drafted Johnson I would have went with the Cousins route even with his lazy at time play and bad attitude.As far as last years draft of Williams I would have done the exact same thing as Kahn did.

[Ortho Stice]

Let's not forget that Kahn traded Mike Miller to the Wizards for the fifth pick in the 2009 draft. Yes, Kahn's best "move" was there being a dingus GM who would trade a Top 5 pick for Mike Miller, and then lucking out and having Rubio slide to that pick.

When you discount that gift from another bonehead GM there are literally zero moves Kahn has made that weren't ridiculously terrible in some way. We all know about his Flynn pick. Look at all the point guards who were picked after him in that first round: Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Eric Maynor, Darren Collison, Rodrigue Beaubois and Toney Douglas. It's actually extremely impressive how he was somehow able to pick by far the worst point guard out of that bunch.

And with the fourth pick in the following draft he picks Wesley Johnson, a 23-year-old wing prospect whose scouting report said that he couldn't really create his own shot. So for the second straight draft he drafts someone in the Top 6 who may not be in the league in a few years.

Then in the next draft with the second pick he keeps Williams who clearly looked like an NBA tweener, instead of trading him while his value was at its highest.

And then in this year's incredibly deep draft he trades the 18th pick for Chase Budinger. It seems like he didn't even considered the possibility of drafting anyone, as he said that he traded the pick "because he didn't want the team to get younger."

Plus he appeared on NBATV and claimed that Darko had bounced around the league for several years because each team couldn't see his immense talent, and that he was overjoyed to have a player that was good enough to be picked second in a draft, that he considered him the best passing big man in the game, who he will set free so that he can finally show the world that he's a highly skilled center, and finally he likened his arrival to the Wolves as "manna from Heaven."

All of these things show that Kahn is the most outstanding, impressive GM for his ability to completely misjudge players in an eerily consistent way. And his "manna from Heaven" comment makes it seem like he takes joy in people considering him a terrible GM.

[ComboGuardCity]

Roy
Batum
Durant
Aldridge
MLE center

[AussieBuck]

Passing on Cousins was the worst since it was soooo obvious at the time. I was hoping for Warriors to move up and get Cousins, I think they tried but couldn't.

The funny part is Wes over Cousins still isn't the worst pick of that draft, Udoh over Monroe is. Udoh over Monroe was one of the most inexplicable bizarre picks I've ever seen. Same position, no dramatic character flaw differences, there was absolutely no reason for a team to like Udoh more than Monroe that draft, none

If Monroe learns to play D that might be true, as of now though defense is still half the game and Udoh is a Brazillion times better at it.

[TayP]

Actually the T-Wolves wanted Cousins but they worried about the fit with Love. Basically what was the point of trading Jefferson who didn't fit with Love to draft a player with the same skill set(even though Cousins is way more talented)? It would put them in the same position the Kings are in a bunch of great young pieces that don't fit together. They should have traded up for Turner or the way it's looking now they should have traded Love(his stupid ass comments) for Favors+future 1st. I think a Favors/Cousins front court has way more potential then a Love/Pekovic front court.