Thursday, June 28, 2007

You Got Gators in My Wolves; You Got Wolves in My Gators

The Timberwolves did better than some in the draft, and have apparently held onto to Kevin Garnett in the short term.

I'll be linking to a bunch of Star Tribunal reactions to the draft, but first my own, as I've had some time to react.

My love of Corey Brewer is well documented. I felt he was being somewhat underrated, especially in terms of his offensive skills. Yes, they need work, but he dropped assists for that Florida team that I never saw supposed point guard Taureen Green drop; he hit 3 pointers with defenders in his face. He drove the basket when he needed to. And his defense was sublime. He's 6'8", with the arm span of a man several inches taller than that. He anticipates passes well, and runs the break well. I imagine he very well may remind both Wolves fans and KG of a young Malik Sealy. The only problem with that is that Sealy was a polished professional by the time he latched onto the Wolves. The Twin Cities media looks at Brewer and sees Trenton Hassell, but that's only because their memory sucks shit, and they are lazy, and fat, and kind of stupid. I see young Malik in Brewer.

The Wolves weren't done picking Gators who remind me of Wolves. In the second round, they picked up 6th man Chris Richard, who is just one inch taller than Brewer, but his game is very, very different indeed. He's more of a Craig Smith type. On another team, Richard may have been a star, ala Big Baby at LSU. In Florida's frenetic pace, he simply didn't match. He still was a key player off the bench, but he didn't run the floor like Noah or Horford. But his body may be better suited for the NBA than either of his more highly esteemed collegiate teammates. We'll see. I thought the Wolves were taking a flyer on Smith last year, and they showed they knew what were they doing with that pick; regardless, Richard does resemble what the Wolves need--a banger under the net who doesn't care about scoring.


Sid Hartman would like you to know that 50 years ago, when he was drafting for the Minneapolis Lakers, the draft was quite different. Back then, there was no TV or internet coverage. No shit, Sid? Keep phoning it in old man.

Very favorite moment of the draft: Spencer Hawes gets drafted, and Mike Tirico, helping to flesh out the human side of the big goofy giant, mentions that Spencer has a bumper sticker that reads, "God Bless George Bush". The New York audience, presumably full of Jews and Blacks, and Terrorists, Loudly Boo. Awesome.

I Want To Be A Sports Agent has put together the winner and loser agents of this draft.

1 comment:

Jess said...

I booed right along with them.