Vast scouting network leads Wolves to French teenager on draft night

Kevin McHale and Flip Saunders initially formed a profound bond playing basketball together with their single season at the University of Minnesota in - McHale the lanky freshman forward Saunders the canny senior point guard resulting in a record of - that was arguably the pinnacle of Gopher hoops Tim Connelly and Matt Lloyd initially formed a profound bond scouting basketball together trolling urban American playgrounds and the obscure backwaters of Eastern Europe transforming third-hand rumors into detailed eyewitness reports at the turn of the st Century before phones were smart and analytics flipped the event from arithmetic to algebra It is a pair of relationships and a quartet of coming-of-age stories that were instrumental in molding the two most of productive eras in Minnesota Timberwolves history Saunders was the first person McHale hired when then-owner Glen Taylor tapped him to run the Wolves just as Lloyd was Connelly s first phone call after now-owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez successfully recruited him away from the Denver Nuggets to guide the fortunes of the franchise in Minnesota For obvious reasons their divergent approaches to building a company are the greater part pronounced with respect to the NBA draft If each of the four men could pledge fealty to only one specific group of basketball lifers McHale s would be the players fraternity the late Saunders would be the coaches fraternity and Connelly and Lloyd would opt for the scouts fraternity McHale and Saunders deserve credit for taking a chance on Kevin Garnett straight out of high school at a time when preps-to-the-pros was a unicorn event and both Rasho Nesterovic and Wally Szczerbiak produced solid value relative to where McHale and Flip selected them in the draft But they were also responsible for boneheaded picks like Ndudi Ebi and Paul Grant And McHale s relative lack of due diligence on the scouting front was especially damaging when the Wolves were penalized three first-round picks originally five for illegally signing Joe Smith None of the second rounders they drafted in that five-year span had a positive value over replacement contestant VORP measure during their mercifully abbreviated careers By contrast Connelly the Wolves president of basketball operations and Lloyd promoted to general manager last summer each got their foot in the door of an NBA career via scouting and the chatty camaraderie that comes from sharing intel while beating the bushes together has provided them with vast networks that range from Connelly s peers as NBA executives to assistant coaches in tiny hamlets Earlier this year Connelly s acumen on draft night is becoming the stuff of legend Last year when I wrote a feature story on Connelly for Mpls St Paul Magazine this is what Wolves head coach Chris Finch narrated me He is the best I ve ever seen in the draft room I ve been around various really smart people that can really evaluate and are creative in the draft and being able to put together a lot of scenarios and things like that Tim s strength is that he understands the draft at such a high level that he knows what all of his counterparts are looking for and if he can truly help them he will and I think that builds up this trust level that he has with him And getting those deals done on the clock is about trust I have been in the room with other people where no squad would do a deal with certain front office members of a organization because they don t trust that they can get a deal done and they don t trust that what is being disclosed is going to be executed Tim can get a deal done on the clock because the entire league likes and trusts him To watch that at work on draft night that is pretty fun to watch He is special at that And he is also special at evaluating the talent in a draft He uses his group for sure but he could run it all by himself if he craved to The draft that saw Connelly do something unprecedented acquire guard Rob Dillingham with the th overall pick in exchange for a Wolves draft choice seven years out in was an example of the speed trust comprehension and outside-the-box thinking that Finch was talking about Exchanging cleats for hightops The Wolves selection of -year old center Joan Beringer with the th overall pick in the draft Wednesday night was a different example of the connections and philosophy that fuels the franchise s draft operations under Connelly Lloyd and the rest of the front office Remarkably Beringer s performance with Cedevita Olimpija a company from Slovenia in the Adriatic League was the first time he had ever played professional basketball According to Connelly who spoke about him after the second round of the draft on Thursday night he literally started playing basketball four years ago because he outgrew his soccer cleats When Lloyd first heard that he figured the -foot -inch teenager must have been a goalie It turned out he had been a striker a far more functioning position Beringer was a phenomenal athlete news Lloyd and Connelly received early because of their connections to the coaching staff at Cedevita Olimpija He was someone we d been tracking the entire season mentioned Lloyd after the pick was made Wednesday night They were increasingly excited by what they saw Because Beringer was so new to the championship we expected him to be a second-division member in the Adriatic League working on his skills Connelly mentioned And every time we watched him we were kind of blown away with his instincts for a guy who had barely played basketball Defensively he was covering five spots He s very raw but very bright He is one of those rare elite athletes in terms of movement both vertically and laterally After participating in the Adriatic League playoffs Beringer arrived in the United States a couple of weeks ago Working through his agent the Wolves were able to set up a special individualized workout with him last weekend in Chicago Both Connelly and Lloyd approvingly referred to the workout as old school They brought along staff member Alonzo Gee now who played eight years in the NBA as a rugged -foot -inch guard We were able to get him in a high school gym and really kind of close the book on the evaluation Lloyd explained Wednesday night Afterward Alonzo talked about how strong Joan was that he couldn