2013 Draft Targets (#9, #26, #52, #59)

[theGreatRC]

Also, I don't want to start falling in love with Shabazz at 9. He proved he wasn't worth the hype during the season, but him saying that he is a shot creating scorer and that how he played at UCLA wasn't his complete game that he can showcase has me interested to say the least. I hate falling in love with guys after interviews.

I feel like his game would be like a Michael Beasley. Great scorer, but can't pick up the rest of his game to get significant minutes.

(I know Beasley was a monster in college so i'm not comparing the two)

[sheefo13]

I am a fan of Shabazz. Although he isn't the best defender or 3pt shooter in the draft, I think his competitiveness, scoring ability, and transition game makes me think he would be a good fit. Plus, UCLA guys typically translate well in the NBA. I would rather take Shabazz over Len.

[Esohny]

I am a fan of Shabazz. Although he isn't the best defender or 3pt shooter in the draft, I think his competitiveness, scoring ability, and transition game makes me think he would be a good fit. Plus, UCLA guys typically translate well in the NBA. I would rather take Shabazz over Len.

I'd rather Flip draft neither.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Also, I don't want to start falling in love with Shabazz at 9. He proved he wasn't worth the hype during the season, but him saying that he is a shot creating scorer and that how he played at UCLA wasn't his complete game that he can showcase has me interested to say the least. I hate falling in love with guys after interviews.

I feel like his game would be like a Michael Beasley. Great scorer, but can't pick up the rest of his game to get significant minutes.

(I know Beasley was a monster in college so i'm not comparing the two)

He proved he wasn't worth being a top 2 pick in the draft hype, we're talking #9 though on a team that needs a perimeter player that can catch and shoot and he's a perimeter player that can catch and shoot. I think the only competition should be Oladipo for his all around studliness or KCP if they think he's a superior off the ball player and better fit b/c he's a true SG where Shabazz seems a little hefty for a SG.

[Klomp]

Also, I don't want to start falling in love with Shabazz at 9. He proved he wasn't worth the hype during the season, but him saying that he is a shot creating scorer and that how he played at UCLA wasn't his complete game that he can showcase has me interested to say the least. I hate falling in love with guys after interviews.

I feel like his game would be like a Michael Beasley. Great scorer, but can't pick up the rest of his game to get significant minutes.

(I know Beasley was a monster in college so i'm not comparing the two)

He proved he wasn't worth being a top 2 pick in the draft hype, we're talking #9 though on a team that needs a perimeter player that can catch and shoot and he's a perimeter player that can catch and shoot. I think the only competition should be Oladipo for his all around studliness or KCP if they think he's a superior off the ball player and better fit b/c he's a true SG where Shabazz seems a little hefty for a SG.

Same size as Harden.

[Devilzsidewalk]

i know i know, but Harden can operate like PG, he's an elite playmaker as a SG. He can shake anybody. He did that in college too, Shabazz looks like he's going to need to work off the ball in the NBA to get free and trying to shake a SG is going to wear him down.

[wildvikeswolves]

May be the homer in me speaking but, It seems like everyone is so quick to dump Derrick Williams. Everyone seems to think he's a finished product. He's only 21 and made good strides last year. I think he can still get solid minutes behind AK and Love. Not to mention AK is injury prone and Love just missed a whole year pretty much with injuries. Who knows, if he continues to make strides maybe so much won't be demanded of Love.

I'd consider 9 and DWill for Maclemore, but idk about anyone else.

[Devilzsidewalk]

he made slight improvements in offensive efficiency. Main problem is Adelman isn't going to play him because he likes Love and Cunningham better - we can either get some value for him now and have the team set up for training camp, or sit on him and maybe he somehow gets a lot better in limited minutes, but I don't see the point.

[Krapinsky]

May be the homer in me speaking but, It seems like everyone is so quick to dump Derrick Williams. Everyone seems to think he's a finished product. He's only 21 and made good strides last year. I think he can still get solid minutes behind AK and Love. Not to mention AK is injury prone and Love just missed a whole year pretty much with injuries. Who knows, if he continues to make strides maybe so much won't be demanded of Love.

I'd consider 9 and DWill for Maclemore, but idk about anyone else.

I think the issue is he only has 2 years left on his rookie deal and he's going to be splitting back up minutes with Cunningham and Budinger behind Love and AK. WIth so few minutes, it's hard to see him improve much or up his trade value. Sure, if we dump him now we could regret it, but if we hold on to him too long it may be a lesser form of a Flynn or Wes situation where we eventually get nothing back in return for him.

