Skip to main content

Minnesota Timberwolves Passed On Stephen Curry Twice In The NBA Draft, Failed To Land Klay Thompson In A Blockbuster Trade, And Traded Andrew Wiggins To The Warriors


 


The Golden State Warriors team and their fans are currently the happiest in the entire league. After all, the Dubs recently won the 2022 NBA Championship behind a sensational all-around performance.


Winning this title meant the Warriors won their fourth ring in the last eight years. Truly, a phenomenal achievement. The Warriors deserve all the credit in the world as most of their talent is homegrown and was actually drafted by the franchise.


But the Minnesota Timberwolves certainly deserve some credit for the success of the Warriors. Now, before you call us out, let us explain.


The cornerstone superstar for the Warriors in their successful run for almost a decade has been Stephen Curry. Curry has truly changed the way that teams play in the league now with his amazing three-point shooting. Additionally, any team needs a Curry-like superstar to even think of winning an NBA Championship.


He was drafted by the Warriors using the 7th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. But before the Dubs, the Timberwolves had a chance at drafting Steph not once, but twice. The Timberwolves had the 5th and 6th overall picks in the 2009 NBA Draft.


Moreover, they were in need of a guard. Instead of getting Curry, they drafted Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. Both players were point guards, but they never even came close to reaching the level of Curry in the NBA. To make things worse, the Timberwolves had a very foolish reason to skip Curry.


Moving forward, in the summer of 2014, Kevin Love for Klay Thompson was one of the hottest trade rumors in the NBA. At that point, K-Love was a superstar for the T-Wolves, and Klay was starting to show signs of his true potential.



The Timberwolves were ready to trade Kevin Love, as he had already informed the franchise that he wanted to move on in his career. The Warriors seemed like a very realistic option, as Love would be a perfect fit for the franchise. Unfortunately, Klay Thompson was off the table for the Warriors. As a result, the trade fell out.


Lastly, coming to a recent transaction between the two franchises. Yes, we are talking about the Andrew Wiggins trade. After acquiring the former first overall pick from a trade with the Cavs, the Timberwolves paired him up with Karl-Anthony Towns.


Unfortunately, Wiggs never bloomed into a superstar for the Wolves and he was quickly becoming a burden for the franchise. As a result, the T-Wolves traded him for D'Angelo Russell to the Warriors in 2020. But they also had to give up a first-round pick in addition to Wiggins.


Fast forward to 2022, Wiggins ended up playing a crucial role in helping the Warriors win this season's title. On top of that, the first-round pick turned out to be Jonathan Kuminga in the 2021 NBA Draft, who has the potential to become a special player in the NBA.



All things considered, the Timberwolves have truly messed up multiple times when dealing with the Warriors. As a result, they are stuck in mediocrity while the Dubs are one of the best teams in the NBA.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Klay Thompson to sit out Warriors preseason games in Japan as Kerr says he needs more time to ramp-up

  Klay Thompson may have returned healthy to the Golden State Warriors last season, but the scars from his two missed seasons are still quite visible. The Warriors played their first of two preseason games against the Washington Wizards on Friday and will play another on Sunday, but Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that Thompson will not be playing at all during the trip to Japan. "Just feel more comfortable giving him a little more of a ramp up," Kerr said before Friday's victory over Washington. "He's just not quite ready to play at this point just based on where, you know, we're so early in camp. We just want to be safe and make sure he gets a good ramp-up before he plays in games." Typically, so little time to ramp up wouldn't be a problem for a veteran in a preseason context. The games tend to be so low-impact and demand so few minutes out of a team's best players that they can safely jog through them. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green played 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shaquille O'Neal says Dennis Rodman was his worst teammate: 'He was a great player, but he made it hard'

  Shaquille O'Neal played for six franchises over a 20-year NBA career. That's a lot of teammates. Speaking on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion and Hall of Famer revealed which one of those teammates was the worst.  "Worst teammate? Dennis Rodman," O'Neal said. "He was a great player, but he made it hard. Like when you try to corral the guys together and the people above you [are] letting this one guy do whatever he wants. So we had to be there an hour before the game. He'd come in fifteen minutes before the game eating chicken and rice. While the coaches are talking, he would jump in the shower. Cold shower. Come and give you 15-20 rebounds." O'Neal played with some characters in his time. We know about his beef with Kobe Bryant, who we know wasn't always the easiest teammate to get along with, though Shaq has long expressed regret over the way he and Bryant handled their relationship as young superstars, and eventually, he ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kevin Durant injury update: Nets rule star out for home-and-home vs. Raptors, hopeful for return later in week

Brooklyn Nets star forward Kevin Durant is expected to return to the floor this upcoming week. Head coach Steve Nash says it just won't be against the Raptors, either Monday or Tuesday night in the team's home-and-home against Toronto. Durant has started doing more on-court work recently as he recovers from the sprained MCL he suffered in his left knee last month, and Nash is optimistic about his prognosis moving forward. The former MVP will not play on Monday night against the Toronto Raptors, however.  "I think with Kevin he's been a great healer throughout his career," Nash said Saturday. "So the No. 1 thing is to get him back healthy and feeling secure in his health and his body so he can move and be free. When he's back, obviously he adds a ton to our team on both ends of the floor ... one of the greatest scorers of all time. And we also know he helps us defensively; he gives us more size and length. So he's a big miss for us, and whenever he get...
Post a Comment
Read more