The Timberwolves' Draft Night, Kris Dunn and Ricky Rubio

Boston last night was sitting at #3 and everyone said they would take Kris Dunn and trade him.  But there was a rub.  The Celts have 4 guards who, next year, will be as good or better than Kris Dunn (Thomas, Smart, Bradley, Turner).  So, if you take Dunn, your options are to play him almost not at all, trade him, or trade someone else.

The difficulty becomes this -- you are a guy with two nice TV's living in a one-room apartment.  They are nice TVs, everyone knows you have them and nowhere to put them.  Now you put them on the market and say "best offer."  Everyone says "$4".  You say, "Hey, I am going to just keep them both, maybe one will break down.  Maybe I can put them both up and watch two shows or just watch one on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays."

If your TV is worth $800, you may get $400.  Or you may be offered $4. 

The Celtics chose not to do that.  They chose Jaylen Brown.  So they basically bought a stove rather than a fifth TV.

The Timberwolves, on the other hand, had a TV that was a little too big and had some flaws in the picture (Rubio) and they bought a brand new TV.....that is a little too big and has the exact same flaws in the picture.  I would bet they thought they could trade Dunn and LaVine for Jimmy Butler, which would have been awesome.  (You don't just acquire 27 year old 8 WS guys every day).  But that failed.

So now the Wolves live in a one bedroom apartment and have two TVs, same flaws.  One is a little newer.  So they can just throw the old one in the trash or give it to Goodwill or hope that someone really needs a TV and will pay 50 cents on the dollar. 

They really, really needed a shooter, like someone needs to buy food to survive.  Two excellent shooters were available (Hield and Murray).  The Wolves could have taken their asset and bought some food.  Instead, they bought another TV that they did not need.  And they spent the rest of the night saying, "Shit!  Maybe if I don't take the TV out of the box, it will be worth more than I paid." 

That is how the Wolves ended up taking the #5 pick and Ricky Rubio and turning it into Ricky Rubio 1.0 and Ricky Rubio 2.0(Dunn).

So where does that leave the Wolves as far as options go?

1) Keep both and play them at different times -- this is like watching the one TV three days a week and the other 4.  Why?

2) Keep both so you have insurance if one breaks down -- certainly a luxury to have if you are the Spurs or Warriors, but c'mon.  You spent the #5 for an injury replacement?

3) Keep them both and play them together -- neither can shoot.  Wiggy isn't exactly a deadly marksman either.  So.....your three smaller positions will feature basically no outside scoring?

4) Trade Dunn -- you won't get the utmost value, but he is like the new TV in the box.  You might be able to convince someone he has no flaws at all.

5) Trade Rubio -- his flaws are well known.  So you are hoping to trade him for a nice bicycle that no one ever rides, or a used car that runs pretty well for its age.  You will get screwed on this deal, but you have to do it or sit there and watch the TV lying dormant on the floor of your closet.

As you can tell, I am no fan of the Kris Dunn draft.  Here is a Skip Bayless-esque "hot take" for you -- I predict Tyus Jones will be a more successful NBA player in his career than Kris Dunn.  And we already have Tyus Jones. 

But if you love Kris Dunn, then your best decision for your team is to play him immediately, dump Rubio for a sack of basketballs and some hand powder and move on to the Kris Dunn Era.  If you don't think he is that great, you probably should never have drafted him, kept Rubio and drafted Hield or Murray.