Minnesota's draft night

[rondoallaturca]

I found Minnesota's draft tonight very interesting. At #13, they drafted Zach Lavine, a complete project at the SG position. Then, at #40, they take a flier on Glenn Robinson III, another wing player at the SF position. What is the point of drafting 2 wings in the draft when there's already 6 on the roster? Here are Minnesota's 8 players fighting for 2 positions:

Zach Lavine
Glenn Robinson III
Kevin Martin
Alexey Shved
Corey Brewer
Shabazz Muhammad
Chase Budinger
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

They have a solid PG rotation with Rubio and Barea. Likewise, they have Pekovic, Dieng, and Turiaf at C. But at PF? Kevin Love. That's it.

Given that, I can't help but wonder if Minnesota realizes that Boston remains the best trade partner for them. Nearly every proposed rumor involves Boston sending out at least 2 of 3 PFs: Sullinger, Bass, and/or Olynyk. The rest of the package involved non-guaranteed contracts and/or expirings (i.e. Bogans, Anthony, etc) as well as first round picks.

Of course, tonight was the draft and it passed by without any movement. However, that is advantageous to Minnesota because if the two teams now wait until the new NBA fiscal year, our first round picks will have salaries that can be applied towards trades. Marcus Smart's first year salary would be $2,736,100, while James Young's is $1,395,400. Combined, that's an additional $5M that the C's can take back from Minnesota, who would likely want to shed as much salary as possible in a post-Love rebuild. Now, in addition to Love and Martin, we could potentially also take back a guy like, say, Barea - he's been involved in trade rumors for the last two years straight.

Now, some things still don't make sense with this belief. They already have Rubio, so how does Smart fit in? Maybe one of them steps into Barea's 20-minute role as they look to find a suitor for Rubio? And how does James Young fit in when I just said they already have 8 wings (7 if they trade Martin)? On the bright side, Flip coveted Young so perhaps he pushes forward with a logjam at the wing and flip the other veterans later? Mbah a Moute and Shved are expirings after all.

I might be pulling at strings, but after a much-hyped blockbuster trade failed to materialize tonight, I'm hoping that it still emerges somewhere down the line, hopefully with the Celtics as the other team.

[Future Celtics Owner]

I found Minnesota's draft tonight very interesting. At #13, they drafted Zach Lavine, a complete project at the SG position. Then, at #40, they take a flier on Glenn Robinson III, another wing player at the SF position. What is the point of drafting 2 wings in the draft when there's already 6 on the roster? Here are Minnesota's 8 players fighting for 2 positions:

Zach Lavine
Glenn Robinson III
Kevin Martin
Alexey Shved
Corey Brewer
Shabazz Muhammad
Chase Budinger
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

They have a solid PG rotation with Rubio and Barea. Likewise, they have Pekovic, Dieng, and Turiaf at C. But at PF? Kevin Love. That's it.

Given that, I can't help but wonder if Minnesota realizes that Boston remains the best trade partner for them. Nearly every proposed rumor involves Boston sending out at least 2 of 3 PFs: Sullinger, Bass, and/or Olynyk. The rest of the package involved non-guaranteed contracts and/or expirings (i.e. Bogans, Anthony, etc) as well as first round picks.

Of course, tonight was the draft and it passed by without any movement. However, that is advantageous to Minnesota because if the two teams now wait until the new NBA fiscal year, our first round picks will have salaries that can be applied towards trades. Marcus Smart's first year salary would be $2,736,100, while James Young's is $1,395,400. Combined, that's an additional $5M that the C's can take back from Minnesota, who would likely want to shed as much salary as possible in a post-Love rebuild. Now, in addition to Love and Martin, we could potentially also take back a guy like, say, Barea - he's been involved in trade rumors for the last two years straight.

Now, some things still don't make sense with this belief. They already have Rubio, so how does Smart fit in? Maybe one of them steps into Barea's 20-minute role as they look to find a suitor for Rubio? And how does James Young fit in when I just said they already have 8 wings (7 if they trade Martin)? On the bright side, Flip coveted Young so perhaps he pushes forward with a logjam at the wing and flip the other veterans later? Mbah a Moute and Shved are expirings after all.

