(Ep. 448/ATL and 29) Draft Wrap-Up

And LaMelo got traded.

How crazy is

that? I was surprised at how much the Timberwolves gave up for him.

And they now have basically routed a bunch of guards.

Jade McDaniels was a forward.

So it's going to be interesting to see what they do for agency.

They don't have a ton of cap space left.

So I don't know how they're going to build the rest of that roster, but they're going to play pretty small, Rudy aside, but I can't believe they gave up that much draft capital to get him.

That just blows my mind.

I mean, it shows they're desperate, right? I think that's my bigger takeaway is that clearly the Timberwolves are desperate to appease Ant.

He's been barking through the back channels that he's not happy with the direction the Timberwolves are going.

I think in large part because, you know, the creation load, it's just not a good role for him.

And I do think, like, getting LaMelo Ball for what they gave up in terms of players, absolute win for the next couple seasons.

But, you know, to me, I'm like, this is a desperate team.

They know they have to be better.

We'll see if it pans out.

I think the overall landscape of what the Timberwolves did is they moved the deck chairs on the Titanic a little bit, where instead of having size and defense, we're going to be more offensive focused and have Rudy Gobert be our only backline defender.

But I think their ceiling is ultimately capped here.

Like, you know, we saw with the Hornets, for as great as LaMelo was last year, and, like, I don't want to take away from the season LaMelo had.

He was one of the best players in the sport last year.

He should have been in all – I don't know if he made All-NBA, but he should have been definitely in consideration for All-NBA considering the impact that he had on the game last year.

But you saw when the going gets tough defensively, if he's not surrounded by good defensive talent, they're not getting stops.

And we saw it against the Sixers in a must-win game where they could not get a stop, and, like, LaMelo was a liability there.

Saw it against the Heat, you know, when they almost lost against a weak Miami Heat basketball team.

Even though they're the more talented team overall, it was still a drag-out dogfight because they couldn't get stops on the other end.