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OK, I've finally given in. This was supposed to be the time of year where we were talking about what playoff seed the Wolves were going to get, but hey. Here we are.
We have been doing this draft thing for quite a while. Here's 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
I've monkeyed with the score over the years and have finally settled down into a pretty basic concept: weighted good s**t - weighted bad s**t = player score.
To give you an idea how things have stacked up over the years, here's some scores from drafts past:
| 2012 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | Anthony Davis (33.7) | Jae Crowder (28.2) | Damian Lillard (31.7) |
| 2 | Thomas Robinson (32.2) | Orlando Johnson (27.7) | Scott Machado (25.3) |
| 3 | Mike Scott (31.6) | Will Barton (27.1) | J'Covan Brown (23.5) |
| 4 | Draymond Green (31.6) | Terrence Jones (24.9) | Tu Holloway (23) |
| 5 | Andrew Nicholson (31.5) | Tony Wroten (24.5) | Tyshawn Taylor (22.4) |
| 6 | Jared Sullinger (30.3) | Marcus Denmon (24.3) | Kendall Marshall (20) |
| 7 | Royce White (30) | Dion Waiters (24.2) | Marquis Teague (16) |
| 8 | Kyle O'Quinn (30) | Kevin Murphy (24) | |
| 9 | Tyler Zeller (30) | Jeff Taylor (24) | |
| 10 | Drew Gordon (29.2) | Bradley Beal (23.8) | |
| 11 | John Henson (28.4) | Moe Harkless (23.6) | |
| 12 | Kevin Jones (28.3) | John Jenkins (23.1) | |
| 13 | JayMychal Green (27) | Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (23) | |
| 14 | Henry Simms (26.3) | Harrison Barnes (22.8) | |
| 15 | Arnett Moultrie (26.2) | Jared Cunningham (22.1) | |
| 16 | Bernard Jones (24.7) | Jeremy Lamb (21.9) | |
| 17 | Meyers Leonard (24.7) | Quincy Miller (21.8) | |
| 18 | Andre Drummond (23.4) | Darius Johnson Odom (21.5) | |
| 19 | Festus Ezel (23.1) | Kris Joseph (20.5) | |
| 20 | Perry Jones III (22.7) | Kim English (19.3) |
| 2011 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | Kenneth Faried (36) | Orlando Johnson (31) | Norris Cole (31) |
| 2 | Derrick Williams (32) | Kawhi Leonard (30) | Jimmer! (31) |
| 3 | Jared Sullinger (31) | Alec Burks (29) | Kyrie Irving (30) |
| 4 | Jon Leuer (30) | Terrence Jones (29) | Kemba Walker (30) |
| 5 | Mike Scott (29) | Marshon Brooks (29) | CJ McCollum (29) |
| 2010 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | DMC (36) | Evan Turner (35) | Jimmer! (31) |
| 2 | Kenneth Faried (36) | Landry Fields (31) | Grevis Vasquez (28) |
| 3 | Hassan Whiteside (33) | Al Faroq Aminu (28) | Jeremy Lin (27) |
| 4 | Larry Sanders (31) | Paul George (28) | John Wall (26) |
| 5 | Luke Harangody (32) | Luke Babbitt (28) | Damian Lillard (25) |
| 2009 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | Blake Griffin (41) | James Harden (31) | Stephen Curry (37) |
| 2 | John Bryant (40) | Manny Harris (30) | Ben Whiteside (32) |
| 3 | DeJuan Blair (38) | Tyreke Evans (30) | Eric Maynor (31) |
| 4 | Luke Harangody (35) | Marcus Thornton (29) | Nick Calathes (30) |
| 5 | Kenneth Faried (35) | Evan Turner (29) | Jeremy Lin (29) |
| 2008 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | Michael Beasley (40) | James Harden (29) | Steph Curry (32) |
| 2 | Kevin Love (37) | Courtney Lee (28) | George Hill (31) |
| 3 | John Bryant (37) | Sam Young (26) | Nick Calathes (27) |
| 4 | Luke Harangody (34) | CDR (26) | Eric Maynor (26) |
| 5 | Jason Thompson (34) | Lee Cummard (26) | Derrick Rose (26) |
This year's scores are as follows.
| 2013 | Bigs | Wings | Lead Guards |
| 1 | Mike Muscala (38.6) | Kyle Anderson (35.4) | Victor Oladipo (37.7) |
| 2 | Kelly Olynyk (35.3) | Doug McDermott (35) | Marcus Smart (35.8) |
| 3 | Cody Zeller (30.59) | Jamal Franklin (29.27) | CJ McCollum (33.7) |
| 4 | Elias Harris (30.34) | Otto Porter (28.7) | Nate Wolters (31.1) |
| 5 | Augistine Rubit (29.7) | KCP (28.2) | Trey Burke (28.9) |
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of there being 2 Steph Curry level guards being in this draft (Oladipo/Smart). That can't be right, right? There has to be a catch.
This is shaping up to be a surprisingly deep and solid draft. There certainly aren't any superstars but there are a lot of solid NBA rotation talent to be had and a team would have to be out of its ever-loving mind to get rid of picks when it could pick up cheap rotation level players.
At the cliched end of the day, there is really no reason on god's green earth that the Wolves shouldn't walk away with Oladipo, Smart, Anderson, Muscala, Olynyk, or Zeller with their top pick. That's a solid player that they should in no way, shape, or form move for immediate success. (I'm leaving out the clear #1 pick: Noel, as he got hurt and I don't know if he's in or out.)
Oladipo is pretty hard to overlook at this point. Scoring efficiency + do shit number = awesomeness and that is exactly what he brings to the table. BTW, the highest do shit Hoopus score of the last 5 years has been Anthony Davis (17.1). Noel has a 16.0. The highest lead guard last year was Damian Lillard with 5.9. Oladipo has a 10.1. He plays like an awesome SF off the ball while scoring like an awesome shooting guard...and he defends. Yes, please. The only hold up is that he's not a freshman and his awesome play took some development.
Kyle Anderson is the ultimate do-shit player. His offense needs a ton of work but you rarely (RARELY!!!) see teenaged freshman doing this well off the ball. If he grows a millimeter on offense from here on out it's icing on the cake.
McCollum got hurt early on but had he continued what he was doing, he was Lillard +.
Muscala and Wolters are Minnesotans who were passed over by the U. Fire Tubby.
My DRAFT OTTO PORTER AT ALL COSTS steam has died down a bit but he'd still be a nice pickup for the Wolves.
Wrapping things up, the Wolves could have 2 picks in a decent draft with lots and lots of rotation-level talent. This is a pretty remarkable thing, especially when you consider that they need wing talent and bigs...the two areas where there appears to be enough depth to last through 2 Wolves picks. An Olynyk + Oladipo draft is a home run. A Oladipo + Dieng (not mentioned above, but still amazing) draft would be fantastic. An Anderson + McCollum draft gives the team much needed productive minutes at the lead guard and big positions.
Anywho, I'll update this spreadsheet after the tourney, but these are some of the players you should be keeping an eye out for in the next few weeks.
Until later.