What The Wolves Have To Work With: 2nd, 20th

One of my favorite parts of Americana is the rise of people who are famous for being famous. David Kahn has become this type of figure except replace famous with funny. The exaggerated overanxious responses of one-liners whenever Kahn delivers a softball is far funnier than the original, whether it is his Darko-love, Beasley-marijuana comments or for drafting two point guards with his tandem picks. Hence, he is funny for being funny, at least for me.

For this reason, the fact that Kahn and the Wolves own the second overall pick creates a comedic tension leading up to David Stern’s announcement of the pick that no amount of fake-laughing from a studio pre-game show can manufacture. 

Kahn hasn’t disappointed while trying to fake rumor his way into unloading the pick, that is unless John Hammond or Mitch Kupchak had undecipherable agendas that would involve trading one of the best three or four centers in the game for Derrick Williams.

At least the NBA didn’t fail to break ‘habit’ by fixing the lottery for the Cavaliers and saved everyone the circus of Kahn desecrating the sanctified first overall pick.

What The Wolves Need: The Wolves have very evident holes at center and shooting guard to go with a core that is at least intriguing in Kevin Love at power forward, Ricky Rubio at point guard and Wesley Johnson at small forward.

Love is a special player, but he also would need a specific type of center for his talent to be maximized and that will be the most difficult player for the Wolves to find. As demanding it is to acquire just about any center, the process of even identifying the correct one is complex.

The shooting guard position should be easier for Minnesota to fix and could see the team going down the trade route by using either Michael Beasley or Anthony Randolph.

Who May Be Wearing The Wolves Jersey By The End Of The Night: Unless they want to trade the Derrick Williams’ dollar for 80 cents, he seems certain to be property of the Wolves heading into the summer. Williams is talented enough to coexist with just about any player in the NBA, but he will either overlap with Love or Johnson while also largely replicating Beasley.

Drafting and keeping Williams will require the Wolves to experiment with lineups and I think they can be successful in going small or big depending on whether the Johnson and Williams tandem are playing shooting guard/small forward or small forward/power forward. LeBron James and Kevin Durant become more intriguing players when they play the power forward position, and the same may also apply to Williams if he is the good type of tweener his current draft stock expects him to become.

For the 20th overall selection, Kahn will almost certainly deliver something unexpected. Depending on how much he enjoyed his prolonged Rubio courtship, waiting out Nikola Mirotic would represent good long-term value, but they need to win right away since they won’t have their own first round pick to fall back on next season if they win fewer than 25 games.

Ultimately, a more sensible pick would certainly be a player like Markieff Morris or Donatas Motiejunas, two players that fill a need and could contribute from the outset.