WRG 2012 Mock Draft - #18 Minnesota Timberwolves

Our team has two cornerstone players.  One is an undersized, below-the-rim, unathletic PF who is the best rebounder in the NBA and the best shooter with the most range at his position.  Defensively, he needs a LOT of help.  The other is a flashy, young, pass-first PG with incredible skill who is very weak physically and a spotty scorer at best.  HE needs a lot of help, too.

We have a good center combination that provides scoring, size and shot blocking - but neither player has shown durability and that really hurt us last season.  If our starter goes down, we don't have enough depth to overcome it.  There is a player at this pick who could help with that, but we actually have a bigger need we can fill with a much better player here.  We are burning up the phones trying to trade for another first rounder.

Here, though, we need scoring.  We didn't have enough last season and we are poised to have even less this year.  You can't play in the NBA with unproductive wing players and win.  Luckily for us, not only is that a strength of this draft, but we feel SEVERAL lottery level wings have fallen to us.

We have some good perimeter shooters, so we really need an all-around scorer who has the potential to grow with our young team.  Incredibly, the one we like the most has fallen to us.

We feel he fell because of his and his team's performance last season.  He was on a team with inconsistent coaching that had a very poor year.  That isn't a factor for us - since we have a much more refined role for him and his development is a huge priority.  How well his skinny body can withstand the rough treatment it will get driving NBA lanes is also a concern around the league.  We aren't worried about that, either.  He'll grow.

Thank goodness he has these flaws, because we have the 18th pick and it's rare to find an athletic SG with a 6'11" wingspan who can score inside and out, handle the ball, create his own shot and defend available this late!

The Timberwolves select Jeremy Lamb, SG, Connecticut.

Minnesota??  Can I still play for the USA?

WRG 2011 Mock Draft - #20 Minnesota Timberwolves

With Derrick Williams on board, and a trade very likely, we aren't really sure what our roster will look like after this draft. We do know for certain that Ricky Rubio is coming over, so we really aren't too keen on adding any more rookies this year. This is why we are looking to draft international at this pick and let our player develop overseas.

There are a few prospects that are in play for us, but we are going for one who might not come to the NBA for a while, and that's fine with us.

Nikola Mirotic has a contract with Real Madrid through 2015-16. We don't need any more rookies and stashing a solid prospect is A-OK!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

WRG 2011 Mock Draft - #2 Minnesota Timberwolves

So who's the best PG available? Just kidding, this isn't David Kahn.

There's a consensus top two players, and we're picking second. We can screw this up, but we won't, not as long as I'm in charge.

Maybe we trade this pick for some veterans. Maybe we trade Beasley or Love, but with this pick we take the top talent available in Derrick Williams. We need someone who is nasty inside and can instill fear into other teams, because our current front court doesn't exactly have that nasty image.

The Timberwolves select Derrick Williams with the second pick.

The snow comes up to where in Minnesota???

WRG 2010 Mock Draft - #23 Minnesota Timberwolves

We already got 2 players who we think are steals in this draft: Evan Turner and Daniel Orton. We really don't want anymore rookies.

We have a couple players overseas that we'd love to bring over, especially Ricky Rubio. That looks like a long shot. Maybe Nikola Pekovic will come over? Let's hope so. Boy did we screw up that Rubio pick.

We're gonna go international again. We can afford to take someone and let them marinate overseas for a couple seasons and bring them over. We're gonna take who we think is the second best international prospect in this draft. Tibor Pleiss. In time, we feel he can be a nice asset.

He brings defense.

WRG 2010 Mock Draft - #16 Minnesota Timberwolves

 
This is the second of our three picks, so we need to use it on a player we think won't be around seven slots from now when we go again.

We need depth at almost every position, and we have some issues scoring the ball.  Our two best players play the same position and were not very compatible last year.  Last year, we wasted a top five pick on a player who is doing exactly nothing to help us.

But our real problem is we can't stop anyone from scoring - ever - at any point in the game, and we have absolutely no toughness in the paint.

So before we can't get anyone to help with that, Minnesota selects Daniel Orton, who can help us right away simply by being big, and will help us in the future by being a smart, skilled true center we hopefully can rely on for years to come.

 Whaaa? Who the hell is this guy?

He's on Kentucky? 

WRG 2010 Mock Draft - #4 Minnesota Timberwolves

     
We're so cool right now.  Nobody is freaking out.  We all have very professional looks on our faces.

Juuuuuust walk slowly to the podium and hand in the card.  Don't strut - just stroll.  Be cool, man.  Be cool.

We are all Fonzies right now.  And what is Fonzie like?  What is Fonzie like?