t really hold him off A night later Connelly was similarly effusive He had a really hard workout And at the end we demanded Can you dunk from the free throw line He dunked from the free throw line That was memorable That announced the primary purpose of the workout was to get to know him better afterward From the moment he arrived in Minnesota Connelly has stressed character as equally essential to ability when determining whether or not to embrace a athlete or prospect Talking is the best Obviously you have a feel for what they can and cannot do But really talking to a guy you get a sense of what their expectations are both personally and from a association sense The verdict He was wise beyond his years Connelly reported When he went to Slovenia from his native France he couldn t speak English and now he speaks it allegedly better than I do So again the story is awesome We re not drafting him because of the story but I was blown away relative to how little he has played and how far he has come I don t know this is my th th league draft and he is one of the more unique players I ve ever seen Setting obtainable expectations A little perspective is required here Having invested so much time and resource exploring all the possibilities of the draft and given how much importance they place on it as a function of filling the pipeline with quality personnel it is understandable that Connelly and Lloyd can go overboard praising the player they have chosen right now after it has happened It bears remembering that when Connelly pulled off his minor coup by landing Dillingham in last year s draft for a pick that won t be forfeited until he set the bar too high on expectations When it was pointed out that Dillingham then years old just -feet -inch tall and weighing pounds might need a long ramp to physically thrive in the NBA especially on defense Connelly wouldn t hear it I don t think you move those assets like the pick and then sit on him We got a guy who from day one is going to have a role It is going to be hard for him but you don t get that aggressive drafting a guy in the top ten Dillingham was chosen with the eighth pick and then wipe it Connelly noted When I questioned him how much you have to build in protection for him on defense the POBO remained adamant Nah not protect him basically we are going to challenge him We re not here to hold his hand There are plenty of examples of guys who are slight who are plus defenders Certainly it is not easy when you lack league-positional size but he s an unbelievably competitive guy So we re going to challenge him To be fair to Connelly at the time he spoke the Wolves had not yet made the arrangement that brought in Donte DiVincenzo as a viable option to back up Mike Conley as the point guard a role that Dillingham would have borne more often otherwise But the point stands that with a limited notable exceptions Dillingham was often overwhelmed chronologically and physically by the rigors of the NBA finishing tenth on the gang with minutes of playing time slightly more than minutes per challenge he played That s why it is fundamental to temper the front office enthusiasm for Beringer who won t turn until November and is still undersized for a big at pounds By no means however should that be taken as a criticism of the pick One of the more dramatic developments in the NBA this past season was the prosperous emphasis placed on swarming defenses featuring all five players designed to trap and force turnovers and deflections which in turn enables offenses to get out and run scoring in transition That was the hallmark of the champion Oklahoma City Thunder and increasingly of their NBA Finals opponent the Indiana Pacers For that stylistic emphasis to achieve full sustenance you need quick operational switchable big men long ultra-athletic centers and forwards who can both capably protect the rim and match up with guards and smaller forwards in rotation when necessary Rudy Gobert is a classic drop center meaning his best mixture leans more toward protecting the paint than challenging the perimeter Gobert is an elite communicator and enforcer of accountability but only isn t quick enough or instinctively suited for a switchable five-player defensive rotation and hybrid switch-and-drop schemes leave him vulnerable to pull-up floaters from midrange scorers who find the seam in the scheme Yes Beringer is raw he s a teenaged rookie still relatively new to the contest But watching film from his play in Slovenia his athleticism still pops Lloyd is not that far overboard when he says that Beringer is already a functional basket-protection bicycle which is critical And we think he is going to have switchability He s such a physical presence with his size and his length he ll be able to swallow up guys in switches That is the really exciting thing It also makes sense when Lloyd says that Beringer who apparently came off as very serious in their interview and raved about Gobert in his first call with the media on draft night will be expertly mentored by Rudy who loves to preach on topics ranging from a healthy diet to adherence to the challenge plan Last but not least there is no other switchable nearly-seven-foot performer on the Wolves roster And Beringer s growth arc fits in well with the squad s younger personnel Jaden McDaniels Naz Reid Terrence Shannon Jaylen Clark who have the probable to excel in swarming switchable defenses Connelly and Lloyd both believe there is a role for Beringer as soon as this coming rookie season Maybe But as with Dillingham I think the probability of his evolution is more exciting than the pace of it Because one gushing thing that Connelly did say rings true here What is really exciting especially because we have such great coaches is that Beringer is really malleable So however we want to develop him we can develop It is just exciting to see a guy with all these crazy tools and no bad habits Meanwhile it is a pleasure to watch a front office that puts more effort into stockpiling inexpensive talent via the draft an absolutely crucial ingredient for success given the new collective bargaining agreement than it does trying to swing for the fences now at the expense of long-term viability chasing after a transaction for -year old Kevin Durant The post Vast scouting setup leads Wolves to French teenager on draft night appeared first on MinnPost