Wolves screwed in Lottery again
The Minnesota Timberwolves have been part of 13 NBA lotteries and have never drafted higher than third, and that high only once. It’s a frustrating legacy, and tonight’s lottery was no break in the pattern.
Despite owning the second-worst record in the NBA (15-67), the Wolves were leap-frogged by Washington (26-56) and Philadelphia (27-55) for the top two picks in the NBA Draft. With New Jersey pushed back to third, the Wolves will draft fourth in what is largely considered to be a two-franchise-player-deep draft.
PG John Wall of Kentucky was not of interest to the Wolves, who drafted about twenty point guards last season. However, the Wolves wanted, and badly needed, SG Evan Turner of Ohio State. In a draft year where the Wolves could be pushed back no further than fourth, they will be picking from the worst possible spot: fourth.
And make no mistake: if the Wolves could have been pushed by those lottery balls all the way to 13th, that’s what would have happened. Count on it. The franchise is cursed.
Among the Top 5 picks, only one other player fits the Wolves’ needs: Syracuse SG/SF Wesley Johnson. He played as a forward in college but projects to SG in the NBA, especially if the Wolves end up with him. He averaged over 16 ponits a game and over eight rebounds a game in his final college season at Syracuse.
If the Wolves end up with Johnson, he’s no slouch; he has roughly the same height, weight and wingspan as Turner, but isn’t accustomed to the off-guard position.
Trouble is, he’s considered the third-best player in the draft and so New Jersey could scoop him up before the Wolves pick, unless they decide to go PF instead. And since all of New Jersey’s talent is in their big-men, it’s likely the Nets will be looking at Johnson just as hard as the Wolves. That leaves power forwards, an area the Wolves don’t need any more talent in, really, even as good as Derrick Favors, Greg Monroe, and DeMarcus Cousins may be.
The only real hope is that word out of New Jersey tonight is that the Nets are looking seriously at Derrick Favors with their third overall pick, rather than Johnson.
So either the Wolves need to use their three first-round picks to trade up to ensure they land either Turner or Johnson, or they could trade a long way down. The next-best shooting guards are projected to go in the middle of the first round; other than that, it’s almost all big men after Turner and Johnson go off the board.
Or maybe they could swing a trade for a veteran player with that pick; there could be a decent return-on-trade for the fourth overall pick if you had a team with a plethora of off-guards in need of a big man.
But if Turner and Johnson are both gone? Keeping the fourth-overall pick is the worst thing the Wolves could do.
Knowing this team? That’s exactly what will happen.
