Today I Am A Wolves Fan Again For 10 Minutes

Last year I claimed that due to the OJ Mayo trade, I was no longer a Timberwolves fan. I have held true to that claim throughout the year, pretty much ignoring the NBA altogether. When the night ended last june, McHale had me by drafting the best player available, and then crushed my dreams when he traded the pick to Memphis the next morning for Love. Keving Love has worked out, though he will never be like Mayo, especially when they have already threatened to trade him to get at the number 2 pick.

Today, as with every sport's draft, I am a true Minnesota sports fan. I will watch intently as Blake Griffin and others come off the board en route to the Wolves FOUR fucking first round picks. Yes, its the worst draft in years and they have more draft picks than they have EVER had.

Here is my take on things after doing a little research, so by no means am I an expert. We all know that Griffin will go #1, rightfully so, but then its a crap shoot. Thabeet could go number 2, but so could Rubio, especially if the Wolves are trading up. Then its Tyreke (yes, Tyreke) Evans, Harden, Hill, Curry and a few others that could go in any order. The problem is that both Rubio and Thabeet have GIMUNGOUS holes in their games, and both will probably end up as busts in my opinion. Thabeet is just a shot blocker who is tall, but so was Mutombo, who had a long and fruitful career. Rubio is pretty much skin and bones, who struggled in Europe, but he is also only 18. I dont like either one.

Some wild card lottery picks that may end up in the later half are Jrue (seriously, Jrue? What torture...) Holliday and Psycho T Hansbrough. Hansbrough is destined to fufill Mark Madsen's legacy of being the guy who comes off the bench to draw fouls on Yao, Shaq, and Howard, so he would be an awful pick so high. He may turn out to be a great bench cheerleader a la Madsen, but he is a wasted lottery pick. As for Jrue, picking him would be completely jridiculous as his upside is not worth the jrisk at this point.

Brandon Jennings may sneak into the top ten, despite the fact he has struggled more than Rubio has in Europe. Again, he is very young, so Jennings may actually turn out to be more than a 1989 spike lee movie cliche. Both were thought of as top talent, but have yet to show how much they really have.

What I would like to see: the Twolves stay where they are and draft Evans and Curry. If one comes off the board ahead of time, trade like they always do. As long as we dont take Thabeet, thats all I care about.

NBA Draft: Hold The Mayo

I am so pissed right now. SO FUCKING PISSED. The Wolves get a great pick at #3 in Mayo, and then deal him, in true McHaley fashion. With him they unload Jaric's hugemoungus contract and Antoine Walker, but they lose a potential All Star that you can build a team around. Lets face it, Big Al and K-love are not people that are a Marketing exec's dream.

Just for fuck's sake, lets take a walk down memory lane:

1996: Draft Ray Allen (All Star, Great Player, Three Bomb Specialist, HOF?), Trade for Marbury (Conceded, Doesnt mesh with Garnett, gone after a few years)

2006: Draft Brandon Roy (2007 ROY, 2007 All star, Great Player), Trade for Randy Foye (Still undecided - probably wont ever be as good as Roy).

Basically, we are not good at draft day trades. Nor trades in general for that matter. Look at the Jaric deal that still looms over this franchise even though he is now gone.

I would document the years in between, but they are filled with awful picks that never pan out. When it comes down to it, Kevin Mchale is as bad as Matt Millen, and he needs to go to a hell where he is forced to watch the team he built over and over and over again for all eternity, while Danny Ainge laughs as he waives his ring covered hand in his face. What a fuck face.

EDIT: Just a quick name note. As I was going back through the draft day lists, I came across this wonderful name that I could never imagine anyone living their life with. Dijon Thompson. Fucking DIJON fucking Thompson. Holy shitballs, who names their kid after mustard? Can you imagine what his young life must have been like as a Basketball player? "Yo Dijon cant pass the ball, he cant even pass the grey poupon!"

Stephen A. Smith must...

Get off my TV. Why, oh why, do they poor kids have to go talk to Stephen A, when they should be talking to the nice blonde lady who's stuck interviewing the decrepit dude who owns the Knicks.

Stuart Scott is fine, and Van Gundy brings actual information to the table. But Steven A, please go away.

Bucks pick Joe Alexander from WVU at #8.

Gotta love the old school lights in the banquet room, THAT'S how you know it's a draft.

K-Love is a Grizzlie

Heh, 2nd time that two UCLA players have gone in the top 5 - according to Stephen A. Lucius Allen and Kareem were the first. If K-Love and Westy have half the career that Kareem and Allen had, I'll be happy.

Time to scour eBay for #4 and #5 Redemptions.

The Inevitable Boredom Sets In

Drafts aren't THAT exciting, unless the teams decide to do something goofy. We already knew that Chicago whey STILL took the full five minutes though, what the heck?
ould take Rose with the first pick, they announced it before the draft started.

So Riles goes with Beasley after all and the draftniks and rumormongers are wrong/right.

