Pick 8 - Round 1 - Minnesota Timberwolves

The Wolves' front office entered the draft with every center entrant still on the board for them. The Wolves have no centers on their roster, so they were going to be forced to draft a center. Waiting until pick #25 and risk seeing all of the centers drop off the board was a bad idea, meaning #8 was where a center would be drafted. The question was who? Willie Cauley, the 7 foot project with loads of potential? AJ Hammons, by far the best scoring big left in the draft? Or even Kaleb Tarczewski, who looks to be an Omer Asik level player? In the end, the Wolves went with the consensus #1 center in the draft, and...

Spoiler:

With the 8th overall pick in the 2014 CSL Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select... Willie Cauley from the University of Kentucky.

In the midst of a complete overhaul by the new management, the Minnesota Timberwolves find themselves in a position of needing to get into the playoffs or risk seeing Kevin Love walk from the team to a more lucrative franchise. Willie Cauley gives them that young center that they so desperately need after not landing one in last year's free agency and trading away Festus Ezeli and Joel Anthony.

Jake wrote:We're happy to announce the addition of Willie Cauley to our team. We have zero plans to trade him at this point, and we believe he's our starting center for years to come. I was thrilled when Cauley fell to us, as I had no expectation of him making it out of the top 5. We all know Kevin Love is happy to have a competent center next to him on the block now.

Cauley has been mocked all over the place - from #3 all the way to #8, and there's no doubt there's mixed opinions of Cauley. One anonymous GM boldly said that he'd consider taking Joel James over Willie Cauley. Here's to hoping the Wolves made the right choice and Willie Cauley will propel this team into the playoffs.

I believe he's a great pick up for you guys.. Have to admit I never scouted him because Center was the only position we are locked. The same for all the other Centers. aah except of Hammons, I scouted him twice, I believe. So no idea how WCS skillset looks like.

Interesting pick. I do think he was the best center overall on the board, but there are a ton of decent centers available outside the lottery, so I think picking up a better player here might've been best value-wise.

orangeparka (MIA) wrote:Interesting pick. I do think he was the best center overall on the board, but there are a ton of decent centers available outside the lottery, so I think picking up a better player here might've been best value-wise.

Eh. But who was really left? I was high on Shabazz, but the Kings took him before me, so that was off the board. Basically, all you have left at this point is Cauley and Perry Ellis. And if I take Ellis, he's stuck behind Love and won't get any minutes.

And really, I'm not convinced Cauley isn't BPA at this point in the draft.

Not a bad pickup. I think he's going to be a good defensive center but offensively he won't develop into much. Should fill a void for your roster though.

Not a big fan of his. Think this is a spot where you can take a decent risk with a high risk/high reward type player.

No idea here either, but I know he was being hyped up in the runup to the draft and wasn't expected to drop this far.

Funny thing, I scouted this guy a ton when I was at Minnesota. I think he will give the Wolves the D they need in the post and with KLove around, they may not need that much more from him.