#10. Minnesota Timberwolves – Darius Garland
With Derrick Rose, Jeff Teague and Tyus Jones not particularly impressive as long-term starting options at the point guard spot for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team should look to take a swing on one of the best point guard prospects in this draft class.
Though he suffered a season-ending injury only 5 games into his college career (potentially one of the reasons why his coach Bryce Drew was canned at Vanderbilt), Garland is definitely a pro-level point guard prospect, and the Wolves desperately a high-upside floor general to pair with Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Okogie, Keita Bates-Diop and, ahem, Andrew Wiggins.
Though Tre Jones’s older brother Tyus just produced one of the best seasons in NBA history in terms of assist-to-turnover ratio, he is more of a steady backup than a starting option at the one.
Garland’s good size (6-foot-3, +2 wingspan) and off-the-dribble shooting ability should be of interest to the Wolves.
Though not a particularly plum draft spot to land in, Garland could easily go higher than this in the draft and Jonathan Wasserman recently mocked him to the Bulls all the way at #4 overall.
That young core I mentioned above of KAT, KBD, Okogie and Garland is certainly tantalizing, and if they were to miraculously find a trading partner for Wiggins, the team’s future might be quite bright indeed.