Searching for Bright Side to Johnson over Cousins?

[shrink]

I had advocated for a long time that the proper pick at #4 was Cousins, for three reasons:

1. The #1 thing this team needs isn't any specific position, but a chance at a guy who's a franchise player. Cousins may have a lower downside, but in our position, few teams need to gamble on upside as much as we do.

2. Whether Cousins succeeds or fails, he's at least going to bring interest to the team. Attendance is near the bottom already, so there's not much to lose here.

3. Even if we thought Johnson was better than Cousins, that's clearly not the position SAC would have. We could have picked Cousins and offered to trade him for #5 and an asset. We had the upper hand in that deal, since our downside would only be to be "stuck" with Cousins. If SAC went with Monroe, Cousins should still be the pick over Johnson for GSW at #6, or DET at #7.

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That said, let's see if we can find a bright side here.

1. Jay Billas at ESPN named the Timberwolves as one of the winners of the draft by getting Johnson. He thinks the Johnson's game will adapt immediately to the NBA.

2. More importantly, he's worked with Cousins, and still supports out pick. From his observations, Cousins has all the talent in the world, but is still too immature.

One of the writers at Hoopsworld had another story. He was interviewing Kevin Durant, a good kid that was just there because he loves the NBA. Many times during the interview, kids came up and asked for an autograph, and Durant happily obliged, more than willing to take a few minutes to make their year. Cousins meanwhile came by, and refused .. even though he hasn't done a fraction of what Durant has done. He went on to say that he thought Cousins was ready for NBA .. paychecks.

3. There was a lot of speculation that NJN was throwing smokescreens, trying to get Kahn to give up an asset to trade up. For example, they floated the idea that they'd draft Johnson because it would give them an in with Carlos Boozer, that has the same agent. Fortunately, Kahn didn't get taken in, and refused to trade up. Now this may simply be that he didn't prefer Johnson much more than Derrick Favors, but the end result was that at least he didn't waste an asset to get the guy he wanted at #4.


That's all I got. I'd have prefered Cousins, like many of you. Are there any other bright sides that the Cousins-lovers (hmmmm) can find?

[funkatron101]

I'm happy enough with how the #4 went down. Wanted Kahn to pick and trade Cousins for Johnson +, but oh well.

Cousins seems like a straight up **** and would have been a pouty bear the whole time here.

[wildvikeswolves]

Dicky V also picked Johnson to be ROY over Griffin Turner Wall and Cousins

[Krapinsky]

If it was my own business and it was my choice, I would have hired Johnson. It's easy to sit back without any of the responsibility and say the right choice was Cousins.

[Krapinsky]

Also, say Cousins is as good as Al Jefferson, which I think is a more than fair comparison.

If we take Cousins we have to trade Al.

Then if we take Cousins and the trade market for Al doesn't net us anything in return -- Dampier? -- Randolph? Murphy? -- then we are the exactly same team we were last year with no improvement on the wings.

[Steve_Holiday]

2. Whether Cousins succeeds or fails, he's at least going to bring interest to the team. Attendance is near the bottom already, so there's not much to lose here.

I don't think cousins vs johnson is relevant here. unless one or both perform above expectations, neither would have a significant impact on attendance of their respective teams.

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I try not to get too caught up in the "this guy" vs "that guy" arguments at this point, because no one really knows. lot of people here were in love with Derozan last year...before drinking the Jonny Flynn Kool-Aid/Jennings Hate-orade...and then fantasizing about Evans coulda-woulda-shouldas that were never real possibilities. It takes time. Souhan's article today could look incredibly foolish a year from now.

the trade of the 16th w/ Gomes is what really boggles the mind.

[Krapinsky]

Webster might not be the most productive guy, but he's the kind of role player that a team like San Antonio uses to win championships. He can play tough D. He can make the open shot. And he's a hardworking, high character guy. And this is a bad thing? Am I missing something?

[dunkonu21]

You mean we don't have to deal with stupid crap, get a position of need and complete a team that can compete at every position?

[MN Die Hard]

2. Whether Cousins succeeds or fails, he's at least going to bring interest to the team. Attendance is near the bottom already, so there's not much to lose here.

I don't think cousins vs johnson is relevant here. unless one or both perform above expectations, neither would have a significant impact on attendance of their respective teams.

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I try not to get too caught up in the "this guy" vs "that guy" arguments at this point, because no one really knows. lot of people here were in love with Derozan last year...before drinking the Jonny Flynn Kool-Aid/Jennings Hate-orade...and then fantasizing about Evans coulda-woulda-shouldas that were never real possibilities. It takes time. Souhan's article today could look incredibly foolish a year from now.
the trade of the 16th w/ Gomes is what really boggles the mind.

I'm convinced he had two articles prepared for either scenario. If the pick was Cousins he would have ripped into Kahn for being too risky and taking the guy with all the red flags over the safe guy who fits perfectly. He's a douche.

[Cruel_Ruin]

Cousins to Minnesota was always a recipe for disaster. Kahn made the right pick of Johnson for the Wolves, its the other picks that he botched.

I'm a Kings fan but I don't think Cousins is a franchise player. He can't handle the spotlight. He's clearly an introverted guy who can't handle the pressure that comes with being the #1 option on a team. He's the kind of personality that has to be shielded and nurtured, and if put in a position where he's asked to be the face of a franchise, its a match to a powder keg.

Be thankful that you DIDN'T get Cousins, it might have set your franchise back years.

[MinnFanMan]

I think if the Wolves had a stable franchise or if they had a history of success with risky picks, like the Vikes, then they would have been in a position to take Cousins. But let's look at 12 years of 1st round picks. not much there to hang your hat on. All I ask is that Johnson meets expectations.

