ConSarnit wrote:The_Hater wrote:jamaalstar21 wrote:Advising Minnesota, of all teams, that they should prioritize losing and building through the draft is hilarious. OP think about who you're talking to! This advice would be standard for pretty much any other franchise.
The bad move was already made (giving up a way too lightly protected pick in the Russell-Wiggins trade. Still don't understand how they couldn't have gotten this pick top 8 protected or at least top 5). .
I think it’s because the Wolves were a little desperate at the time and revealed their hand. Towns wanted his buddy Russell, the Warriors knew that so they leveraged that for light protections on the pick. And the Wolves convinced themselves that a Towns/Russell combo would be competing for a playoff spot anyways so they didn’t have to worry as much.
But we shouldn’t ignore that a lot of people in the media and on this forum thought Minnesota still won that trade. I personally thought Russell was an overrated player with a max contract attached and couldn’t figure out why any team would want him so badly, others thought Russell was a star on the rise.
It was just another dumb decision in a long line of other dumb decisions. Trying to cater to their star (who has gotten them exactly nowhere) by trading for an overpaid "all-star" (1 time, as a reserve, in the Eastern Conference). Then there were rumors they passed on Lamelo because DLo didn't want to play with him (which could still work out as Edwards has shown promise but it another example of letting the inmates run the asylum). They also gave Wiggins his max deal because he promised the owner he'd try harder.
Let's just face it: the franchise sucks. Everyone can say "they can't tank again, it's time to start winning" but that begs the question: how? Do you think they've tried to tank for the past 15 years? They just can't flip a switch and become good or they would have done it. They can only hope Taylor sells to Arod soon to (theoretically) end the misery.
To answer your last question about how we can start winning:
Our roster isn't that bad. I don't we were every going to be a playoff team this year, but healthy Towns and healthy Russell would have been a pretty high powered offense and a miserable, maybe league worst defense. We've been about a .500 ballclub when we're anything close to healthy this year. New coach + healthy Towns/Russell has had us as pretty potent on offense. If the coach and front office can prioritize defense at other positions (more Rubio, less Beasley, a defensive asset at the 4 spot, defensive development from Ant), this team should be okay next year. We really might have been okay this season, but like many teams this season, things played out quite badly for us.
The timing of everything is quite poor. The FO pretty much wanted to concede the pick this year, because they clearly thought our draft range was more likely to be late lottery. The plan wasn't to roll for half the season with our best players being a rookie and Ricky Rubio.
The beginning of the year felt like rock bottom (again), but I don't feel bad about the Wolves anymore. Our rookies this year were good. We get another year to see where we stand before we have to start trying to trade KAT next offseason. Wolves probably wont be back in the playoffs anytime soon, but we feel on the right track again.
One more win would be great!
