Decade Draftcap

Over the last 10 years the Timberwolves have selected 32 players in the draft. Some of the picks have been home runs but most of the picks have been ok to down right terrible. I tried to take a straw poll over at www.canishoopus.com of the worst pick that the team has made and the biggest miss as well but was unsuccessful.

So I'm just going to take a stab at it myself. Let me know if you think I'm way off after I wrap it.

For those who even have to wonder, KAT has already proved to be the best pick made by the team over the last decade. Just stay healthy big man, stay HEALTHY.

Anyway's, lets get on with the negativity.
There have been a bunch of players taken from overseas, who will probably never suit up here so I'm just going to exclude them from consideration.

The obvious choices are Jonny Flynn, Wes Johnson and Derrick Williams but the dark horse is one Bracey Wright. In all honesty, he was a second round pick so there's no way to classify him as the worst pick in the last 10 years, but the list of players who have played minutes in the NBA and were drafted by the Timberwolves isn't as bad as I imagined. So it basically just boils down to those three.

Each of them was selected in the top six of their respective drafts, which makes me oh so happy that David Kahn is no longer running the show!

Just today I saw that D-Will is opting to not use his player option to remain with the Knicks for another year, but would like to re-sign with them. This past season he averaged under 10 points and four rebounds/game. Getting past the awful hair style choice, those are not good number for the former #2 overall pick. On a team that was way below .500, he didn't even average 18 minutes. So yeah he's pretty bad, which is news to no one. But he isn't the worst.

A year before taking Williams, Wesley Johnson was brought in from Syracuse. This past season he played in 80 games and averaged over 20 minutes but otherwise, he was just a deep bench guy for the Clippers. His stats are actually pretty humiliating.

But I still don't think he's the worst, because he's still playing ball. They both are and that's a measure of some success. One Jonny Flynn is unequivocally the worst of the decade. Not that it's worth much but he actually stuck around the association for parts of four years but he hasn't been linked to any basketball team anywhere in the world in over a year and a half. He's done. Quite literally, it's over Jonny.

All those picks are pretty bad and the Flynn choice was the worst just based on the arc that his career has taken but which player in the last 10 drafts is the biggest miss by the Timberwolves?

I don't think it's a stretch to say that the Timberwolves got the best out of the both the 2015 and 2014 drafts so thankfully we'll have to go back a little further.

In 2013 the Wolves took Trey Burke but flipped him for Shabazz Muhammed. Not a bad trade but Burke would be a nice piece for the current team to have. Of all the players taken after Burke the Greek Freak is easily the biggest miss. Giannis Antetokounmpo may very well end up being the best player from this class and he could have been had at either of the Wolves selections. The rumor that he may run the point in the Milwaukee next year may only be talk but that's quite a statement in and of itself.

2012 was the Hummel draft so unless you love Robert Sacre, there was no one better drafted after him, and none of the "notable" undrafted's were consequential, thanks to Bleacher Report for still having that info available.

Moving right along, 2011 is sort of a pick em of better players. Enes Kanter, Tristan Thompson, Jonas Valanciunas, Bismack Biyombo, Brandon Knight, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Iman Shumpert, Kenneth Faried, Reggie Jackson, Cory Joseph, Jimmy Butler, Chandler Parsons, and Isaiah Thomas. That's an expansive list and is a function of drafting #2, but that's an obnoxious number of misses. Butler being the last guy from the first round gives me good feelings for what Thibs may be able to do in just over 24 hours.

In 2010 Demarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, Gordon Hayward, Paul George, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, and Hassan Whiteside would all have been better selections then Wes Johnson.

2009; the one that people will forever talk about. After Rubio and Flynn went back to back Steph Curry got grabbed but who else would have been a good choice? Jordan Hill, DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Jennings, Gerald Henderson, Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague, Darren Collison, Omri Casspi, Taj Gibson, DeMarre Carroll, Dejuan Blair, Danny Green. We had six picks that year and missed on all those guys. Great job Khan!

2008 was a bit of an outlier, since we ended up trading for a better player but was there anyone better then Kevin Love in this draft? With the third pick the Timberwolves could have selected Russell Westbrook, Danilo Gallinari, Eric Gordon, DJ Augustin, Brook Lopez, Roy Hibbert, JaVale McGee, JJ Hickson, Ryan Anderson, Serge Ibaka, Nic Batum, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, and Goran Dragic those last three all came after picking Pek and Mario Chalmers...awesome. It worked out in the end with the Wiggins trade but I would have no complaints about Westbrook in Minnesota!

So all the way back to 2007, we selected Corey Brewer with the seventh pick and while his time in Minnesota was far from stellar, he's still a good player in the league. Who else could have been a good fit though? Joakim Noah, Thaddeus Young, Aaron Brooks, Tiago Splitter, Marc Gasol. A few of those are stretches I know but Gasol in the second round is kind of nuts!

In 2006 the Wolves selected and traded Brandon Roy, with the consideration of his knee problems it worked out ok, but I wouldn't have minded the all star seasons he had. Was there anyone taken after his that could have worked out better? Randy Foye, Rudy Gay, JJ Redick, Rajon Rondo, Kyle Lowry. A short list and not a good draft over all, but a few possibilities who could have been better.

Last but not least, all the way back to 2005. The Wolves selected Rashad McCants #14, please tell me there is someone better! Gerald Green, Nate Robinson, David Lee, Monta Ellis, Marcin Gortat round out the last group. Gortat was taken well after the aforementioned Bracey and would have been an excellent pick in the second round but any of those guys would have been at least as good or better then Cants.

But who is the biggest miss of all? There are a lot of potential guys to sift through. Westbrook, Gasol, DeRozen, George, Monroe, Cousins, Curry, Thompson, Leonard, Butler, Thomas, Antetokounmpo. That's almost a dream team right there, and all of those guys could have been on our squad for no additional charge. It has to come down to the reigning MVP and mr. defense though. If Curry can stay healthy for five more years then it's pretty much a lock but I can't exclude Leonard at this point. Whatever the case may be, we missed some GREAT players!

Another 24 hours and we'll start to see what we got and who we missed, but that's the past 10 years of drafts.

What say you? Curry? Leonard? Someone else? Make your case in the comments!