Big Shock - Mayo goes #3 to Minnesota. Here's hoping Love is fourth.

Seattle takes my boy Russell Westbrook #4 and I'm stoked. I think he'll have a big impact in Seattle, and this is a fantastic pick.

Sorry about the pictures guys and gals, I can't figure out the HTML and my daughter is demanding attention. After all is said and done I'll try to get a post out about all the NBA prospects and their available cards.

Draft Update

Done with errands, ready to look at what's happened since this morning, and sheesh there was a ton of moves already.

SO the Clips and the Sonics are had a deal to trade picks, IF OJ Mayo goes at #3, if not I guess the Sonics will grab him at #4. BUT, apparently that's now off the table.

The Bucks and the Nets made a trade that may impact the #8 and #10 picks, I guess. Richard Jefferson goes to Millwaukie and New Jersey gets Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons, giving the Bucks a plethora of forwards, which means they will be more interested in Russell Westbrook or Jerryd Bayless. I really hope Westy doesn't fall that low to be honest. Bayless has already dropped in favorability in the last couple days, not a stretch to see him fall to #8.

ESPN says that while the Grizzlies like both Love and Danilo Gallinari, they are looking to trade down. Bad move. The Grizzlies need to replace Pau Gasol and who better than K-Love?

Both the Loose Cannons and the Mason and Ireland show think that Riles will go ahead and take Mayo at #2. Bah.

More as it happens, I hope.

Draft Day 2008

After today we'll know at least what teams our favorite college players will be riding the pine for in the 2008-09 season. I can't say that I've ever watched an NHL or a MLB draft, but I have watched SEVERAL NFL drafts and more than a few NBA drafts. A lot of times these things are extremely anti-climatic affairs, after all, everyone and their brother have already handicapped this thing to death, and for sure Derrick Rose is the #1 pick right? Well, we'll just see right?

So what's the latest scuttlebutt? Listening to sports radio yesterday in the car I heard that Pat Riley thinks that Michael Beasley might have character issues and is high on OJ Mayo. Hmm Riles, you think Beasley has character issues and yet flaunting your one-and-done lottery pick status all season or having boosters buy you Escalades and flat screens that a Freshman college student couldn't possibly afford aren't character issues?

Now these guys at Newsday say that Mayo is all over the board, one scenario has Riles taking a pass on Beasley and trades down for the #3 pick for Mayo, but then again, who really knows at this point in time, we still have over eight hours to go.

Other rumors I heard have the top two Bruins, Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook going back to back at #4 and #5, BUT here's the interesting part, there's now a good chance that Westy might actually go higher than K-Love. I don't think that would be a slap in the fact to K-Love, after all, everyone and his mother knew that the Freshman Phenom would be one-and-done, but Westy came on so strong this season, and has really impressed in workouts, that his draft stock seems to be peaking at the right time. That said, looks like Minnesota can't decide if they like $UC or my Bruins better. If the Phenom goes before Juice Pt. 2, I believe I might have an accident in my pants.

Denver has already traded their #20 pick to the Charlotte Hornets for an unspecified future pick.

The Indiana Pacers have just traded Jermaine O'Neal to the Raptors for TJ Ford, Radislov Nesterovic, Toronto's pick at #17 and a player to be named. O'Neal had the fourth highest salary in the NBA in 07-08. Only "Tell Me How My Ass Tastes" Shaq, World Champion KG and Jason Kidd of all people have bigger paychecks. Seriously? This guy makes more money than Kobe? And he missed a shitload of games this season, no wonder the Pacers wanted out. That should free up some cap room, though Nesterovic is scheduled to make more than eight mill this upcoming season and TJ Ford is right there too, so even with a three for one deal doesn't get them a whole lot of relief. Ahh, except that Nesterovic is only signed for this year and will probably have to take a huge pay-cut. Ford was highly prized by several teams, including most recently Portland.

The Knicks, now without their albatross Isiah hanging around to drag them into the depths of the NBA cellar, are looking to seriously restock, and some scenarios have them trading up to get TWO picks in the top 6. Somehow I doubt that's going to happen, but we know that they're high on Mayo, so they may be trying to trade up to the #3 pick.

NBATV is running Classic NBA Drafts throughout most of the day, featured are the 1993 Draft with Chris Webber at #1 and the 2002 Draft with Yao Ming as the top pick. I'd give you link to the schedule, but the NBA website only has last Saturday's schedule listed. Not good corporate synergy if you ask me. But you didn't.

There are several preview shows scheduled to air at 7:00 PM EST, the one on ESPN and one on TNT look the best. The NBA Draft is scheduled to begin at 7:30 PM EST on ESPN, and the first pick should come right after that. Should be Derrick Rose from Memphis, going to Chicago, but you never know what can happen. I have a ton of errands to run today, so I likely won't be able to post another update before Draft time, but I'll give it my very best efforts.