[Gideon]

I realize you come in peace and that's nice, but none of us here are interested in Love trade hypotheticals at this point -- no more than I;d assume you're interested in Irving hypotheticals. There's not a plausible scenario where he gets traded in the next calendar year.

I imagine the majority on this board feels like you do, but it's not everybody, and it's an exaggeration to say "there's not a plausible scenario" where Love gets traded this year.

I'm not a fan of Love, and I feel like he's not nearly as valuable a player as his stats suggest. I also think the Love/Pek frontcourt is not a very good pairing (too weak defensively, can get in each other's way on offense... would much rather have one Sanders/Noah/Noel type player paired with one scoring big like Love or Pek).

We don't really know if Love's only problem was with Kahn and he's totally happy now. We don't know how he'll react if the team doesn't start off strong. We don't know if he's just planning to bolt in two years no matter what. These things are difficult to figure out as nobody is very likely to make them public. I think it's unlikely Love is traded this season, but I think a surprise trade Deron-Williams-style isn't out of the question. It's also something I'd like to see... I really think Love is overvalued and we could get assets back for him that would be more impactful for us.

That said... I'm not supporting trading him for Thompson & Waiters... I think we can get better value than that.

[NikolaPekovic]

I love Derrick and think he will be a great player but it won't help us or him by keeping him here. He's 6 mil of production we could have in a backup big or a SG.


I'd keep him if love was leaving for sure but it seems as though things are going well right now between us and kevin.

[Nitroglycerin]

Its time to let go of Dwill. Love's could have been a blessing in disguise coz Dwill's value really shot up.
Dham is better with the backup role than Dwill. Gives you quality minutes and cheaper. Knows his role,capabilities and limitations. Unlike Mr. Tweener

i wont regret in trading Dwill and if Dwill really improves.
And Prime Love > Prime Dwill imo

in regards to the pick, when I thought about it, Wolves need a vet SG more than a rookie. If you want shooting, there's a lot of them in the free agency or trade.
Adelman might prefer a vet 3D wing than a rookie.

It's not that I dont like KCP, but if we pick him, i wont give him the starting job. Better off as off the bench. So what do we do with Shved?
Shved > KCP imo.

We should pick a big man. Either a project or a quality backup in #9.
There's a lot of cheap guards available.
But big men have been expensive for a couple of years. A get our shooting guard tru trade or free agency instead.

I'd go Gobert or Len with #9. Gobert with his freak size Javale-like physique and Len with his all around game. Both would flourish with Rubio

[NikolaPekovic]

I realize you come in peace and that's nice, but none of us here are interested in Love trade hypotheticals at this point -- no more than I;d assume you're interested in Irving hypotheticals. There's not a plausible scenario where he gets traded in the next calendar year.

I'm not a fan of Love, and I feel like he's not nearly as valuable a player as his stats suggest. I also think the Love/Pek frontcourt is not a very good pairing (too weak defensively, can get in each other's way on offense... would much rather have one Sanders/Noah/Noel type player paired with one scoring big like Love or Pek).

?

Pek and Klove benefit each other so well on offense. Love can bring big men to the perimeter and give pek room to dominate.

[Gideon]

I realize you come in peace and that's nice, but none of us here are interested in Love trade hypotheticals at this point -- no more than I;d assume you're interested in Irving hypotheticals. There's not a plausible scenario where he gets traded in the next calendar year.

I'm not a fan of Love, and I feel like he's not nearly as valuable a player as his stats suggest. I also think the Love/Pek frontcourt is not a very good pairing (too weak defensively, can get in each other's way on offense... would much rather have one Sanders/Noah/Noel type player paired with one scoring big like Love or Pek).

?

Pek and Klove benefit each other so well on offense. Love can bring big men to the perimeter and give pek room to dominate.

It's true that Love can force the other team's PF out to the perimeter sometimes -- he takes about 5 threes per 36 minutes. However, he also takes about 13 non-threes and gets to the line for 8 free throws per 36 minutes. Meanwhile, Pekovic takes 13 shots (same # of 2-point attempts as Love) and gets to the line for 6 free throws every 36 minutes. Love is a good three-point shooter, but he still plays most of his game on the inside.

