Timberwolves and NBA Draft Blizzard

Draft the Potential Superstar: O.J. Mayo
If you are picking at #3 in the NBA draft, you should never draft based on need. First of all, if you're drafting that early, you probably have needs everywhere--the starter you think you don't need to replace still got you an early lottery pick, so there's that. But almost every NBA champion since the league's inception has been led by a superstar (or more). You might build a playoff team by filling out team needs, but you'll never build a champion that way. If there is a potential superstar in the draft, take him.

The Timberwolves must draft O.J. Mayo at #3. He's the potential superstar that could transform this franchise in the post-KG era.

I would trade every player on the Timberwolves' roster for the #1 pick in this draft.
Wouldn't you?

Kevin Love > Brook Lopez
OK, college success does not easily translate to pro success. But as a sophomore on a Pac-10 team, Brook Lopez averaged 19.3 ppg and 8.2 rpg. As a freshman on a Pac-10 team, Kevin Love averaged 17.5 ppg and 10.6 rpg.

I really, really want the Timberwolves to draft O.J. Mayo. But if Tuberculosis McHale insists on drafting a post player, make it Kevin Love.

This will have to cover us for the year.
The Vikings were absolutely right to trade draft picks for Jared Allen. But it took away one of our "we're wildly hopeful about something we don't even know about yet because we love potential, baby" moments of the year. This week's Wolves' draft will have to sustain us.

Have we reached the point when we must root against the Wolves in order to root for them?
Are we so beyond hope that we should now root for the Wolves to badly blow every possible decision until Glen Taylor has no choice but to fire Kevin McHale? Has it come to that? Clearly McHale has had enough time to show his incompetence. But Glen Taylor has also shown his unwillingness to fire McHale, so we probably just have to grimace and hope for the best.

I'll be in Boston during the draft.
As it happens I will be visiting Boston later this week. So what sort of predictable whining would you like here? About how I'm going to visit the city with all the recent championships? About how I'm following all of Minnesota's sports stars to the place they end up? About how I'm going to the place where Timberwolves' icon Kevin Garnett just won a championship for another fanbase? How I'm going to visit the city with the NBA's greatest dynasty, while mourning the Twin Cities' own lost dynasty, the first dynasty, the Minneapolis Lakers? No, I've done all that.

NBA Draft Links

John Hollinger looks at the big men in the draft.

Wolves' G.M. Jim Stack likes O.J. Mayo (ESPN). He even managed to say "At the end of the day..." You really have no idea how much I hate that expression. Don Seeholzer has more on the Wolves and Mayo, and he manages to say "Bottom line," which is your father's version of "At the end of the day." Jerry Zgoda also apparently heard the same stuff from Stack. Is there anybody else covering it I should link to?

Chad Ford's Mock Draft 5.0 has the Wolves taking O.J. Mayo.

Don Seeholzer's Mock Draft has the Wolves taking O.J. Mayo.

Ian Thomsen's Mock Draft has the Wolves taking Brook Lopez. I have a Minnesota Vikings blanket, and I was once told to "go curl up with my Viking blanket and pretend I have something to live for." I might pack it on the trip to Boston, just in case the Wolves draft Lopez.

FreeDarko's Mock Draft has the Wolves taking Michael Beasley. If by some freakish chance, Beasley falls to #3 and the Wolves draft him, I will stop cursing my lot as a Minnesota sports fan. I will jump and shout and spin about in circles. I will smile and laugh all night long. I will invent new dances and perform them. You'll hear me shouting all the way from Boston. I might dive into the ocean to seek out the whale that stole my Timberwolves hat.

The Timberwolves also like Kevin Love (Pioneer Press). The Timberwolves love everybody right now! Everybody is great!

Steve Aschburner says the Wolves can control much of what happens in the draft.

For T-wolves blogs discussing the draft, check out Canis Hoopus and TWolves Blog.

You know that Seinfeld movie Cry, Cry Again? Check out the Wolves' draft history. And then consider that the 2nd and 3rd best players the Wolves ever drafted (Ray Allen and Brandon Roy, #1 obviously being KG) were traded during the draft.