Why Wolves Fans Don't Need to Stress the Draft

As you may know, the NBA draft is set to take place tomorrow night. Though, with all of the trades and speculation that have taken place this week, one might think that, instead, tomorrow is the trade deadline. Nope. Sources are saying it is, in fact, the draft.

I have a lot of thoughts about the draft. I mean, a lot. I was thinking about running through various scenarios for your future-NBA-champion Minnesota Timberwolves, but I've thought up a lot of scenarios and I think I'd still be writing this by the time the draft is over. I'm not sure how to compose this, so I think I'm just gonna go for it and see what happens. Before I dive on in, though, it should be noted that I'm not going to be speculating on who the Wolves will draft (or trade) based on any inside information. I do not have "sources," outside of Twitter, which, let's be honest, doesn't really count.

First, here's why there's no need for us Wolves faithful to worry: I think, if they keep the pick (which is far from guaranteed), the worst realistic scenario is that they take Lauri Markkanen. Now, to be clear, this isn't a great scenario by any means, and is the worst case scenario for good reason. However, what's the one thing the Wolves need? Er, defense, yeah, but what's the other one thing the Wolves need? Okay, yeah, probably a proven veteran player to provide leadership and also quality minutes. What's the other, other one thing the Wolves need? Shooting! Yes! And what's the one thing Markkanen can do? Yes - shoot! That one was much easier. He does fill a need, but in the draft, sometimes drafting for a need is a dangerous game. Markkanen, I think, has a floor of Andrea Bargnani, which is a pretty low floor, for sure. I think a more accurate comparison, though, is kind of a Channing Frye/Ryan Anderson type guy who's tall and knocks down threes and doesn't do much else, which is pretty "meh," but I'd take a guy like that coming off the bench. Unfortunately, I think this is the most likely scenario for the Wolves, but again, it's not a terrible worst-case scenario as far as worst-case scenarios go.

A much better and only slightly less likely scenario that also fills the need of a shooter would be Malik Monk. Monk would be a little redundant with Zach LaVine on the roster, but he definitely would help with bench scoring. I wouldn't count on him to carry the load off the bench as a rookie, but when the Wolves are ready to contend in a few years, he'd be a great piece who would at least keep the Wolves in games while the starters rest. Monk can score with ease and, I think, much like former Kentucky great/current Timberwolves great, Karl-Anthony Towns, was fitting into a role at Kentucky rather than being able to "be himself." This is scenario 1a. for me; I would be ecstatic with Monk

Scenario 1, of course, is Jonathan Isaac. Isaac is a raw prospect, but would still be able to contribute a bit as a rookie. He's a defensive-minded big who can shoot threes, which sounds fantastic to me. Isaac to the Wolves would be a perfect match, as he would provide much needed support for the defense, as well as being able to help out with the shooting issues, though I don't think I'd exactly call him a sharpshooter. For Isaac, Minnesota would be a great landing spot because he would not need to take on a large role right away, and even when he was ready to take on a large(r) role, he would be the secondary big man on the team.

Now, this is all provided they keep the pick. If they don't keep the pick, the worst-case scenario would be trading it for a turd, like former Laker great, Sasha Vujacic (how long has Vujacic been out of the league? That's how long the NBA has been great). Of course, the best-case scenario would be packaging it to get Kristaps Porzingis. Another, more realistic option, of course, would be to trade down. Trading up, technically, is also an option, but I really don't anticipate that happening. If the Wolves were to trade down, I think a great target would be OG Anunoby, an even more defensive-minded big than Isaac, minus all the offensive skills. According to wikipedia, OG has an eight-freaking-foot wingspan, which is just...Jesus...eight feet, huh? I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I'd take him just because he might have something close to an eight foot wingspan. Another trade-down target could be Gonzaga big man, Zach Collins. That'd be...okay. I wouldn't get excited about it, and, actually, would be a little disappointed. Collins is kind of a jack-of-all trades, master of none type of big guy. He'd be a safe pick and a solid rotational big, which, like Markkanen, is definitely not a terrible option. I would prefer Collins to Markkanen, just for the record.

I'm not even going to throw out any trades that the Wolves might make, because my only NBA trading experience is on 2k, and I can hardly throw together a trade that's accepted on there. I will say that Ricky Rubio is my favorite player, and I'd hate to see him go. But, if he were to be part of a package that would net Jimmy Butler or, dare I say, Kristaps Porzingis, and then the Wolves go ahead and sign a Jeff Teague/George Hill/Jrue Holiday (though maybe not Jrue because if he gets injured one more time he'll get put down; I'm pretty sure that's how that works), as they are rumored to be exploring, well, I think I just might be fine with that. However, I really don't think the Wolves will be adding a star.

