To a young, rebuilding NBA team like our Timberwolves, a top draft choice for the organization is in the same league as a convincing hair piece for Brett Michaels.
We’ve got a big-time piece (player not hair) in Al Jefferson. We seemingly have solid glue guys in Telfair, Gomes and Brewer. Foye and McCants are ridiculously talented but hardly convincing thus far in terms of becoming a franchise-type player.
Pretty much all championship teams have two or three big-time franchise guys—Duncan/Manu/Parker, Jordan/Pippen, Bird/McHale/Parrish, Magic/Kareem/Worthy, Hakeem/Clyde, Shaq/Kobe, etc.
Well, the best way to bring a franchise-changing player to a frozen hell (sorry, it’s February…) like Minneapolis is through a top draft pick (take Felton Spencer or Christian Laettner for instance…oh wait). Obviously, we of all organizations (and the Hawks and Clippers) know the potential pitfalls and rewards (mostly pitfalls) of selecting in this position; researching every aspect of these players is a must. Since we clearly know our organization won’t do this (see Glen Taylor’s interview with Rick Alonzo and/or Britt Robson), we as fans will have to know as much as we can and threaten the Target Center with fire should they not select our favorite draft choice.
Anyway, let’s take a look at the top 7 prospects in the upcoming NBA draft. Why did I choose 7? Because I want to…and if we end up with the 8th or higher pick in this draft without going on a 15 game win streak, the NBA is officially rigged and who gives a shit about this blog, the league or the Wolves anyway. So, today I’ll cover #1 Michael Beasley. I’ll cover #2 Derrick Rose and #3 DeAndre Jordan tomorrow. I’ll cover #4 Eric Gordon and #5 Brook Lopez on Thursday. Finally, I’ll cover #6 Donte Greene and #7 OJ Mayo on Friday. (Take in mind that the player ranks are not the order of who I would prefer to draft rather the seemingly consensus overall draft board at this point).
#1 Michael Beasley. 6’9’’ 235 lb. PF/SF Kansas State
Ahh...Mr. Beasley—what a conundrum. The kid undoubtedly has perennial all-star ability. He’s a scoring machine. He’s a rebounding animal. He’s unreal athletic. He’s absurd…but can anyone get past the fact that he has the same look as Latrell Sprewell on his face AT ALL TIMES? Be honest, how shocked would you be if the cops busted into a hotel room tonight and found him with three dead hookers and a kilo of blow? Then, how shocked would you be if the same thing happened to Randy Foye or Eric Gordon. Exactly.
We’ve all heard the attitude whispers. The guy’s a classic case of risk and reward. Do we bring him in on a team of young, talented, team-oriented good character guys? Do we risk him inevitably bearing a major portion of the scoring load and becoming a team leader? Do we risk have two big-time front court players that treat defense like a naked Bridgette Nielsen in your bathroom? What are the odds that Beasley and Telfair have an Auburn Hills incident just with glocks? Then again, what are the odds that Beasley and Jefferson guarantee you 50-60 points and 20-30 rebounds a night and completely beat every 3-4 or 4-5 in the NBA to submission en route to become the next big 1, 2 championship punch? It’s a tough choice.
Let’s say we do end up selecting Michael Beasley. What type of position does this put our franchise in?
Well, the first major issue is where do you play Beasley? He’s definitely a tweener 3/4 Unfortunately, I think he’d serve better as a 4. But, I also think Beasley make for a better 3 than Jefferson is a 5. So, we’d likely want to play Beasley at the 3. While this is nice, it still doesn’t solve our problem at center. We’d also likely have to convince Gomes to backup both the 3 and 4. For what he may get on the open market, that might be a tough convince job. Nonetheless, I think this organization understands he’s valuable team guy and may be willing to give him starters dollars anyway, likely at the expense of letting Craig Smith walk.
So, now we’ve got the 3 & 4 locked up between Jefferson, Beasley and Gomes. What about the backcourt? Well, here’s where things get interesting. Though a lot of people say you always have to play your best players, a lineup of Foye/McCants/Beasley/Jefferson/? just wouldn’t work (assuming in all future Beasley scenarios the ? is either Diop, Hardin, Dorsey, Jawai, etc.). There’s no way there would be enough balls to go around on the court and there certainly is a lot left to be desired defensively…
It’s really too bad neither Telfair nor Brewer can shoot a lick because Telfair/Brewer/Beasley/Jefferson/? would almost make sense…but then again, there’s absolutely no perimeter shooting threat. Telfair/McCants-Foye/Beasley/Jefferson/? is a better option, but I still think we’d be a little weak on the perimeter in terms of defense.
My preference would be Foye/Brewer/Beasley/Jefferson/? but who knows if Foye can distribute the ball, and Foye-Beasley-Jefferson would have to put MV3-like scoring to compensate for Brewer and our future center’s likely complete lack of offense.
Considering at least 2 of Foye, McCants, Gomes, Brewer and Telfair end up playing a limited role in all of the above scenarios and any other plausible Beasley scenarios, the two left out (or more) would be far valuable in a trade to net us a) a very good pass-first PG with good defense b) a tall 2 with fantastic perimeter defense and good to great scoring ability c) a pot sweetener for big-time C trade.
Fantasy trade scenarios are usually ridiculous and the market has been so volatile in the NBA lately, so it’s basically useless for me to speculate here. But, you all get the picture. Feel free to speculate in the comments section if you’d like.
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Well, you know where I stand for the most part, and I'm not a Beasley supporter. I try to be objective as I can, but realistically he just doesn't do it for me. The problem I have with Beasley (well, one of them), is as follows:
When you look for a superstar, you need to be very very careful. I think people get so wrapped up in the idea of landing a "star" type player that they ignore the fact that not all "stars" are equal.
No one has yet been able to explain to me what Beasley does that seperates him from, for example, Shareef Abdur Rahim, a high scoring inside-out 3/4 tweener who also played lackadaisical defense. Beasley may be slightly more athletic and slightly better on the boards, but is that really a guy you feel can bring you a championship?
I just don't see our current team + Beasley, even if he comes in as a 20/10 guy, being good enough to be seriously competitive. I think he would help the team in the short term but I don't think a team with Beasley as it's best player, especially with only Al and a shoddy guard corps behind him, could realistically be anything more than a fringe playoff team.
There are future picks to take into account, but I can't help but feel that Beasley immediately lifts you out of top pick contention. So you're essentially gambling on either getting lucky with a higher pick or that Beasley + Al can take you to the promised land. If that's your mindset, I challenge you to look around the league, because it takes serious talent to win these days, and I think Beasley's scoring abilities mask many of his deficiencies.
It might sound counterintuitive, but I seriously think you have to truly go big or go home, and Beasley isn't big, he's safe. I truly think Rose has the ability to be much more of a franchise changing player based on the tools he brings to the position he plays.
I've got a whole lot more to say on the topic of Beasley, but I'd honestly have to start my own blog to get them all down. Suffice to say I very very much hope we go a different route.
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