Its been a long time, I shouldn’t a left you, without a strong rhyme to step to...(Eric B. and Rakim)
Sorry, its been a couple of weeks, but here is a whopper, over 4000 words! Hope you enjoy.

Draft History, learn from it or be doomed to repeat it is how the saying goes. I analyzed all the drafts since 1989, the first year the T-Wolves were eligible. It would be comical if it didn’t almost make me cry how badly we have made picks over the years. You would think by sheer luck we would have at least accidentally picked some good to very good players every couple of years. But there is probably only 1 good draft year from 1989 to 2004 (2005 the jury is still out on). Of course you already know that is the year of KG The one year we got it right. I know that no one stays on the same team for more that 3-4 years anymore, I am looking at this from a perspective of getting a core of 2-3 potential all-stars, and filling in with role players at any position, making a run at a title, then re-building again.


1989
Planned Obsolescence like the QWERTY keyboard and the Ford Pinto. By the way, the QWERTY keyboard is one of my biggest pet peeves. Did you know that the first keyboards for typewriters were set up with the alphabet in order ABCDEF but the old mechanical typewriters could not keep up with the speed of the typists? So some idiot named Christopher Sholes (who lived in Milwaukee of course friggin’ cheesehead) intentionally mixed up the letters so the typewriter wouldn’t jam up. Now like a 150 years later we are still using this messed up keyboard. For the love of God will someone please “Invent” the ABCDEF keyboard?



Christopher Sholes, every day I curse your name!

Anyway, the Timberwolves were expected to lose and that is just how management planned it. They were setting records for attendance in the HHH Metrodome (terrible for watching basketball) which seated more fans than any other stadium in the country. They wanted to tank the first few seasons, get good draft picks and build the nucleus that way. Seemed like a good idea at the time anyway. Minnesota fans were just happy to get basketball back after the Lakers left for LA decades before. The owners were raking in the dough with low salaries and huge revenue. Well what went wrong... The original Timberwolf Pooh Richardson, that’s what. I honestly don’t remember how the draft worked that year, if we could get the top pick or not. Well it doesn’t matter much anyway because the only pick we would have wanted before ours at #10 was the #4 Glen Rice.
Here is an excerpt from a contemporary article on the NBA website:

On the streets of his native Philadelphia, Richardson grew up and played alongside Lionel Simmons, Bo Kimble and the late Hank Gathers. "Those players had a lot to do with the player I am now," Richardson explained. "Just being around those guys and having the opportunity to play with them... You grow up with an attitude."

What like getting schooled by better players? Here is a list of players we should have taken instead of Pooh:

Nick Anderson he was good until he started missing Free Throws, bottoming out in 1996 at 40% (he also shot 40% from the field that year). But up until then he was almost 20 points per game in an era of defense first basketball. We could have used his skills at least until 1996.

Mookie Blaylock and Tim Hardaway, both point guards much better than Pooh, if you wanted a point Guard that is. Some of you may not remember this but Tim Hardaway was dominant from his very first season. He was a shooting point, but still averaged about 8 assists and 20 points per game for his first 10 years. I think I remember his knees being a problem eventually, but heck he had 10 very good years. Mookie Blaylock was the best defensive point guard for many of his years in the league. He averaged well over 2 steals per game through much of his career, peaking at 2.6 in 1993 and 1995. Many people think of him as being too short, but he was listed at 6’1”, the same as Pooh. A heavier version of Pooh, he was a surprisingly good rebounder peaking at 5.3 per game in 1996. Inexcusable not taking these guys.

OK, Shawn Kemp. The Timberwolves in their history have had many opportunities to pick players with off court problems and passed on them. I know He has like 9 kids by 6 mothers, but damn he was the best power forward in the game some of his years (I am not a big Mailman fan). He also had about 10 years where he had at least 8 rebounds and 15 points per game. He was a dominant inside dunker and shot over 50% much of his career. But no we didn’t need him. This was a diamond in the rough though, coming out of Trinity Valley after his freshman year.


