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The 2015 NBA Draft started well for the Minnesota Timberwolves, with the selection of Kentucky center Karl-Anthony Towns first overall. Trade speculation surfaced after that surrounding a potential move back into the first round, particularly as Duke point guard (and Apple Valley, Minnesota native) Tyus Jones fell a bit.
The Cleveland Cavaliers took Jones with the 24th overall pick, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! was first to report a proposed trade to the Timberwolves for the 31st and 36th overall picks this year as well as a future second-round pick. The trade has now been made official, and Jones will be coming to his hometown team. But that does not mean trading for him was a good move, and the Timberwolves should not have surrendered both of their second-round picks to get a point guard that is not even close to NBA-ready right now.
Jones declared for the draft on the heels of a strong NCAA Tournament run, which culminated in his being named Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 Final Four. I was very critical of that decision at the time, and it still holds true now since Jones fell to the 24th overall pick. A lack of size (6’2″, 185 lbs.) will hamper him defensively as a rookie against the league’s best point guards, and rather than be a standout for Duke next year a spotlight will be on his deficiencies in the NBA.
There are a lot of questions surrounding Ricky Rubio, including health, shooting ability and some trade speculation that may or may not come to fruition. So the Timberwolves do need to find another suitable option at point guard, I just don’t think Jones was the right choice when it was required to give up assets to get him. There weren’t many top-tier point guard prospects this year, which may help explain Jones’ decision to declare, so an argument can be made for making an aggressive move up to get one.
Timberwolves’ vice president of basketball operations/head coach Flip Saunders is himself a Minnesota native, so I openly wonder if trading for Jones is a business decision (i.e. ticket sales) rooted in “one of us” sentimentality. That is no way to make personnel decisions, and the Timberwolves could have used a second-round pick on a point guard (Andrew Harrison, T.J. McConnell, Olivier Hanlan) and gotten far better immediate value than Jones will provide.
Brad Berreman is a Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.