Whatever happens, even if it's taking Markkanen or trading Rubio for not-Butler or not-Porzingis, we'll still have free agency to look forward to, as this is going to be the most pivotal off-season in franchise history. But, hey, no pressure.

Perpetual Failure: Minnesota Sports

Thus far, my life as a sports fan has been nothing short of tragic. The only championship from a major pro sports team that I've witnessed was the Twins winning the World Series in 1991. I was three months old. Sure, just last year the Lynx won the WNBA title, but that just doesn't give me the same kind of excitement that I would expect from a championship. The major pro sports, I think, are football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. That means that, in order for me to witness a championship by one of my beloved Minnesota teams, either the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, or Wild would have to win one. The Vikings, Twins, and Wild are pretty awful, meaning the Timberwolves have the best shot at a title, though I think the Vikes will be a lot better this year (I'll get to that in a moment). You know Minnesota's sports outlook is pretty bleak when the Timberwolves have the best shot at a title. Their odds aren't good, either. They're not even decent. Sure, we've got Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love, arguably two of the best (if not the best in Kevin Love's case) at their respective positions of point guard and power forward, but outside of those two, we're not very good. Nikola Pekovic showed a lot of promise this year as the team's center, actually, so add him to the Love and Rubio group of "at-least-solid-starters. Derrick Williams showed flashes at times and, given that he was just a rookie, could end up being a very good player. The only problem is that he's more of a power forward than a small forward, and we've got the best power forward in basketball. The team desperately needs a shooting guard that can actually shoot (that seems like it should be easy to find, but apparently it's harder than it seems) and an athletic small forward. If we can get those this off-season, and if Rubio can fully recover from his knee injury, the Wolves will be a contender for a top-four spot in the west next year. Yeah, I said it.

*Sigh*... The Twins. This team is such a mess, I don't even know where to start. Yeah, we've won five of our last seven, which is good (it's actually really good. 1/3 of our wins have come in the last seven games), but frankly, we're a bad team. Without doing any research on this, I believe that Carl Pavano is the only current starter that was in the rotation at the start of the year. That's actually good because, even though all five of them were garbage, he was the best one. Consequently, I believe our starters had the highest ERA among starting rotations in baseball. Now we have three guys I've not heard of and Duensing in the rotation (I think), and I feel a lot more comfortable with that. It's not just the pitching though. Our hitting, though explosive at times, is inconsistent at best. It's unfortunate, too, because when the five guys on the team who can actually hit (Denard Span, Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau, and Ryan Doumit) are hitting well, we score a lot of runs. When they're not, though, that means it's up to guys like Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll, and Erik Komatsu to get hits. They can't get hits. Mauer and Morneau, though still good-very good, are shells of their former selves. If they were the Mauer and Morneau from five or six years ago, this team would be drastically better.

The definition of heartbreaker when it comes to sports has got to be the Minnesota Vikings. I mean, not last year. Last year they were pitiful. It's not like we've never been good, though. It's not even like we haven't been good recently, because we have. Remember 2009? Yeah, the 12-4, Brett-Favre-led Minnesota Vikings won the NFC North division, and should've at least made the Super Bowl. Yeah, I'm going to complain about that NFC Championship game a bit. First, though, I will reminisce. I remember week 3, Favre's last second, desperation heave to the endzone, miraculously caught by none other than Greg Lewis. I remember sprinting to my dorm room from my Monday night class to watch Favre beat the Packers on Monday Night Football. I remember all the "experts" saying the Cowboys would beat us in the Divisional round of the playoffs, their only reason being that the Cowboys won their Wild Card game. I remember saying, numerous times, "I hope we beat the Cowboys by 30, just so everyone will realize how dumb they are." I remember the Vikings winning 34-3, and the Cowboys complaining that we ran up the score. That game couldn't have been more perfect for me. Then, yes, I remember the NFC Championship game against my new-least-favorite team - the New Orleans Saints. The game in which Saints linebacker, Jonathan Vilma, offered $10,000 to whichever player knocked Favre out of the game. A sense of vindication came over me when the Saints' bounty system was discovered; I, along with many other Vikings fans, knew that the Saints players were playing dirty. Non-Vikings fans called us sore losers. What really bothers me, though, is that the referees just let that happen. They're just as pathetic as the Saints players.