Vlade Divac gets all the chicks

Vlade Divac, wasn’t the first foreign player selected in an NBA draft, but definitely not a as common as it is now. He made an immediate impact for the Lakers in his first year, scoring 8 pints and grabbing 6 rebounds in only 20 minutes per game. A center with good hands and strong moves inside. Something the T-Wolves still sorely need.


1990
I was at this draft party, my sister worked at the T-Wolves basketball camp and got us tickets for the draft party, I think it was at the convention center. Anyway the T-Wolves had two picks this year, but frankly there was not much to choose from looking back. There was only one perennial All-Star Gary Payton taken at #2. We had the #6 pick and took Felton Spencer. We also had the #20 pick from Philadelphia and took a high scorer named Gerald Glass. Awesome name by the way. The potential nicknames were limitless. Unfortunately he was more like “invisible like glass”, especially on defense. Others from this draft were Dennis Scott at #4, even our own Willie Burton from the Gophers. The #21 pick (right after Glass) was Jayson Williams (the power forward not the point guard) a genuinely insane guy from St Johns. A couple other St Johns players worth noting, Malik Sealy and Jayson Williams. OK first Jayson Williams. Not only did he kill someone, even more crazy in my opinion is that he bought huge earth movers to play with in his yard. So basically he created a life sized sand box with real Tonka trucks. Crazy? Not to mention (going to hell for this) Malik Sealy. Now I was a big Malik Sealy fan, still am. I loved watching him in college like nobody since, honestly. When Garnett picked 21 because that was Malik’s number in college, I thought that was very cool, and it is reason # 342 why I like KG. But how does a guy making at least a million dollars a year (taking home at least 500K a year) drive a 10 year old Range Rover. It is so old it doesn’t even have air bags? Now that is crazy, and probably contributed to his death. So the moral of the story is stay away from the Red Storm.


1991
OK by this year I am getting pretty pissed off as a fan, we totally suck every year then we end up with the 6th through 9th pick in the draft? It will get a lot worse in the next few years though. This year we have the #7 pick and it is a stronger class than the previous 2. The duo from UNLV Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon are both coming out in addition to a dominant center from Georgetown named Dikembe Mutumbo. Throw in Kenny Anderson another dominant guard. How about a Terrell Brandon or Dale Davis. So with the number 7 pick we take... Luc Longley another stiff center. My God what are we doing, so far we’ve wasted 2 picks on stiff centers. Mutumbo, Johnson, and Anderson are already gone of course. GAAAA why don’t we ever get the #1 pick. My pick at the time would have been Stacy Augmon. A solid defender and scorer for many years. What is wrong with these GM’s? Do they even watch these guys in college?




I have always been a big fan of “Plasticman”

1992
This is the year the franchise took a horrible turn for the worse. In the most anticipated draft since 1984 which went 1-5 like this:

1 Hou Hakeem Olajuwon
2 Por Sam Bowie
3 Chi Michael Jordan
4 Dal Sam Perkins
5 Phi Charles Barkley


In 1992 though we ended up with the #3 pick in the draft for Shaq. Not only that but the #2 pick was a unanimous Alonzo Mourning. We take Christian Laettner the third stiff center in a row! Now anyone that knows me knows that I am a huge Duke fan, but Duke players just aren’t great pro players, for whatever reason. Maybe coach K is an even better coach than everyone gives him credit for? In my unofficial list of draftees since 1989, there have been 16 first round picks from Duke. Probably more than any other team (well North Carolina also had 16).



Hmm what is that a Hammerhead? Wierd!


