The 2011 NBA Draft grades seem to have already been published, thankfully, because the Minnesota Timberwolves draft is slowly going from "yay" to "yeesh."
Let's take a quick look back at the Timberwolves draft results, pick-by-pick, at the conclusion of Thursday night's draft. The Wolves came out at least even on a bevy trades and ended up with Derrick WIlliams, Malcolm Lee, Brad Miller, Targuy Ngombo, a 2013 first round pick, a future second round pick and cash after starting with just Jonny Flynn, the second and 20th pick in the annual affair.
That looked quite alright at the time, but 12 hours later and there have been a few disappointing revelations that change my views on the 2011 draft class.
Before getting to the Tanguy Ngombo mess, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle has an update on the Flynn trade, saying the Wolves actually sent a future second round pick to the Rockets rather than receiving one. The Rockets also didn't include the No. 38 pick, as had been previously reported, meaning Houston never had to buy that pick back which results in less cash in the pockets of Glen Taylor.
The other thing that makes this draft lose a bit of its luster relates to the incredible story of Tanguy Ngombo. The Timberwolves bought the pick from the Dallas Mavericks for an undisclosed amount of money, but since Ngombo was ineligible to be drafted this year, the pick will more than likely have to be vacated and its assumed the Wolves will still owe Dallas the cash they agreed to send their way.
Since Ngombo was ineligible to be drafted, by the way, the Wolves simply could have signed him to a free agent contract and picked up the next Manu Ginobili with the No. 57 pick instead.
D'oh!