Well better late than never, and that certainly is the case for my NBA draft review. For the first time in my life I felt almost every single emotion in a span of 24 hours: First happiness, the Wolves drafting O.J. Mayo brought the 3rd most talented prospect in the draft to the Twin Cities meaning that Wolves GM Kevin McHale was actually going to attempt building a winner.
The Happiness was followed by a wave of confusion. I put 2 and 2 together a bit faster than usual and realized that the Miami Heat had taken Michael Beasley (my top ranked player) the pick before, and weren’t the Heat in love with O.J. Mayo?
I could sense the trade coming, I sensed it, I sensed it and I sensed it but no report came that my Wolves and the Heat were in any talks about swapping picks. This was the first wave of anger, how in God’s name could we not even try to get Beasley? We drafted the player the Heat loved, we were only one pick below, and imagine Beasley and Al Jefferson down low together. But when all was said and done Beasley was not going to become a Minnesota Timberwolf and I moved into my next emotion: acceptance.
After all I’ve seen Mayo play in person and he blew me away, the kid has been in the national spotlight since he was nine years old, and he will be an amazing scorer in the NBA where no defense is played, ever. A lot of people questioned the kid’s character based on poor decisions in his past, throughout draft week every reporter littered Mayo’s brain with questions about the allegations of accepting money and gifts from agents while he was still in high school. Mayo handled each question with the utmost maturity and was a better public speaker than any other player at the draft. So my initial emotion of happiness returned and I went to sleep that night excited about watching Ovinton J’Anthony Mayo in a T-Wolves jersey next season. I had no idea draft day was far from over.
At 6:30am the next morning I awoke to a text message from a friend of mine in Portland that simply said: Mayo for Love? That was all the information I needed to know that Wolves general manager Kevin McHale had traded 3rd overall pick O.J. Mayo to the Memphis Grizzlies for his man crush Kevin Love. This next emotion wasn’t anger, it was rage much earlier in the day than I’m used to.
The T-Wolves didn’t need a power forward, especially an undersized slow one. McHale once again got tunnel vision and only focused on the prospect that he wanted and would’ve done anything to get him. For the next two hours this was the worst trade I ever heard of and hated every single piece of it.
Then I calmed down and looked into it more deeply and realized McHale might’ve known what he was doing on this one. So before you’re ready to cancel your season tickets T-Wolves fans let me attempt to make this trade seem like a good thing.
Why I like it: We finally dumped the contract of Marko Jarric who was probably the biggest mistake in the entire McHale regime. Antoine Walker who had absolutely no role with this team is gone, along with his overpriced contract. Mike Miller is a swingman still in his prime who can seriously help this team. Miller is a tremendous shooter and a competitor with fire in his guts, a player the Wolves haven’t had in quite awhile.
However those are just the throw-ins the main focus of this trade should be Mayo v. Love. Mayo is more talented and 15 years from now will probably have more impressive career numbers. But, he’d be a long shot for the Wolves to resign after his initial contract expired. He would join an already crowded backcourt that includes first round picks Randy Foye and Rashad McCants. Love is a player who has expressed interest in playing in Minnesota, not a very common statement. There is a better chance he will play his whole career here, and if Al Jefferson can play center on this team then these two could form a frontcourt to be reckoned with in the near future.
Who this trade puts the most pressure on is without a doubt Randy Foye. There’s already been quite a bit of pressure on the combo guard going into his third year out of Villanova, after the Wolves traded eventual rookie of the year Brandon Roy to Portland for the rights to Foye. He has so far shown a lot of promise when he’s been healthy, but injuries and a lack of talent surrounding him have prevented him from having great seasons instead of average seasons. Trading away Mayo says one thing, “Randy we need you to be the guard that we knew you could be when we traded for you.”
If Foye can become the dominant guard he is capable of being this will go down in the record books as a good trade, if not Wolves fans will again be crossing their fingers come lottery time 2009.
Terry Horstman
