After six months off, it's time to talk about the team.
The overarching storyline of the offseason is that the Howl are getting pick 1. "Weak" draft and in need of more veteran players and everything else that's been beaten to death since the lotto, but dang it there are good players in every draft. Pascal Siakam was picked 27th in his class and the championship "loser" that just motored Miami to the Finals was picked 30th so don't give me that crap. Rosas and the rest of the ops team have to figure out who the best one is but they can pick from the entire pool & no else can say that so stop trying to make it out like it's a bad thing!
I won't ignore that the team could be best served by making a trade for someone who is already in the association. If they've identified a player who they see is on the verge of stardom then yeah, turn him into the #1!
Point is, the only way it's a bad thing is if whoever the new player is turns out to be a Derrick Williams. Even considering the potential miss that is Jarrett Culver, they found Naz Reid & Jordan McLaughlin from the previous draft so First Ave. Center is not the same clown show that is has been.
I get that the long, miserable history of the organization makes it tough to not be permanently cynical but there is a lot to be excited about!
Which brings me to the next elephant in Wolves territory
Recently the team concluded their optional team workouts with fairly complete attendance of the current roster. I didn't see D'Angelo Russell in any of the media posts from that time but also never saw or heard that he wasn't there so I'll give the PG the benefit of the doubt. His alpha running mate is a different story. There's been immense amounts of speculation that Towns wasn't at the workouts as the first sign that he wants out. I can't dispute the validity, but the public reasoning was that he was on vacation with his girlfriend which had been planned ahead of time and by the time he got back it was too late for him to participate.
I'm not saying that's not legit but dude is getting paid tens of millions of dollars by the team - he couldn't eat the cost of whatever wasn't refundable/adjustable and take the vaca after??? So yeah, actually I am saying it's some garbage.
And before you hit the comments, I recognize that he's had a harder few months than most people in the world so some time on the beach or whatever is warranted. But COME ON, he needs to act like the leader that he's claimed he wants to be!
And now for the reason for the dive into hoops at what could be considered the least relevant time of the year.
Yesterday, news was broken that the league would be allowing in-person work with prospects. That may not seem like much on its own but with the perceived weakness of this class and subsequent hit to the value of the #1 if it's included in a trade, being able to see, speak & work with the players in the same building instead of through devices is a massive development for Minnesota!
With the draft slated for a little over a month from now they'll have to work quick in figuring out how their evaluations up to this point line-up with reality. But it's an unmistakable win for the team, in what needs to continue to be a winning offseason!
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