With the draft set to start less than 24 hours from now, let’s give you a condensed column. We’ll have another one on Friday, hopefully with an interview with the draft pick, depending on what happens.
LET’S RUMBLE!
3 THOUGHTS
Predicting The Top-3 Picks
DeAndre Ayton will go first. We are about 98 percent sure of that. Ayton will be a solid player and it’s a good PR move to get the hometown kid to play for the Suns. I personally have Luca Doncic No. 1 on my big board. But I personally don’t work for the Suns. So this means nothing.
This is where things get tricky. What will Sacramento do with the No. 2 pick? It feels like the Kings should just take Doncic. Will he fit next to De’Aaron Fox? Figure that out later. You won 27 games last season. Get the talent and figure the rest out later. Marvin Bagley seems like he could be in play here and Bagley’s probably the best player entering the draft at this point in his career, but his ceiling isn’t as high as Doncic’s. Let’s go Doncic at No. 2 even though these are the Kings and this pick could go 3,387 different directions.
And then we go to the No. 3 pick with Atlanta. I think they’ll go with 18-year-old Jaren Jackson Jr. from Michigan State. He’s a power forward who has crazy-long arms and many consider him the safest pick in the draft. A concern here that not many are talking about is the fact that Jackson only played 21.8 minutes per game in his only season in college. I guess that’s 0.7 minutes more per game than Karl-Anthony Towns played at Kentucky, so maybe there’s nothing to worry about. Jackson is the son of Jaren Jackson who spent 12 seasons in the league and was part of the 1998-99 Spurs championship team. The Hawks have four picks in the top 33. This is the team to watch on draft night.
You might say that one of these guys are sure to be a bust and while one might, we’re just two drafts removed from when Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram and Jaylen Brown went with the first-three picks. In 2014, it was Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid. It’s not likely based on history that all three guys will be good in the NBA, but it’s certainly possible and this draft seems incredible deep compared to most.
The Clippers Have Options
LA has the 12th (via the Pistons from the Blake Griffin trade) and the 13th picks in the draft. If they decide to stay put with their position, they’ll have options for plenty of solid players like Miles Bridges, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Kevin Knox. But they could also trade the two picks to move up. I think this is probably an unlikely scenario considering I just don’t see a team in the top-five trading down that far unless some sort of other player with a not-so-favorable contract is involved. Initially, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Griffin trade for the Clippers but a year later, it turns out I was very wrong. There’s no clear star on the Clippers, but they have two lottery picks to take a chance on along with the forever-underrated Tobias Harris to go with Lou Williams, DeAndre Jordan and Danilo Gallinari. This is going to be a competitive rebuilding team.
What Will The Wolves Do?
Wolves President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach Tom Thibodeau, along with General Manager Scott Layden addressed the media on Wednesday to discuss the NBA Draft.
With the Wolves having the No. 20 pick, it’s a unique situation compared to past years. Usually by now, I focus in on three or four guys that the Wolves could take – most of the time less. But this year, it feels like there are 10 or so prospects in play depending on what happens before Minnesota picks. And then you have to consider trades and everything else.
“This past week, you’re looking at all the trade possibilities as well,” Thibodeau said. “It’s one of the few times in the year where you get a chance to improve the club, so all options are open right now.”
Obviously these two are going to tip their hands on what could happen, probably because it’s pretty hard to predict what exactly is going to happen leading up to that moment. Trading up seems unlikely. Layden implied that it will cost quite a bit, but with how deep and talented this draft is, it sounds like the No. 20 pick could be a highly-sought after one, which speaks to the type of player the Wolves could get with that spot.
“This is a pretty deep draft, so there’s a fair amount of action on the 20th pick, so we’re weighing what that means for us,” Layden said.
Be sure to check out our site throughout the night for draft coverage. It sounds silly saying this and I’m not sure if it makes any sense, but I’m more excited for this draft than I have for any other during my time here. I don’t know how to explain this, but this draft class is going to be a special one.
CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!
I’m stealing some of Julian Andrews’ thunder here. Andrews is our talented writer and ever since he’s done his deep dive on Troy Brown, a point forward type from Oregon, he’s been corralling people to his bandwagon.
Since this space is reserved for hot takes, Julian told me that Brown was going to lead this rookie class in triple doubles. CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!
When watching him play, he has a little Ben Simmons to him. He’s a very good athlete, can play at least three positions and he makes passes that we just don’t see from guys his size. And the real kicker is that he’ll still be 18 when he’s drafted which is the same age I was 10 years ago. You know what I was doing? Graduation party crashing and eating as much potato salad as I could.
The potential is high for Brown and at the very least, he’ll be a versatile player who will contribute defensively and with his feel for the game.
The biggest thing for Brown will be to up his 3-point shooting. He shot just 29.1 percent in his only season at Oregon. I know college is a small sample size, but 29.1 percent is also pretty bad. But he was ESPN’s 15th-ranked prospect heading into his freshman year and by all accounts, he exceeded those expectations.
It’s going to be interesting to see where ends up. This is a player who is perfect in size for today’s NBA and more importantly, he just has those basketball instincts that are hard to come by.
I’m afraid Julian is going to get emotional when Brown gets drafted.
HIGH 5
Jeff Munneke is one of my favorite people. He’s worked here for 30 years and this guy is always smiling. I’ve honestly never heard him say anything negative about anyone and the amount that he cares about the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx franchises isn’t measurable. We would all be better if we were a little more like Munn. Congrats on 30 years. Have all the varieties of Reese’s.
One of the best coaches in ALL OF BASKETBALL, not just the WNBA. Congrats, Coach!
I was then reminded that Anthony Randolph is only 28. I don’t understand how time works.
I was at this game and my goodness. Chris Sale was flat-out on and for the Twins to steal the win was huge. Eduardo Escobar leads the MLB with 32 doubles. That’s already a career high.
That’s all for today! Plenty of content coming in the next few days.