I might be pulling at strings, but after a much-hyped blockbuster trade failed to materialize tonight, I'm hoping that it still emerges somewhere down the line, hopefully with the Celtics as the other team.

What do you expect? Its Minny.

[knuckleballer]

Lavine and GR3 will likely spend much of the season in the D league.  They both have high ceilings but low floors.  I'm surprised Lavine went so early considering he's such a project.

[Waew]

theyre a complete mess. flip is a joke who couldnt manage himself out of a paper bag.

[35Lewis]

I pray that Minnesota didn't make those garbage picks for the Celtics.

I am confused about Minny because they say they want to win now but their draft says otherwise.

GM's just have certain types of players they like to take.  The previous Minny GM liked pg's, Flip likes sf's.  Danny likes undersized pf's and tweeners although he switched that up tonight.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It makes sense that Flip didn't trade for the Celtics' picks - he can't draft to save his life

[heyvik]

to me it makes sense. They picked in anticipation for Klay Thompson SG and Lee PF. They drafted 2 projects who will be in the D-League to develop in 2015 so that next year, there's a good rotation at SG behind Thompson. I think Flip is hoping that a big man rotation of Lee, Dieng, Pekovik, and Turiaf can be their big rotation OR play 4 smalls and 1 big.

I found Minnesota's draft tonight very interesting. At #13, they drafted Zach Lavine, a complete project at the SG position. Then, at #40, they take a flier on Glenn Robinson III, another wing player at the SF position. What is the point of drafting 2 wings in the draft when there's already 6 on the roster? Here are Minnesota's 8 players fighting for 2 positions:

Zach Lavine
Glenn Robinson III
Kevin Martin
Alexey Shved
Corey Brewer
Shabazz Muhammad
Chase Budinger
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

They have a solid PG rotation with Rubio and Barea. Likewise, they have Pekovic, Dieng, and Turiaf at C. But at PF? Kevin Love. That's it.

Given that, I can't help but wonder if Minnesota realizes that Boston remains the best trade partner for them. Nearly every proposed rumor involves Boston sending out at least 2 of 3 PFs: Sullinger, Bass, and/or Olynyk. The rest of the package involved non-guaranteed contracts and/or expirings (i.e. Bogans, Anthony, etc) as well as first round picks.

Of course, tonight was the draft and it passed by without any movement. However, that is advantageous to Minnesota because if the two teams now wait until the new NBA fiscal year, our first round picks will have salaries that can be applied towards trades. Marcus Smart's first year salary would be $2,736,100, while James Young's is $1,395,400. Combined, that's an additional $5M that the C's can take back from Minnesota, who would likely want to shed as much salary as possible in a post-Love rebuild. Now, in addition to Love and Martin, we could potentially also take back a guy like, say, Barea - he's been involved in trade rumors for the last two years straight.

Now, some things still don't make sense with this belief. They already have Rubio, so how does Smart fit in? Maybe one of them steps into Barea's 20-minute role as they look to find a suitor for Rubio? And how does James Young fit in when I just said they already have 8 wings (7 if they trade Martin)? On the bright side, Flip coveted Young so perhaps he pushes forward with a logjam at the wing and flip the other veterans later? Mbah a Moute and Shved are expirings after all.

I might be pulling at strings, but after a much-hyped blockbuster trade failed to materialize tonight, I'm hoping that it still emerges somewhere down the line, hopefully with the Celtics as the other team.

[Waew]

Shabazz Mohammed is a bust haha. Flip is a joke.

[Fafnir]

Just because you have players on your roster playing that "position" doesn't mean you shouldn't try to improve it.

Minnesota was extremely weak at the wing this year. Shved/Brewer shouldn't be on the court much at all and Martin is likely on his way out along with Love.

[Fafnir]

Shabazz Mohammed is a bust haha. Flip is a joke.

Yeah I don't think he's going to be a success.

[GreenWarrior]

their draft definitely doesn't scream "let's entice Love to stay".

[Gari]

They just don't have any plans. Zach lavine's got HIGH bust potential to me, athletically gifted yet extremely raw.

[Celtics4ever]

Zach lavine's got HIGH bust potential to me, athletically gifted yet extremely raw.

Gerald Greene Jr.