[OhCanada-Participant]

So as most of you know Golden State owns the Minnesota 1st round pick however it is protected for the top 3 picks of this years draft. The Timberwolves have elected not to sit out Karl Anthony Towns or Deangelo Russell and have won 6 out of their last 10 meaningless games taking them from last place in the NBA all the way to 6th last. This years draft is loaded and has great talent in the top 3 and they will more than likely be alot better next year when healthy.

Wtf are they thinking? I’ve had kinda a loose theory that some of the worst NBA teams are kinda just in place just to feed the better, richer teams. Like how the Lakers ALWAYS manage to trade for some star player. Literally handing over a top 6 pick in the strongest draft in recent memory… What a mess, someone just move these guys to Seattle already. Would anybody actually miss the Timberwolves?

[BKGingerSnapParticipant]

A couple of thoughts.
1. Minnesota’s 3 of 6 of those wins were against Orlando, Houston, and Detroit who also tanking and have way less talent. All three teams have traded at least 3 starters/key role players this season. Minnesota’s not tanking as hard as those teams cause they have too much talent as they have 2 number 1 overall picks and a number 2# pick. And Cleveland is a mess cutting Drummond for nothing and OKC is in full Sam Presti Draft pick collector mode.
2. Once Minnesota fell out of the top 3, it makes sense for the them to win. The worst scenario for this draft is Minnesota getting the 4th or 5th pick given the consensus that there is a clear top 5 in this draft. They are currently in 6th. Losing the 6th pick is bad but that is not a catastrophe. At this point they might as well keep trying to win.
3. But ya just terrible by Minnesota. Rubio, Edwards, Russell, Cunningham/Kaminga/Green/Suggs, Towns line up could have been awesome.

[Pro 1Participant]

Sounds about right… Golden State can still draft a very solid player at #4, #5 or #6.

My question is will Adam Silver ensure that Minnesota gets a top 3 pick in order to pacify the new owners of the T’Wolves franchise?

[canadabasketballisrisingParticipant]

Will adam do this? I don’t think he is as corrupt as stern… i guess we’ll see.

[sniperParticipant]

I forget who said this, maybe it was Jeff Van Gundy, but it sounded true. He said that players never willingly tank, and coaches never willingly tank. They will always try to win that night’s game. If a team tanks it’s because the GM flat out prevented them from putting a team on the floor that’s capable of winning.

It seems like OKC is doing this. They play really, really hard every time I see them. But they are playing a lineup with no one who would start on even a .500 team, let alone a good team.

[goddagParticipant]

Would Cunningham knock Edwards out of the lineup? No! There’s such a thing as having too many inexperienced players. This isn’t college ball as a lot of these guys learn real fast. You have to play defense to win. And you can’t keep paying all these guys coming out of college. The Wolves right now have guys that can play better defense, in Vaderbilt and McDaniels than they would have to pay Kaminga at PF. They have their big three they’re paying in KAT, Russell, and Edwards and it’s starting to show on court. None of these guys that get picked in the top 5 are going to displace either of these guys.
The only thing missing is learning to play with each other and finding the extra pieces to fill the roster. Chris Finch is doing a great job so far. Give him time to go through a summer and training camp with this group, and it’ll show.
They had 3 first round picks last year in Edwards at 1, Leandro Bolmaro who will come over from Spain this next year, to help run the point, and Jaden McDaniels who if they redrafted would be a top ten pick. So missing this draft isn’t really going to hurt that much. Plus throw in Naz Reid who went through the whole 2 rounds of the 2019 draft without getting drafted and playing like a top 10 pick now and they have a lot better team than you’re giving them credit for.
And Seattle couldn’t support a team when they did have one. And a winning team at that.

[TimberTrollParticipant]

The odds of getting a top 3 pick don’t change all that much if they’re the 6 worst record as opposed to worst. Also, they need to start winning, and going into the offseason on a positive note is much more important than a few percentage points difference in lottery odds.

[bt102Participant]

Yeah idk what they are doing but there are a better team than they get credit for. KAT and DLO missed quite a bit of time. I’m not sold on Anthony Edwards that much long term and to get Dlo, I woulda been fine trading 1 to keep next years first at the time. Woulda been a tough call but it is what it is.

[Author]

Posts