I was fine with the pick at the time (given that we had to pick after Shaq and Mourning) since I was such a huge Duke fan. He had the two tools that Longley and Spencer did not have: quickness for his size, and a competitive nature. I’m not sure what happened to his quickness, maybe he just got old fast with the 82 game schedule, probably the other pros were just as fast as him. After all there were several excellent Centers in the league in his time, Olajuwan, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Robert Parish, Vlade Divac, Dikembe Mutumbo, Mourning, and of course Shaq. Plus incredible inside non-centers like Rodman, and Malone. Well since he wasn’t even in the top half of centers in the NBA, his competitiveness was actually a detrimnent, spiraling him into greater and greater frustration until he alienated everyone else on the team. Something he also did in college, but it was overlooked since they were winning national championships. Here is a quote by teammate Cherokee Parks regarding a well publicized stomp by Laettner on Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake’s chest "It's so Laettner. He's supposed to be like this all-America, this glamour boy, Mr. GQ. If you know Laettner, it's such a Laettner move to do something like that." What a zero. Amazingly, although we would eventually have nearly every player in this first round draft (LaPhonso Ellis, Tom Gugliotta, Malik Sealy, Anthony Peeler , Oliver Miller , Latrell Sprewell ) we would of course never get the two best by far (Shaq and Alonzo) who even at this point in their careers are helping The Heat nearly to the finals, up 3-1 over the Pistons. Last night’s third win was highlighted by Shaq going coast-to-coast a-la Dr.J. This was probably the worst draft day in the history of the Timberwolves. We had the worst record the previous season, notching just 15 wins, but got the #3 pick. Shaq would not have stayed here unless we could get the wins, but Wasn’t Michael Williams as good as Penny Hardaway in Orlando? How about if we had taken Tim Hardaway instead of Pooh Richardson? And if Shaq and Willimas had us going on all cylinders, wouldn’t even JR Rider have shaped up for a couple of years to make a run? Or if not would Shaq have ridiculed him into leaving sooner? Uh my head hurts. The good news, this is the low point, the bad news, only one good draft out of the next 13! And yes I am including the years we didn’t have a pick due to the Joe Smith debacle.



1993
Not too much to say here, we once again did not get the top pick, and the draft had only one blue-chipper, Chris Webber. We are tied for the second to worst record in the league, and end up with the #5 pick. Orlando who had the #1 pick the year before, gets the #1 pick again, despite winning 41 games. This caused a rule change (I call it the T-Wolves Rule) where beginning with the 1995 lottery the chances were weighed even more, so that the best non-playoff team would only have a slim (0.5%) chance of receiving the top pick. So basically the NBA from office could no longer fix the draft, and teams that really suck could get high draft picks. After Webber, there is only one pick I would have liked to make using hindsight. We took JR Rider whose tenure was tumultuous at best, I guess we thought we learned our lesson by not taking Tim Hardaway because he was viewed as not being as good a citizen as Pooh, now we went the other way, Rider having well known off-court problems. Maybe Vin Baker would have filled in nicely until his drinkin’ (and eating) days. Not much here though. Sam Cassell a relative unknown from Florida State is the hindsight favorite in the first round.



1994
OK here we go again. 3 blue chippers in this draft, Glenn Robinson, Jason Kidd, and Grant Hill. What pick do we have? #4. We took Donyell Marshall but there was not really anyone taken later that was much better. Juwan Howard went #5 and Brian Grant went #8. At least we didn’t take Eric Montross. Howard notched Double Doubles almost as frequently as the morons lose 100 grand on "Deal or No Deal". Well on to 95.



1995
Well this is it, the pinnacle of our drafts. We ended up with a crappy #5 pick again, in a fairly deep draft. The top picks were Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse, and Rasheed Wallace. Also there was Bryant (Big Country) Reeves who I was afraid we would take (that was the consensus pick at the time). We went out on a limb though and took a high Schooler named, of course, Kevin Garnett. The reason we made it to the Western Conference finals in 2004.

1996
Here we are with a fairly deep draft and we should have a high pick again. The #1 pick is the best by far though with Allen Iverson. We passed on Marcus Camby and Shareef Abdur-Rahim and took Ray Allen. Then immediately traded with Milwaukee who took Stephon Marbury right after us. Brilliant. Well Stephon ended up giving us some very high highs, but the Mini-Apple could not hold Starbury. He eventually had to move on to his destiny in New York playing for the Knicks, now under the dubious leadership of Isaiah Thomas. What an idiot. He still gets booed when he comes here. I have no idea if AI would have stayed here if we got the #1 pick, but Ray Allen probably would have, he stayed in Milwaukee for 7 years!


