The 2009 NBA Draft will forever live in infamy among Minnesota fans. This screenshot says it all.
Timberwolves GM David Kahn, who massively screwed up the Timberwolves during his time in the front office, threw up an absolute brick in this draft. He took two(!!) point guards with back-to-back picks in the top ten, and neither of them was Steph Curry, who ended up being the greatest shooter in NBA history. While that particular decision (Flynn over Curry) ended up being terrible, the other bad part of this draft (back-to-back point guards) could've actually been an ahead-of-his-time visionary move. While it was widely panned at the time, consider this:
At the time, basically all of the good teams had one traditional point guard and one traditional shooting guard. This trend has turned in recent years, as position-less basketball has developed and teams have started to value ball-handling creators above all else. The Blazers (Lillard and McCollum), Jazz (Mitchell and Rubio, then Mitchell and Conley), Thunder (Paul and Gilgeous-Alexander), and Rockets (Paul and Harden, then Westbrook and Harden) have all experienced great success with two guards that most teams would never have tried to play together 10 years ago.
Rubio and Flynn, had they lived up to their pre-draft billing, would have worked much the same way as Mitchell and Conley do now. Both were thought to be average to above-average defenders, and Flynn was the athletic scorer to Rubio's more classical distributor role. However, we all know how this ended up, with Flynn as a huge bust, and Rubio taking years to develop his scoring ability. Had they picked Curry, the pairing of Rubio and Curry could have produced some incredible offensive basketball, even if Rubio still developed so slowly. Of course, if Curry goes to the Wolves, he probably doesn't become an all-time great, because that's just our luck.
How will the Timberwolves screw up this draft?
Well, the naive fan says, maybe they won't! Our new general manager is one sharp cookie, coming from the analytically advanced and very successful Rockets franchise. My response: google "Houston Rockets" right now and see how well things are going for them lately.
Whether that's related or not, the Wolves lottery luck did happen to occur in one of the worst top-end drafts in recent years. There's the guy who "doesn't really like basketball" (Anthony Edwards) that appears to be the best fit at the top of the draft. There's the guy who doesn't play defense and may be something of a headcase (LaMelo Ball) who also has the highest upside of any top pick. And there's the guy who plays the same position as our franchise player (James Wiseman).
Ideally, the Wolves would be able to trade down to the 8th or 9th pick, and pick either a 3-and-D wing or an athletic four-man who can help out KAT on the defensive end. However, there doesn't seem to be much buzz that this will occur.
My prediction: the Wolves will pick LaMelo, and become another version of the two-ball-handler system, with Ball and Russell. The problem being, neither of them can play defense and there's a real chance that the Ball situation presents a possible drama bomb, which could blow up in a Jimmy Butler-level failure. However, the upside, becoming a version of the Trail Blazers + KAT, is not a bad thing at all. If Ball works out, and Jarrett Culver and Josh Okogie can creep up to 36% shooting from three, that's a very good team. However, that's a lot of "if's".
I'll still take it over another guy who doesn't really care about basketball, akin to Andrew Wiggins. Steer clear of Anthony Edwards.
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