He's cool.  That's what we are.  Cool.

Oh, yeah.  We are so cool.

With the 4th pick in the 2010 draft, the Minnesota TIMBERWOLVES SELECT!!!!!!!!!  - um.  Ahem. (coolfonziescool)  The Minnesota Timberwolves select Evan Turner.  Whew.

 Hello, Barcelona?
   

WRG Mock Draft #28: Minnesota Timberwolves

Skippy the T-Wolves intern, here.

I...am...so...tired...from...running...back...and...forth...to...this... stage...with...these...damn...envelopes.

Alright, I've got my breath now. Gotta cut back on those cancer sticks. Let me take a peek in here. Who's gonna know? That loud guy over there eating Cheez Doodles? He's too busy rolling his eyes at the bald dude on TV yelling in front of a palm tree and a poster of JJ Redick.

Slllloooowwwwly. Not too oooooobvious, now.

O-M-R-I C-A-S-S-P-I. Never heard of him. Sounds French. I dunno. Should I go back and make sure this isn't somebody's lunch order? Uh-oh. Too late. That little bossy guy just ripped the thing right out of my hand! He sure is impatient.

I heard somebody smart say we have too many rookies and we could use a tough player who has a 'stache overseas for a few years. I don't know too many tough French guys, especially with 'staches. Maybe I'm the smart one and that guy was a tool. Whatever. I need to rest for the second round. Man, I miss that second round pick reader dude that used to work here. Wonder where he is?

Eh. Peace, suckas. Skippy out.

Coming to the Hennepin County Gun Show, 2011.

The Los Angeles Lakers are on the clock.

WRG Mock Draft: #18, Minnesota Timberwolves

Jefferson, Love, Gomes, Foye, Brewer and (probably) Telfair. That's our entire roster going into 2010-11.

Here are the first five things you don't see on that list --

1. A Center
2. A starting PG
3. Size in the backcourt
4. Size in the frontcourt
5. Some kind of plan if Foye is injured

So we have a lot of work to do. We don't see a lot of free agents lining up to play in Minneapolis, so the way we improve is through trades and the draft.

Lucky for us, there are a lot of teams out there who covet expiring contracts, which we are in a position to offer in trade. We think we are on the right side of this market as there seem to be a lot more sellers out there than buyers.

We also have a bunch of draft picks - and we addressed a huge need with our first pick, landing a nice young PG with size.

So we have options when it comes to plugging our holes, but we don't see a lot of great options for doing so with this pick. We would love to have an above-the-rim athlete for our frontcourt or a legit big man, but our board has none of the former at this point in the draft and only one of the latter - and we consider him a huge project that is so far away from contributing that we would need to acquire a mediocre player to bridge the time gap so we don't have to actually play him. For us, that's hardly ideal.

So we go to the top of our board and take a guy who is a good prospect with skills we can use right now. We don't think we can get a young guy with this much potential any other way, and we think that his top-tier height at SF will help our vertically-challenged frontcourt rotation with matchups.

The Minnesota Timberwolves select Austin Daye.

"Eat it, Morris. I'm moving to Minnesota!"

The Atlanta Hawks are on the clock.

WRG Mock Draft: #6, Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves are not thrilled with how this draft has gone.

We need a center to make our franchise player's life a little easier, but we only liked one in the whole draft - and he's predictably gone.

There was a flashy guard we thought would be perfect alongside Randy Foye. Maybe we even tried to trade up to get him. We don't want to make our pick feel unwelcome, though - so we'll deny that if you ask.

Then we decided that a versatile guard with a killer jump shot would be a great fit for us and a very nice compliment to the inside attack of Jefferson and the strong driving game of Foye.

Eh. That last pick threw us a bit.

So we have the sixth pick and now are working on our fourth choice.

But all is not lost! We liked Stephen Curry because of his maturity and his jumper - but there were also things we didn't like. He and Foye would make a small backcourt. We had durability concerns with him. More importantly, though, we thought he was the safe choice. We believed he would be good for us, but we had a lingering feeling that we could regret not taking a player with the potential to be better.

So we now look to a versatile guard who has ideal size, the smarts to play in any system, and can handle the ball and run our offense. We don't think of him as a combo guard like the other choices. We think he's a pure point that can also be effective playing off the ball when Foye is drawing fouls at the end of quarters. We also feel he is a plus defender and rebounder, which we need. We see signs his jumper can come around. We hope it does.

The Minnesota Timberwolves enthusiastically select Jrue Holiday. We're sure this will work out just fine.

That's right. You're number six!

The Golden State Warriors are on the clock.