That's not all with the heartbreak of the Vikings, though. Remember 1998? The '98 Vikings are the second best team to never win a Super Bowl, behind only the Patriots team that went 16-0 in the regular season. In '98, the Vikings went 15-1. Our kicker, Gary Andersen, didn't miss a single kick the whole year. That's unheard of! 100% accuracy on field goals for the whole year. Granted, we scored a ton of touchdowns, so Andersen didn't need to kick a lot of field goals. However, in the NFC Championship game that year, he not only kicked field goals, he missed field goals. We ended up losing in overtime, and seven-year-old Joe Russell cried.

Currently, the Vikings are not very good. We do, however, have the best running back in the league (Adrian Peterson) and the best defensive end in the league (Jared Allen). Christian Ponder, now that he has a decent left tackle in Matt Kalil, should improve drastically this year. An awful defensive secondary was improved (though only slightly) with the drafting of safety Harrison Smith and cornerback Josh Robinson. For some reason, no matter how bad the Vikings were the year before, I am always optimistic about the upcoming season at this time during the year. Knowing how horrible we were last year, looking at this year's schedule, I think six or seven wins is realistic. That's still not very good, but it's at least twice as good as last year.

(I know next to nothing about hockey, so I'm just going to assume the Wild will be bad again next year)

The thing about Minnesota sports teams is that we're not always bad, we're just never the best. I feel like if you want emotional balance in your life, you need to be a Minnesota sports fan. That sounds kind of crazy, given that it's pretty depressing here, sports-wise, but hear me out. You have to be optimistic to be a Minnesota sports fan. If you're pessimistic, the frustration, depression, and heart break will be too much, and you'll abandon ship. However, Minnesota sports turns anyone into a pessimist because Murphy's Law (what can go wrong will go wrong) is in full effect for every single sporting event. Actually, I guess it could go either way: you'll either find emotional balance, or you'll become a schizophrenic. Heh, well, good luck with that.

The Case Against Google Maps

I don't travel by myself very much. Consequently, when I do travel by myself, I usually don't know how to get to where I am going. If you know me, you know that studying a map would not fall into the category of "my cup of tea." Luckily for people like me, there is such a thing as the internet. A lot of people like to use Google Maps to get directions. I used to be one of those people, but then I got tired of receiving faulty directions. Here are two instances (There are more instances, but I can't remember them. No, really. I'm not lying! (For real, though, I'm not lying)) of Google Maps failing.

In late December of last year (So, last December. Like 3 months ago), the Russell clan was having a family dinner. Like, big family dinner - aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. You get the idea. My dad was appointed, possibly by himself, as the dinner organizer. Not surprisingly, he picked a Chinese restaurant.* I was at my mother's house the night of the dinner, which meant I'd have to drive myself to the restaurant. As per the usual, I did not know how to get to said restaurant. I looked up the address and then got directions from my mom's house to the restaurant via Google Maps. I was a little skeptical of the directions as soon as I saw them. One of the steps in the directions was to make a U-turn. I'm no navigator, but I'm pretty sure U-turns are for when you've missed your turn. If you're putting U-turns in the directions, I feel like you're acknowledging that you suck at giving directions. The worst part is that the U-turn wasn't even necessary, but because I made the U-turn, I got lost. Instead of "make a U-turn at ____ Street," the directions should have said "turn left on _____ Street." Of course, since I followed Google Maps' directions, I was late. By a lot.

Two weeks ago, my mom and I went to a Timberwolves game (That's basketball). However, neither of us knew how to get to the Target Center (Where the Timberwolves play (Basketball)). My mom decided to take charge in finding directions, and did not adhere to my warning about Google Maps. Google's directions brought us to Target Field (Where the Twins play (Baseball)). Admittedly, that's actually pretty close to the Target Center (Basketball), but in reality, that's a horrible job of directioning.** Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. And shoe-bocce. But NOT directions!

*I've noticed that my dad is really into Chinese stuff, especially their food. I'm trying to decide if this is because he and my step-mom adopted two boys from China, or if he's always been this way, and his lifelong enthusiasm for all things China is what led to the decision to adopt from there. I don't remember him being a huge Chinese food fan, so I'm thinking it may be the former.

**"Directioning" is a new word I made up. It means "giving directions." I didn't want to use "directing" because that reminds me of a director, either musically or businessally (Another word I made up - "pertaining to business"). "Directioning," I feel, clears up any confusion.