I Dislike Your Favorite Team

I already spent some time on the bad luck of the Wolves, and whether if this time around, it is really bad luck or not.  "Some people" are calling this a two person NBA draft, though Chad Ford might disagree with those people:  "there are eight to 10 very good players before you see a drop-off.  The Wolves should have no trouble getting a player who can step right in and help them."

The story of the  unlucky draft history might not work out, but that won't stop the Twin Cities press from repeating themselves.

Jim Souhan had his grumpy pants on, and access to jokes that were made 5 years ago, when he wrote his column reacting to the #4 news.  The Target Center is empty, and cursed!  Corey Brewer is skinny!  The Cubs and Cleveland have curses!  (Of course, the Target Center wasn't cursed when it had Garnett, Cassell, and Sprewell, but I suppose that's an issue of history not fitting in with the narrative, and thus, should be ignored).

He then segued into the worst read on this incredibly deep draft that I've seen:  "All that painstaking losing and not playing defense and shooting like a drunken paintball team yielded the fourth pick in a draft that promises one star and one standout."

Jesus, that's not just cynical, it's just wrong, wrong, wrong.  And hey, the last time I checked, the Wolves were rebuilding.  The media here just don't seem to understand what that term means.  If you drive by a construction site that is only halfway done, you don't yell out the window, "Hey, your building is extremely ugly, and I don't care for it."  At least, sane people don't.  "Rebuilding" is a nice way of saying "building all over again, after the previous owner burnt the building down for the insurance money."  Criticizing the project before it is anywhere near completion is silly.  And Kahn has done a nice job thus far, I think--when your oldest player at the beginning of the season is 26 years old, you are not thinking about the season at hand--you are looking a year or two into the future.  But the Twin Cities press would like to know--why look to the future, when you can look to the past?

Tom Powers, speaking of old jokes, would like to remind you that the previous regime drafted some bad players.  Why is that relevant?  Wasn't it ousted VP Kevin McHale who picked Nbudi Ebi and traded Brandon Roy for Randy Foye?  Who cares?  It's all the same history, apparently.  Let's blame Abraham Lincoln for all the mistakes that Franklin Pierce made.

Powers is more optimistic than Souhan--he doesn't think it is a 2 person draft with Wall and Turner.  He thinks it is a 3 person draft, with Wall, Turner and Cousins.  Of course, I've seen multiple mock drafts in which at least one of these guys falls to the Wolves.  John Wall is locked in at #1, no doubt, but teams don't base their picks on what will hurt the Wolves most--they'll go with need.  I'll be shocked if Cousins and Turner are both off the board before #4.  And even if they are, there's plenty of options left--Wesley Johnson, for example.

It is just so damn easy to mock a team that is has some bad luck, but it doesn't seem right to do so here--the Wolves are rebuilding after a half-decade of negligence at the hands of Kevin McHale, who was always sure they were only one great free agent away from being good (ah, remember the Ricky Davis era?  Me neither.)  Kahn seems to have a plan, and that plan has resulted in 2 Top 10 picks in this years draft, with a core group of guys that I like.

When in doubt--if Tom Powers and Jim Souhan agree on something--go the other way.