Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 early targets for the 2018 NBA Draft
Allonzo Trier — Guard, Arizona
Allonzo Trier was projected to be an NBA player a year ago. After Trier missed a decent chunk of the 2016-17 season due to a failed drug test, but decided to come back and try to lead Arizona to a national championship (and boost his draft stock in the process).
As of last year, Trier was projected to go anywhere from late first round to anywhere in the second round. He still has plenty of holes to work on in his game. Trier is a score-first junior who has struggled to add much else to his game.
He is listed at 6’5″, but he doesn’t have an exact position in today’s NBA. Trier doesn’t have the skills to be a point guard and he can’t defensive match up with most NBA wings. But today’s NBA is less about positions and more about roles. And even in Zona’s three losses, he has shown what he can do at an NBA-level.
Trier’s impact on winning is somewhat under question after a sluggish start to the season by Zona, but in Minnesota he would be a ready-to-go bench scorer. Tom Thibodeau uses his bench the least of any coach in the league. A big reason for that is that they are the fifth-worst scoring bench in the NBA. Thibodeau sticks with his familiar formula. He counts on veteran guards like Crawford a tremendous amount. But it will be smart financially to start to invest in high-potential prospects who may slip like Trier.
Trier is averaging 23.1 points per game on 58.1 percent shooting. He is dynamite in transition. His Euro-step is impressive and makes him a constant threat in the open floor. But if he trusted the pass more, his team would have a much better record. That is often the story with Trier’s teams, as it was last season when he took more shots than freshman Lauri Markkanen, sometimes at inopportune moments.
That problem would be mitigated in Minnesota by Trier playing the 2-guard spot next to high-IQ guards like Tyus Jones with the bench unit in Minnesota. He can score at all three levels on the floor with ease.
He has an average wingspan for his size, and that is one of the many things that means he could very well be a minus defender at the NBA-level, but you draft Trier for his scoring potential. To cap it all off, he is having his most efficient season, with a career-high 69.4 percent true shooting percentage.