1997
At this point KG is starting to gel , and Laettner is peaking to all star material, so we have mounted 40 wins. Here is the biggest draft since Shaq - Alonzo. Unfortunately we have only the 13th worst record for the Duncan Draft and we get pick number 20! We hearken back to our early days and take a horrible Paul Grant, yet another stiff center (YASC hereafter). Let me tell you he looked a lot better in a siut than he did in a uniform. I remember watching him in college and he walked like Kevin McHale did at that time, not in his playing days. How they thought he would be able to move around in the paint in the NBA just boggles my mind. Unfortunately since the pick was so low, there is no one else worth taking either. Bobby Jackson from Minnesota went 3 picks later and was by far a better basketball player. If it was a pickup game it would be like me (Grant) playing against Muggsy Bogues (Jackson). By the way that reminds me of a time I played against a former Gopher Nate Tubbs, within a few months after his college career was over. He just happened to be playing in a pickup game at my local club, which I was a fairly new member. Well I just got there and found 4 others for the ‘next’ team, then before I knew it we were matching up. I usually went under the basket but my teammates were pretty big if not tall so I went out by the 3-point line to find someone to guard. I ended up matching up with the point guard. Well I crouched down to play D, and he tried to break my ankles with fakes, but held my ground, then he fell back and jumped like 3 feet in the air and launched a shot. Well it missed luckily, but I knew I was out of my league already. Then I heard his teammates yelling ‘Nate’ the next couple of times down the court. And I finally put it together that it was Nate Tubbs. I couldn’t believe how short he was like 5'9", I learned a lot about college basketball that day. Height doesn’t matter as much as quickness. At 6’2” I was towering over this guy but he probably scored 7 of their 11 points. Now I know why no-one wanted to guard him. Well on one breakaway, I kept up with him all the way down the court and fouled him just as he was laying it in. Lets just say he wasn’t real happy that I was challenging him, and drove by me like I was standing still the last two times down the court, scoring the 10th and 11th point. On to next year.


1998
Well now we are over .500 so our picks are not that important anymore. We took YASC in Rasho Nestorovic at #17 who averaged only 7 points and five rebounds in a european league. Nice scouting! The name of his Italian team was Kinder which is German for Child, wierd! There were several good players early in the draft, but we sat tight: Vince Carter, Dirk Novitski, Mike Bibby and Paul Pierce. The #1 pick, one of the biggest flops in NBA history was Michael Olowokandi. Glad we didn’t have the #1 pick or we probably would have taken him too. The best “known” player was probably Mike Bibby, with the two North Carolina players right behind, Carter and Antawn Jamison.


Wallyworld? Sorry folks parks closed Moose out front should a told Ya
1999
Here is where we lost our momentum and we could have made some progress. We got the #6 pick from trading Steph in that 3 team trade with Milwaukee and the Nets. This also started the Terrell Brandon era. This draft class was pretty good. So once again the draft is several players deep probably 6 deep by most people. The nets had the 4th worst record in the NBA, but do we get lucky in the Brand Draft??? Of course not, we get the #6 pick. There were very good players available at that pick, and Wally Szczerbiak was not a terrible choice. If we would have taken Steve Francis, he would have pouted like Steph anyway. Baron Davis, Lamar Odom, Richard Hamilton, and Shawn Marion were other blue chippers. The latter two were available with the #6 pick too. We really needed to do well with this pick too, since we lost Steph to get it. Well it goes downhill from here with our regular #14 pick. I remember thinking as I watched this draft that I wanted to take Ron Artest. This was before any of the insane stuff he has done over the years. Here is a funny quote I found regarding Artest written right after the draft:
From CNN/SI Albert Lin
“Ron Artest, Chicago: Does a little bit of everything, but nothing exceptionally. Plays below the rim. Can he guard NBA 2s and 3s?”
That is funny because he was known as an extremely athletic talent, why wouldn’t he be able to play defense? I don’t know where these guys get their info sometimes. Same place as the GM’s apparently. Instead we take another Dukie William Avery, only I am not happy with this one, Brand would have been great, but I knew from watching Duke all year that only Brand would really make it. Remember this is the draft that four Dukies went in the first round (Maggette and amazingly Trajan Langdon, who could only shoot 3’s) . Which reminds me I doubt he will be on the board at our pick this year, my God I hope not, but Kevin please do not take JJ Redick. He can only shoot! He’s like a smaller quicker Wally Szczerbiak, but don’t let that fool you. Sheldon Williams will probably be an average starter in the NBA some day though, but there has to be someone better at our pick???

