Dear Kevin McHale,
My name is Aaron Johnson, your eventual successor of player personnel responsibilities for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’m writing to you because as your successor I’d like to have a somewhat reasonable base to work with upon my long awaited arrival.
The last several years have been very difficult to swallow for your team’s fan base and undoubtedly the task of evaluating talent and picking the correct players to assimilate onto the roster has been equally challenging for you. Never mind the 1st round picks the team had to forfeit in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Glen Taylor’s wallet didn’t need the strain from those guaranteed rookie contracts from players that probably wouldn’t have panned out anyway. Not with your history of picking anyway. Funny how the team still has approached and exceeded the league salary cap without those players, but I digress.
Your ousting is inevitable so please allow me to explain my plan. Compare to yours and remember that your role as my predecessor can be an equally rewarding and emotionless job as your current position. As the 2008 Timberwolves slogan suggests, “Let’s build it.”
Let me site the Blueprint for the Future available at
www.timberwolves.com
- “We understand the importance of being a good role model” and “win the NBA championship” and “do it the right way”
- “We will be instructors who teach, motivate and instill a sense of responsibility among our players”
- Our offense will be a style that “emphasizes ball movement” and “will rely on all five players on the floor rather than just one or two individuals”
- The defense will be “aggressive” and a style that “relies on solid man-to-man fundamentals and effort”
- “We will play with discipline, respect, sportsmanship and a passion to win”
The blueprint is all we have as fans right now to get an inside track as to what the team is thinking. With those quotes above we can start to assess the talent pool available with the #3 pick in the draft. The #31 and #34 picks shouldn’t be discounted in consideration. They are practically extended first round picks and should be treated as such. However, it becomes mathematically a more difficult task to project which players will be available there opposed to #3. At number three we are, in essence, the first pick in the draft as Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley will be the top 2 picks. Because of this the remainder of this message will focus on the 3rd pick. However, do not for a moment think I undervalue later picks, trades, or free agency. The nature of the beast is that without bugging your office I have no idea what teams and players have expressed interest and the vice versa.
With the third pick a good player will be available and it is your responsibility to make sure the player you pick is, 5-10-15 years from now, the best player available at that spot. That should always be your goal. Often times (the media to blame) we want to judge a draft the year immediately following it. So many of these players are freshman and sophomores and as such require a few years to get acclimated and fully develop their skill set. We’ve seen Deron Williams blossom his second year and Chris Paul become and MVP candidate in his third season.
Realistically the players that we should be focusing on are the following:
- OJ Mayo, G
- Brook Lopez, C
- Jerryd Bayless, G
- Anthony Randolph, F
- DeAndre Jordan, C
- DJ Augustin, G
- Darrell Arthur, F
- Eric Gordon, G
- Marreese Speights, F
Any other player without first moving down will appear as a “stretch” and will puzzle your fan base. If you find another player outside this range then please do us a favor and trade down. But you must be as serious as a heart attack. You will rekindle the Allen-Marbury and the Roy-Foye nightmares of your fan base and you must be ready to defend such move. Assuming we stay put at #3 I’ll reduce this list to my suggested players and offer explanation for those who made the cut and those who did not.
- Brook Lopez, C
- Anthony Randolph, F
- DeAndre Jordan, C
First, I’ll explain why fan favorite OJ May does not make the cut. Although I will not deny that he potentially could be the single best scorer in the entire draft, Mayo contains qualities that appear to clash with the blueprint almost entirely.
Mayo did display some ability last year to distribute the ball play a team game. However, there is little doubt that anyone in this league thinks that Mayo will play second fiddle to anyone. As a Wolves fan I actually love this trait of Mayo’s, but alas, it directly contradicts “will rely on all five players on the floor rather than just one or two individuals.” The team that lands Mayo will want him to be 1A or 1B and he appears to have the personality that will crave the limelight. Will he be in Minnesota much more than his rookie contract or will the lights of LA, Miami, or New York lure him? I was pleasantly surprised to see his defensive intensity last year but question whether he can guard the bigger shooting guards of the NBA or stay in front of the likes of Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and other lighting quick point guards. On a team overloaded with combo guards this raises a red flag. Lastly I have concerns with his character. Most of my peers want to overlook those but they are as consistent as gravity. Mayo had issues as a high school student blowing up in games, hitting a ref, etc. Now when we thought he was on his best behavior in college he was supposedly on the take the entire year. Suppose you found a wallet with a few hundred dollars in it. Do you A) keep the money and toss the billfold or do you B) call the rightful owner? I’m a type B and I’ve proudly behaved that way in similar situations. This loudly clashes with “We understand the importance of being a good role model”. To take OJ Mayo would be the equivalent of putting the blueprint through the paper shredder.
How about DJ Augustin, Jerryd Bayless, and Eric Gordon? Well I feel similarly with Mayo that these players are a bit undersized to play defense that “relies on solid man-to-man fundamentals and effort”. I also think that according to the blueprint that Rashad McCants and Randy Foye will have every opportunity to be offensive focal points from the perimeter. I happen to love Bayless and he was the last player I cut. His attitude and rumors that he isn’t a great team player pushed me over the ledge. I was going to overlook his lack of position because he may be the most athletic player in this draft. Jerryd officially gets my “I told you so” award when he pans out. I just think that with our team history and team needs he just misses the cut.
And Darrell Arthur and Marreese Speights are both fine forwards but both are probably slight stretches as the #3 picks in the draft. They were my last two of my last cuts as well and think that if we were to move down they would be targets of mine. However, this message is once again assuming that we stay at #3. If we’re going PF or C at #3 that leaves us to choose between DeAndre Jordan, Brook Lopez, or Anthony Randolph. All of which I think are much better prospects with potential buzzing like a dying fluorescent bulb.
So if I had the #3 pick in the draft, who would I select? Because of concerns of DeAndre Jordan’s passion and Brook Lopez’ ceiling projected slightly lower, I select:
ANTHONY RANDOLPH, F, LSUThe blueprint fails to mention that 2008-2009 will NOT include a championship run. It’s understood so it’s to no fault of the Wolves. In fact, it does mention that in 2009 the Wolves could potentially have 3 first round picks. We are truly building for the future and as such should expect it to be at minimum another 2-3 years before we can see this team crawling up the standings. Just in time for 18 year old Randolph to blossom into a dominate Chris Bosh-like forward alongside Al Jefferson. Play him at the SF spot like we did with KG when he was younger, skinnier, and then eventually promote him to the PF spot to play next to Jefferson. This could lead to a dominate front court in a few years.
It doesn’t disrupt the blueprint as Randolph is not known as a selfish player, is a supreme shot blocker, and is young enough to absorb the coaches tutelage. His athleticism will allow the team to experiment with zones and provide multiple shot blockers to continue protecting the paint. It also allows the current roster’s guards Brewer, Foye, and McCants to be the primary perimeter players as the blueprint points out.
Well Kevin, there you have it. Anthony Randolph is the player you should choose if you want to retain your job, or if in the off chance you do not, will better prepare me for when I assume your responsibilities. If you need my assistance with other matters please feel free to contact me at
ajohnson@lawabidingthug.com.
I do want to note a possible addendum to all prospects: I reserve the right to change my opinion(s) after combine and workout results become public. There is nothing worse than thinking Charles Barkley is a legit 6’9” only to find out he’s 6’4” at best. Those bench reps, wingspans, and verticals do influence me even if you are of the belief that results are results.
