He plays on a team with one of the best ball distributing PG's in the entire NBA. What makes you think he's going to break out by leaving that?
I just don't get the fascination with this guy. I really don't.
The only thing I can think of is his run in the NCAA Tourney. Nothing he's done before, or since, that has said, "above average NBA talent."
Another question for the Derrick Williams fans...where would you play Derrick Williams on a roster with Tristan Thompson, Tyler Zeller, Marreese Speights and Anderson Varejao? Or, what does Derrick Williams do that Kevin Jones can't?
This might be going too far in the other direction now. What he did before the tourney was show enough talent and potential in shooting, attacking the basket, rebounding, and being a leader to enter the discussion as a top 10 prospect. Top 3 draftees fail all the time, but it's not like the Wolves went against the grain in selecting him there, so it was at least a popular opinion at the time around the league that the kid could be an above average NBA talent.
Now, I agree that there hasn't been much so far to substantiate that once-held belief. But he is only in his second year and has spent most of his career in a pretty uneven sort of situation, rather than having the benefits of trial by fire Tristan has had, for the most part. But as far as what he
can do that Kevin Jones can't: well, he's taller, longer, and far quicker and more explosive as an athlete, so that allows him to be
able to do some different things. Whether he'll ever really learn to truly harness those gifts and become a meaningful player in the league, I certainly can't say, but I think it would definitely be worth it to take a chance on him even if just in a Sessions-esque, get him for a song then trade him for real assets after he improves his stock playing for us, type of situation.
And hell... if we were to trade Speights for him, we'd have then made the trade Lueur for Selby, Ellington, a future first, and last year's second overall pick. Now, I really like Speights and his fit here much better, but Speights might be playing himself out of our price range this off-season. A trade for Williams would prolong the value we got "for Lueur" (actually just for salary absorbtion). And what if he plays great on this team? He can't play the 3, but what this book presupposes is, maybe he can? Or, only slightly less outlandishly, what if he even started looking like a truly viable starter at PF, a perfect fit next to Noel, and makes Tristan an awesomely expendable trade asset or becomes one himself? Or even if he and Tristan look like an undersized but highly effective and complimentary frontline together?
None of that might be likely, but I still like the idea of this team taking chances in weaving straw into gold with these cheap, young acquisitions to flip for even better assets going forward. As to the thread title, though - no, I wouldn't include any sort of first round pick outside of something protected like the Kings pick we received in the JJ trade.