2000
In 2000 we had the #21 pick. We basically missed our window with screwing up the 1999 draft. We needed those players to mature and jell for the run we made in 2004. We traded our 2000 first rounder to Toronto (Morris Peterson) for getting rid of Michael Williams crappy contract and getting Chauncey Billups. Basically a very good deal


2001
I said it goes downhill from here but in truth, it is more like bungee jumping without a cord as far as the draft anyway. The Timberwolves somehow got caught in an under the table deal with Joe Smith. It seemed a little strange at the time when the Wolves Signed him for under 2 million and he could have re-signed with Golden State for like 10 mil. Why does this stuff always happen to Minnesota teams. So the commissioner fines them 3.5 mil, no big deal, but also takes away our next 5 #1 draft picks! We would have had the #18 pick. Nobody drafted after us has amounted to much yet anyway oh wait, Tony Parker was the last pick. But if the Wolves would have taken him, he may not have met Eva Longoria in a cruel twist of fate.




Mr. Eva Longoria


2002
Same as 2001, would have had the #24 pick, nobody has emerged in the league after that pick in the draft yet. What does hurt us some is we can’t trade the #1 pick either, just like in 2000 we made a pretty good deal for where our team was, trying to get to the finals, we don’t really need draft picks, but you can trade them to teams that do for quality veterans on teams that have bottomed out.

2003
I a show of compassion, the 2003 pick was reinstated, but instead of trading it, we kept it and drafted YASC, Ndudi Ebi first name pronounced doody, as in poop). Now can we make a rule here? Unless the center is the second coming of Bill Russell, we cannot draft another center, ever. I will now stick my head in a snowblower. Oh yeah and Josh Howard went two picks later, he is currently helping his team in the Western Conference finals with a 17-7 in just 30 some minutes per game.

2004
No Pick Blah Blah Blah

2005
At #14 T-Wolves took Rashad Mccants. A UNC guy but we won’t hold that against him. It is too early to tell how good he will be, like most of the Timberwolves roster. He has flashes of brilliance where it looks like he could be special. Plays D pretty well, and has good quickness. Unfortunately, what the team needs are scorers. KG is not nor will he ever be comfortable taking 30 shots per game. He likes to do the dirty work, prefers it, and that is fine. We just need some scorers who can also lock down on D in the final minutes of the game.


Our New GM Part Man...
2006?
Well the Timberwolves have the #6 pick this year, beating the Celtics in a tie breaker for the 6-7 pick. In worse news the Timberwolves have apparently hired Rob Babcock the GM brain trust behind the last place Toronto Raptors. Well maybe between McHale and Babcock we have at least half a GM, I’ll call him McCock. Well mock drafts have the T-Wolves taking Marcus Williams from Connecticut, or Brandon Roy from Washington could slip. I don’t have a strong opinion on this year’s draft. It is an important one though, just like the 1999 draft was important for the 2004 run. I watched Sheldon Williams and JJ Reddick a lot last year, and as I said Sheldon Williams will be a serviceable power forward in the NBA. Reddick looks to be more like a Hersey Hawkins. He is very active on the offensive end, with rebounding and moving all the time. Contrary to the reports he did create his shot a lot in college. After rebounds or as plays went through other people. So we’ll have to see what McCock can come up with. Unfortunately Joakim Noah and Big Baby Davis are not coming out this year for some reason. Maybe we can trade first rounders with a bad team for next year, and we’ll finally get lucky!