Ricky Rubio
Jonny Flynn
W Ellington
Kevin Love
Corey Brewer
Randy Foye
Rashad McCants
Ndudi Ebi
W Szczerbiak
Will Avery
Rasho Nesterovic
Paul Grant

[Diggler]

Well, I wanted Cousins. To me it was Wall --> Turner --> Favors --> Cousins --> Johnson, with pretty clear seperation between each. I think Cousins was obvious in our spot. We could've ransomed him to the teams behind us who were desperate for a big man, and come out with Johnson +,or worse case scenario, we get "stuck" with some of the best potential in the draft.

Since we're looking for a bright side though, I don't think Cousins is very safe, and I pretty much agree that he wouldn't thrive as a "face-of-the-franchise" kinda guy. The concerns with him were legitimate from what I've seen and read. He seems arrogant, cocky, and stubborn. He seems like the kind of guy who just assumes he's the best rather than the type who is driven to be the best. I have doubts he'll ever truly reach his potential due to laziness and complacency. Just as an example of what I'm talking about, Kobe Bryant is the first in the weight room, last to leave. Ray Allen practices his jumper for hours before games. Demarcus believes, "I haven't done weight training yet, so I don't need it." He just doesn't have the push-yourself-to-the-limit, achieve-every-advantageness that true stars possess.

Scouting reports on Cousins also raise more red flags. His laziness can carry over onto the court, causing him to disappear/be a non-factor at times. It's been speculated that this was because he wasn't challenged in college, but I believe it's because he doesn't play with heart. Besides, when he was challenged, he was more likely to lose his temper and go flagrant fouling guys. He's probably not the best influence in the locker room either.

Ironically, even with all that, I think we were stupid not to pick him. A couple more quick bright sides are that our gutless (incompetent) FO can sleep well at night, and our frontcourt doesn't become more cluttered.

[Whiz Kid]

I wanted Cousins over Wes, mainly for the "star potential" argument. However, by most accounts Cousins seems like an immature jerk who would have been difficult to root for, even if he was very good. (For example, Kobe is a great player, but I could never root for him due to his smug, d-bag persona...that was true even before the events in Eagle, Colorado.) Wes, on the other hand, is the sort of guy you really want to root for. I know we are nervous about that sort of thing after J. Flynn's disappointing year, but it is still a positive in my mind. Not necessarily enough to make up for the difference in star potential, but something to grab onto as a positive in drafting Wes.

I also think Krapinsky makes a great point -- if it were your money, wouldn't you hire Wes over DMC? I sure would. I wanted Taylor/Kahn to take a risk that I likely wouldn't have taken myself in their position.

[slinky]

The brightest side is that we NEEDED to upgrade our wing this offseason, and if nothing else happens this offseason(and most of us will be pissed if that is the case), we upgraded our wing significantly.

[prefuse73]

I agree slinky..

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. I am hoping Cousins becomes a bigger verision of Supercool Beeezzz and Wes gets ROY.

Bottom Line, we did upgrade our wings considerably. Both guys are athletic, play decent defense, and can shoot. Face it, this was a WEAK draft, everyone said it. Full of roll players and such. Why not take Webster, who still has room to grow and has shown flashes of what made him a 6th pick.

[revprodeji]

My issue with the draft was not the Cousins/Johnson thing. It is that we did not combine assets to move back up and take Favors with Cousins. NJ was selling their pick, and we did not take advantage and that is upsetting. I like Johnson and Webster, but we needed to do a 3/1 type deal and make a splash.

[funkatron101]

My issue with the draft was not the Cousins/Johnson thing. It is that we did not combine assets to move back up and take Favors with Cousins. NJ was selling their pick, and we did not take advantage and that is upsetting. I like Johnson and Webster, but we needed to do a 3/1 type deal and make a splash.

Gomes, like Atkins, was not used properly as an attractive incentive. The fact that Kahn talks of Gomes as a financial liability and not as a carrot to get even more space for the teams looking to land 2 FA makes me think that he felt pressured to move him quick.

[MN Die Hard]

My issue with the draft was not the Cousins/Johnson thing. It is that we did not combine assets to move back up and take Favors with Cousins. NJ was selling their pick, and we did not take advantage and that is upsetting. I like Johnson and Webster, but we needed to do a 3/1 type deal and make a splash.

But is there any evidence that we could have acquired the third pick without giving up the fourth?

[MN Die Hard]

Well, I wanted Cousins. To me it was Wall --> Turner --> Favors --> Cousins --> Johnson, with pretty clear seperation between each. I think Cousins was obvious in our spot. We could've ransomed him to the teams behind us who were desperate for a big man, and come out with Johnson +,or worse case scenario, we get "stuck" with some of the best potential in the draft.

It's not that easy, unfortunatley, or else maybe that's what we would have done. But obviously only one team could have drafted Johnson if we had drafted Cousins. So we couldnt have taken Cousins and then let all teams behind us outbid each other....we only could have negotiated with the one team that had Johnson. And if that team was Sacramento, we already know there wasnt an awful lot of value to get out of them in a Johnson-Cousins swap.

[shangrila]

Bright sides are easy. The team got a starter at a position of need for theoretically the next decade. He's a high character and high IQ player that's easy to root for and fits the vision of the team. They also upgraded the entire team incredibly in that draft by replacing Wilkins, Gomes and Sasha with Johnson, Webster and Hayward. Even without making any more moves for the summer this team will be more talented and able to compete a lot more next season.

I'm thinking 20-25 wins. Not a huge increase but enough to show improvement.