http://nbadraft.net/2008northwestteamneeds001.asp Minnesota Timberwolves 2007-08 record: 22-60 Head Coach: Randy Wittman Team Needs: C, SF Along with the Sonics, the Minnesota Timberwolves are in the midst of a youth movement after trading their best player in franchise history to the Boston Celtics. The Wolves are a team that needs its young players to step up, more talent and a few more years before they can be taken seriously in the Western Conference. The Wolves live and die by Al Jefferson, the young PF who Minnesota recouped in the Kevin Garnett trade. In his first season being the go-to player on a team, he responded quite well, averaging 21 points and 11 boards to go along with nearly 1.5 blocks and a .500 field goal percentage. Not a bad player to build a team around. The only problem now is the lack of size next to him. The rest of the frontcourt goes like this: Gomes is a nice change of pace PF to come off the bench, Craig Smith is a nice bruiser to come off the bench, Mark Madsen is a nice guy, but that's about it, Antoine Walker's contract would make Jack Palance and Suge Knight cry in each other's arms, Michael Doleac is an unrestricted free agent and nothing more than a body at this point, and Chris Richard is still collecting paychecks off of Florida's two championship runs. On a side note, Gomes, Smith and Richard are restricted free agents this summer. Look for Smith and Gomes to be retained. Just to touch on this one more time in case it got lost in the shuffle, Antoine Walker is making over eight million dollars this season and his contract goes on for another four seasons. Just let that sink in for a minute. I know, I didn't realize it either. On to the backcourt, which requires further investigation since so many lottery picks have been spent there. Last year's pick, Corey Brewer, figures to be a good player down the road. He's super-long and athletic, attributes which by themselves have gotten people into the league. But its troubling to see Kirk Snyder ahead of him on the depth chart. Whether Brewer can ever bring much on the offensive end appears to be a big question. He struggled mightily in his rookie season, coming in as a seasoned junior and was outperformed by a number of players taken behind him. At shooting guard is Marko Jaric and former lottery pick Rashad McCants. To be quite honest, Jaric is awful and his six million dollar, four year contract make him that much harder to stomach. Whatever happened to him between his last season with the Clippers and his first with Wolves? Is it the cold weather? Did K.G. send him into shell shock? Whatever it was, he should be thankful that it didn't materialize until he signed his current contract. As for Rashad McCants, to criticize his play would be unfair since he has been injured more than a majority of his career. At the time of his workouts, rumors spread that he torched the shooting drills team's put him through, shooting something like 70 percent from behind the arc. He has showed some nice flashes in spurts when he's been healthy. The Timberwolves simply need to get some kind of production out of him. All in all, the two spot is an area of concern for Minnesota. Second year guard Randy Foye is listed atop the PG depth chart right now, but it is still too early to tell if he's their long term answer at PG. Foye is a combo guard, more adept at scoring than creating for others. He has struggled with injuries, but T-Wolves' brass are excited about his future. Behind Foye is another lottery pick, Sebastian Telfair. Coming out of high school with loads of fanfare and hype, Telfair has never lived up expectations. His inability to keep defenders honest with a jump shot and lack of size has limited his speed, ball handling and passing ability, the strengths of his game. Jefferson is a PF, not a C, so with the third pick one has to think B. Lopez and D. Jordan will enter the conversation, giving Jefferson a running mate and some support on the front lines. Lopez may have the lower ceiling, but he's a much surer bet and for a GM (McHale) who, without Garnett, finds his seat considerably warmer, safe appears to be the likeliest option. Bayless and Mayo are the players with the most value here, but with Randy Foye and Rashard McCants already on the team, they seem more apt to go big with their pick. --

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