What To Do With Number Two?

March 13, 2008

Each draft has prospects who intrigue, European players barely heard from and, of course, the cream of the crop. If the players expected to make themselves eligible for the draft are ready to join the league, the cream of the crop stands at two players. Namely, Michael Beasley from Kansas State and Derrick Rose from Memphis.

If the current standings held and the ping-pong balls of the NBA Draft Lottery fell in favor of the percentages, the Minnesota Timberwolves would hold the number two pick. After a rough season as far as wins and losses go, something positive needs to come of it.

So, the Timberwolves should be in a nice position come draft night, right? Not exactly.

Many expect the Miami Heat would select Beasley with the number one overall pick, but there are doubts. In the Shaquille O'Neal trade, the Heat brought in Shawn Marion, who, despite the team's horrible record, will more than likely decide to stay in South Beach alongside Dwayne Wade. If Marion elects to stay, Beasley would be redundant and the Heat would miss out on filling their most gaping hole at the point guard spot, making Rose their choice.

In this best case scenario for the Wolves, the Heat make the tough decision and Minnesota is able to walk away with Beasley at the number two slot. If Miami does select Beasley number one, things get tricky for the Wolves.

The Timberwolves are set on making Randy Foye their "point guard of the future" and his play of late indicates he should possibly be given the shot for a full season after missing half of 2007-08. In February—Foye's first full month of action—he averaged 10.0 points, 2.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds on 38% from the field in 28.9 minutes. Halfway through March, Foye is averaging 14.8 points, 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds on 47% shooting in 34.8 minutes.

Although Foye still has a long way to go in his development, his recent numbers show improvement in his ability to run a team. Sebastian Telfair, who is in the midst of a career season, has also shown major improvement in his own game and has, in essence, earned the right to return to Minnesota. Telfair has stated he enjoys this team and would welcome a return and should be re-signed as long as he dedicates himself to improving his jumpshot over the summer.

Not to mention Marko Jaric and his large contract are not going anywhere soon.

This makes the selection of Derrick Rose a tough one to make. Rose could come in and play the point with Telfair as his backup, sliding Foye over to the shooting guard position, but with both Foye and Rashad McCants in the two slot, Minnesota finds themselves very undersized. One of the main focuses this offseason for the Wolves should be gaining size, not continuing to horde smaller players, so selecting Rose would not be a good fit.

Minnesota's biggest need is at the center position and with the number two pick in the draft, they could select whichever big man they wanted. The 2008 NBA Draft will have many intriguing big men, such as Brook Lopez of Stanford, DeAndre Jordan of Texas A&M, Hasheem Thabeet of Connecticut, JaVale McGee of Nevada and Roy Hibbert of Georgetown. The question remains if any of them are worth the number two pick in the draft, although right now, the answer seems to be a no.

Hibbert's stock has fallen, showing he made a mistake by not entering last year's draft. Yet, it is hard to argue against selecting a Georgetown center considering the history of Georgetown big men in the league. Because Hibbert has been overtaken in many mock drafts by prospects, Minnesota would be able to snag him later in the draft, possibly using the number two pick and Antoine Walker's expiring contract as a part of a draft day trade.

With all that said, Derrick Rose would not look bad in a Timberwolves uniform.

Of course, everyone speculates leading up to the draft, but nobody will know for sure who lands where until then. For the Timberwolves front office, this draft is easily the most important in the history of the franchise. The first year post-Kevin Garnett is nearing completion, evaluations of the current roster are nearly complete and this draft pick should give a clear indication of where the team truly believes they stand.