FanPost

More Oddity?



I brought this up elsewhere, but with the addition of Derrick Williams last night, many are suggesting the Wolves' best (or maybe, most interesting) lineup next year should eventually be:

Rubio
Wes
Beasley
Williams
Love

So what's so odd about that? (I mean, besides the fact it's a mad science experiment trying to demarcate the fine line between "tweener" and "versatile"?)

Rubio (5th overall pick, 2009)
Wes (4th overall pick, 2010)
Beasley (2nd overall pick, 2008)
Williams (2nd overall pick, 2011)
Love (5th overall pick, 2008)

Yup, all five are former top-5 picks. (We can even swap in Darko, as well.)

My first thought was that has to be completely unique right now, right? Is there another team out there that even comes close?

Moreover, how unique is that historically, particularly in the post-merger, post-expansion era? If we could somehow formulate an NFL-style "draft points" system, would that lineup rank as one of the highest "draft" lineups in recent memory?

Sadly, I can't answer that. Have no idea how.

But moving beyond the trivia, what do people make of that? Do they undervalue role players/glue guys, or do they simply not know how to find them? Does this indicate an overall swing-for-the-fences mentality in Kahn's roster construction, or is it just a fluke? (That's not to suggest you can "only" find glue guys/role players outside the top 5; we know that's not true. But I don't think anybody's going to vouch for the Wolves' ability to find diamonds in the rough once the "elite" talent is picked over.)

My suspicion is a little from column A, a little from column B: They don't adequately value role players, and they probably do have some serious evaluation limitations.

Or maybe, since Beasley's the one guy who wasn't drafted by the Wolves, it's simply they've been terrible long enough that top 5 picks are going to accumulate on the roster.

At any rate, I just found that interesting.