I know it's still real early but that Timberwolves pick really could end up conveying in the 1st round yet. Towns is ready to meaningfully contribute in a big way, Wiggins looks like a sure-fire star, they have good veteran leadership in KG and Kevin Martin. It's starting to look like They could make a push for the 8th seed in the West. As SaltLover said, it's truly a shame that Flip won't get to see it, because he turned a team that was based around K-Love and was scraping to stay competitive into 3 #1 overall picks and one of the best young cores in the league.
I think the final two spots in the West are going to come down to Utah, Phoenix, Minny and Dallas. Anthony Davis or no, I have a hard time seeing that decimated Pelicans team making it now, and I don't think the Kings ever really had a chance anyway. It's hard to play 3 centers huge minutes every game when your PG is Rondo. So if Minny can keep this play up, they could force themselves right into that 13-17 slot we need them to be to get the pick, while also keeping Dallas out of the playoffs and increasing that pick's value towards the 9-14 range. On top of the Nets charging full speed to a top-5 pick. Whew, amazing.
So far, outside of our own teams early struggles, just about everything we could hope to break our way has. Brooklyn is downright terrible, Dallas is good enough to not suck but probably bad enough to miss the playoffs, Minnesota is making a case that they deserve playoff consideration (Right where they need to be for us to get the Top-12 protected 1st) while Jared Sullinger (everyone's favorite trade hopeful) has played his best basketball yet while his conditioning does seem to be legitimately improving. The Kings are imploding, Boogie is calling "players-only meetings" and they're currently 1-7. If their team implodes and Cousins demands a trade, our assets look better than ever in order to pursue a deal. We could quite possibly get a pick in the top 5, another in the 8-14 range, possibly another in the top 15-16 AND our own pick, which is most likely at least in the top 20. Imagine if your the Kings, Cousins wants out and Boston offers you #2, #10, #17, #31, a future 1st for the year their pick goes to Philly and your choice of one or two of Rozier/Mickey/Hunter/Young/Olynyk/Bradley/Crowder and a cap-space clearing contract to help match salaries like Lee, Jerebko or Johnson. Getting all that, on top of their own pick and whatever they can get for Rudy Gay, Collison, etc to put with WCS and McLemore is a really good package to start your post-Cousins era off with. Better than trading him for just Russell/Randle, or really anything else anyone can offer except the 6ers, where Cousins wouldn't want to go.
Now we just need our own team to keep improving. But TBH, Whatever happens with the team this year doesn't concern me as much as it usually does. We have so many other things to watch and be hopeful for that whenever we lose an ugly game, I just watch a few minutes of Nets tape and get over it. Then I watch some Ben Simmons highlights. It almost makes the actual C's games seem much less consequential.