I get your point, but I still think having one scoring big and one defensive big is a much better combination. The best teams right now are MIA (Bosh plays PF and looks to score while Haslem or Birdman focuses on rebounding and D... they also use a smallball lineup with LeBron at PF and Bosh at C, but Bosh takes on much more a defender/rebounder role with this lineup), SAS (Duncan averages his same points per 36 as always, while Splitter focuses on defense/boards and gets almost all his baskets on put-backs and hustle plays), MEM (Gasol and Randolph are both key parts of the offense, but neither is really as scoring-minded as either Love or Pek), OKC (both Ibaka and Perkins focus on D and rebounding... lack of a good scoring big is one of their weaknesses, but they make up for this with the high-level play of Durant and Westbrook at other positions), IND (Hibbert is a defensive anchor and West is much more of a scorer), NYK (Melo is a scorer at PF and Tyson Chandler is a defensive anchor/rebounder), and LAC (Griffin looks to score while Jordan focuses on D and rebounding). Recently, DAL won a title with Dirk as a scorer and Tyson Chandler focusing on D and boards. I just see that sort of pairing as by far the best big-man combination. I also am really high on players like Sanders, Noah, Anthony Davis, Noel, Mavs-era Tyson Chandler, prime Camby and so on. I think those guys help teams way more than they usually get credit for and that pairing one guy like that with one offensive-minded player like either Love or Pek is the way to go.

[big3_8_19_21]

If we could only keep one of those two, I would take Love 10 times out of 10. However, Pekovic is one of the more productive centers in the league and even if he's not a defensive anchor, I don't see a realistic better option for the Wolves right now and we still haven't seen what this team can do when healthy.

[Worm Guts]

It's true that Love can force the other team's PF out to the perimeter sometimes -- he takes about 5 threes per 36 minutes. However, he also takes about 13 non-threes and gets to the line for 8 free throws per 36 minutes. Meanwhile, Pekovic takes 13 shots (same # of 2-point attempts as Love) and gets to the line for 6 free throws every 36 minutes. Love is a good three-point shooter, but he still plays most of his game on the inside.

I get your point, but I still think having one scoring big and one defensive big is a much better combination. The best teams right now are MIA (Bosh plays PF and looks to score while Haslem or Birdman focuses on rebounding and D... they also use a smallball lineup with LeBron at PF and Bosh at C, but Bosh takes on much more a defender/rebounder role with this lineup), SAS (Duncan averages his same points per 36 as always, while Splitter focuses on defense/boards and gets almost all his baskets on put-backs and hustle plays), MEM (Gasol and Randolph are both key parts of the offense, but neither is really as scoring-minded as either Love or Pek), OKC (both Ibaka and Perkins focus on D and rebounding... lack of a good scoring big is one of their weaknesses, but they make up for this with the high-level play of Durant and Westbrook at other positions), IND (Hibbert is a defensive anchor and West is much more of a scorer), NYK (Melo is a scorer at PF and Tyson Chandler is a defensive anchor/rebounder), and LAC (Griffin looks to score while Jordan focuses on D and rebounding). Recently, DAL won a title with Dirk as a scorer and Tyson Chandler focusing on D and boards. I just see that sort of pairing as by far the best big-man combination. I also am really high on players like Sanders, Noah, Anthony Davis, Noel, Mavs-era Tyson Chandler, prime Camby and so on. I think those guys help teams way more than they usually get credit for and that pairing one guy like that with one offensive-minded player like either Love or Pek is the way to go.

You've got to build in your own way, every team gets different opportunities. Teams like Miami and OKC can afford to have bigs that are primarily defensive players because they have great perimeter scorers. We don't have those type of perimeter scorers, so getting rid of Pek or Love would be a lot detrimental to the offense. We've got to create our own blueprint.

[thinktank]

Our blueprint is to force you to foul us until you're dead. Love, Rubio, Pek all draw the FTs. On defense, we clog the paint and push your post-ups out. We give up some O boards and inside buckets off of various defensive inadequacies in the process, but that's the plan.

I don't see Adelman changing anytime soon.

[LaViggins]

What do you guys things about James Ennis?

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/James-Ennis-41434/


Worth 26th or no?

[theGreatRC]

A SG at #26 probably won't be an upgrade, so I'd significantly prefer one at #9.

I'd rather trade down to grab one of the remaining SGs than take one at 9. I'm not a fan of "reaching" in this specific draft. Package one of our contracts (JJ/Luke) with the 9 pick for a couple of spots down

KCP is a "reach" to me if McCollum doesn't fall to us at 9. Unless i'm off on who you're looking to take at 9 that plays SG.

We can find a number of SGs in free agency if we're really desperate for one. (Which we are)

Oladipo or bust, Worm.

[Klomp]

What do you guys things about James Ennis?

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/James-Ennis-41434/


Worth 26th or no?

Of course not. He might be there at 52.