NBA Draft In Hindsight

I've held off writing my review of the latest NBA draft for a very specific reason: I needed to make sure that there was enough distance between my current time and the time of the draft to avoid saying something that I might regret. I know that a good portion of my writing style involves writing such that you really hear my "voice" coming through the page, but I didn't want that voice in this case to be that of a raving lunatic. A mildly upset lunatic will have to do. I was so upset after the draft that I could hardly see straight. Here's the crazy thing, though: I actually wasn't all that upset about trading away Mayo.

Now I probably need to clarify a bit. In our mock draft, I desperately called for McHale to draft Mayo with the third pick. I know that the Wolves had a glut of guards at that point. In fact, some of the guards could have been viewed as having similar skill sets as Mayo. Both McCants and Foye were of similar statures to Mayo, at least physically. Mayo, however, brings a significant amount more talent to the table. There's a reason that a team selects in the top five positions in the draft. Either it's through shrewd dealings with other teams, or the fact that your team was horrible and in desperate need of help. The Wolves definitively fall in to the latter category. Falling in to the former category are the Pistons who, for all of their smart decisions in other cases, learned this the hard way in the 2003 draft when they skipped selecting Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosch, or Dwyane Wade because they had those positions "covered" and instead selected Darko Milicic with the second overall pick after the Cavaliers took LeBron. They've been haunted by that selection ever since. When you're drafting in those slots, regardless of how you received the pick, you need to select the best possible player. You don't draft with need in mind at all.
Mayo was widely considered the third best prospect in the draft, so when the top two prospects came off the board, he became a no-brainer. I would have been very upset with almost anyone else being drafted in this slot.

I was actually still awake when the trade came down. When I saw that the Wolves had gotten rid of a horrible contract (Marko Jaric) to go along with Mayo and received Love, Miller and a reasonably-serviceable defensive center (Collins), I thought that it was a reasonable trade for both sides. Did I like giving up the potential superstar in Mayo? Of course not. Did I mind giving up the potential headache in trying to get him signed? Again, of course not. I didn't think there would be too much of a problem signing Mayo to the rookie deal, but there were already people talking about how the Wolves would have a hard time getting Mayo signed to an extension. Then again, if you make your roster moves in basketball based on what could happen in four years, you don't deserve to be a basketball executive. Of course, we've been saying that about McHale for years, so anything is possible. I'm not crazy about Al Jefferson having to play more time at the center position when he and Kevin Love are on the court at the same time. However, I love the fact that the Wolves have a legitimate three-point threat in Miller. To me, the combination of Love and Miller makes the deal worth while. I would have liked to get one of the Grizzlies' young point guards and one of Milicic or Marc Gasol, but it's still a reasonable deal.

Now, if you've been paying attention, you're probably wondering what it was that infuriated me about the Wolves' draft night. It all comes down to the second round. The Wolves had the first pick of the second round along with the fourth pick (34th overall). By the time their pick came around, I looked at the "best player available" list. I saw two surprises in that list: Chris Douglas-Roberts and DeAndre Jordan. They were both thought to be border-line lottery picks, so to see them still available was a shock. Needless to say, I was very disappointed to see the Wolves pick someone I had never heard from and in researching him, found that he won't be a help for at least two years. Then the 34th overall pick came up and they were both still available. The Wolves picked...neither of them. They selected Mario Chalmers, a point guard who had hit the final shot to win the NCAA tournament. I suppose I could deal with that. Then they traded him away for two second round picks next year. How exactly does this make sense? Yes, there were stories about Jordan's "stock" dropping because of "poor workouts." The infuriating thing is that in games, you don't go through workout drills. You play basketball! Jordan is admittedly still quite raw. In 20 minutes per game, he averaged almost 8 points and 6 rebounds per game to go with 1.3 blocks. If those numbers were to hold over 40 minutes in a game, that would be 16 points (reasonable), 12 boards (very nice) and 2.6 blocks (great). What Big Al needs right now in a front-court mate is rebounding (check) and defense (check). Most importantly in my mind, is the fact that Jordan would allow Al to play his natural position. CDR is a very skilled scorer who gets to the basket and to the foul line, which are two skills the Wovles could really use. And the Wolves could have had both of these players. I love the thought of having a lineup of Foye, CDR, Brewer (defense), Al, Jordan with Kevin Love and McCants coming off the bench. That is a very young, skilled lineup. You're still hoping that Brewer, Jordan and Foye progress and make use of their potential, but that potential is huge. That's what upset me about the draft. Having two very high second round picks and getting nothing immediately useful out of them. Way to go, McHale.

The news that actually spurred me to finally write this all down is the Wovles trading a 2.8 million dollar trade exception to the Sixers for two players and a first-round draft pick. This means that if everything falls in to place as expected, the Wolves would have four first-round picks and three second-round picks in the 2009 draft. The Wolves would have to fall in the top ten after the lottery, the Celtics would have to be out of the top three, the Sixers would have to be out of the top ten, and the Miami Heat would also have to fall out of the top ten (I think). All of this has started me thinking that the Wolves strategy is to constantly have the Wolves' fans in the worst state in the world of sports. "Maybe next year..."