March Madness Primer

It’s that wonderful time of year again. A time for frantically filling out brackets, 12 hours of basketball a day, upsets and buzzer beaters. Last year we got to watch Minnesota-native Tyus Jones win the title and take home MOP honors a few months before Flip pulled off a draft-day trade to allow Tyus to play pro ball where he grew up. The NCAA tournament falls during the doldrums of the NBA season and gives NBA fans some other basketball to watch (although I’d highly suggest checking out Warriors vs. Spurs this Saturday night). It’s also a great chance to catch some of the top prospects that will be in this year’s draft. The Wolves currently sit with the 5th worst record in the league and likely will finish around that spot meaning they will pick 8th or better in the draft. I’m going to run through some of the players to watch throughout the Tourney that could be playing for the Wolves in the fall.

Brandon Ingram – Duke (SF/PF)

Watch him play: Duke (4) vs. UNC-Wilmington (13) Thursday at 11:15 AM on CBS

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The top guy on the Wolves Draft Board should be Brandon Ingram. Ingram is super young (he doesn’t turn 19 until September). He has crazy measurements, standing 6’10” with a 7’3” wingspan. He has shown a lot of growth in his one season at Duke, a great sign that he will continue to tap into his potential in his first few years in the NBA. His fit with the Wolves isn’t perfect. The Wolves will probably want him to play a lot at power forward, and he will need to bulk up a TON to defend certain power forwards in this league (Blake Griffin, Derrick Favors), but at 6’10” with the ability to block shots he should definitely expect to play some NBA minutes at power forward given the direction the league is heading. Other than that he will fit well amongst with the Wolves current roster. He has shot well from 3 in college (41%) on pretty high volume. He would make the Wolves even more terrifying in transition. He will bring defensive versatility and the ability to switch onto most perimeter positions. His biggest weakness is his lack of strength, but we’ve seen players such as Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant come in the league and add muscle successfully. Ingram probably has the highest upside in this draft, and the Wolves should swing for the fences if they have the opportunity to take him.

Side note: Ben Simmons has been touted as the number 1 pick for most of this year, but Ingram has emerged as a real contender to hear his name called first this June. I am firmly in the camp that the Wolves should take Ingram over Simmons if they get another shot at the first overall pick. I’ve previously addressed the fact that Andrew Wiggins and Ricky Rubio don’t mesh well on the offensive end. Throwing Ben Simmons into the mix will only compound that issue. Think of Simmons as a big man version of Rubio, a player that needs the ball in his hands to be effective and won’t be guarded closely when he doesn’t have the ball (scouts have similarly compared him to Rajon Rondo and Evan Turner, a couple other ball-dominant players with poor jumpers). Simmons is such an instinctive player, and his instinct is to try to get to the bucket or find an open teammate, not taking outside jump shots. The Wolves don’t need another player who won’t look to pull the trigger.

Kris Dunn – Providence (PG)

Watch him play: Providence (9) vs. USC (8) Thursday at 8:50 PM on TBS

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Kris Dunn is a player I’ve had my eye on going back to last year’s draft when he thought about coming out. Dunn dealt with injuries his first two years at Providence, playing less than 30 total games. In his first healthy season last year he averaged 15.6 PPG and 7.5 APG and won Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors. He could have been a lottery pick if he entered the draft last year, but chose to come back one more year. This year he repeated to win both awards while putting up 16 PPG and 6.4 APG. Dunn has the potential to be a menace on the defensive end in the NBA. His 6’4” frame with a 6’9” wingspan will make him one of the rangiest point guard defenders in the league. He isn’t your typical “pound the rock” point guard (John Wall, Chris Paul), which isn’t to say he doesn’t have point guard skills. He still is a capable passer and good at running the break. He has operated in the pick-and-roll with success throughout his college career. He can attack the basket with authority, using his physicality and size to finish at the rim. But he has some off-ball skills that are interesting: cutting, posting-up smaller guards, and offensive rebounding. His shooting isn’t going to be elite at the next level, but if he can be around a league-average 3 point shooter that should be good enough. His shot mechanics are pretty good and given the extra time to work on his game in the NBA he should be able to improve his stroke.

Buddy Hield – Oklahoma (SG)

Watch him play: Oklahoma (2) vs. CSU-Bakersfield (15) Friday at 3:00 PM on TNT

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It seems like the Wolves have been searching for a starting shooting guard forever. Over the last 10 years they’ve gone through Rashad McCants, Randy Foye, Brandon Roy, Wayne Ellington, Kevin Martin…the list goes on and on. Buddy Hield is an NBA shooting guard through and through. Whether or not he will be a quality starter-level player is the real question. Coming into the year Hield wasn’t projected anywhere near a lottery pick, but he has grown from a good player his sophomore and junior years into a great player his senior year. He has increased his PPG from 17.4 to 25, and turned in 50-46-90 shooting splits. He has drawn (lofty) comparisons to players such as Dwyane Wade and James Harden. My comparison is a little less flattering. I see him as Eric Gordon. Hold on, not what Eric Gordon turned out to be, but what everyone projected him to be early on before persistent injuries derailed his career. People forget how promising Gordon looked his first couple years, he averaged 22 PPG his third year and was the key piece in the Chris Paul trade. When I watch Hield I see young Gordon, a good outside shooter with an array of scoring moves inside the paint and a pinch of playmaking ability thrown in. He is going to be a good 3 point shooter in the NBA, possibly really good to great. He should be a positive on the defensive end, not a lock-down wing stopper, but not somebody that needs to be hidden. He doesn’t appear to have any glaring weaknesses. He’s a little short, measuring in around 6’4”, but has decent length with a 6’8” wingspan. He isn’t a great athlete, don’t expect to be seeing him in any dunk contests. He lacks elite quickness, but I don’t think NBA teams see him as a primary off-the-dribble threat so that isn’t a huge concern. His biggest weakness is probably his age, he’s 22 and turns 23 in December. That shouldn’t scare teams though. He’s always been a guy who showed flashes of brilliance his first few years, something has clicked this year and he’s started doing it consistently. Hield would be such a good fit on this Wolves roster, meshing perfectly with Wiggins and Rubio on the perimeter. He might be a bit of a reach at number 5, but if Dunn is off the board I’d love to see the Wolves grab Hield.