NBA Draft: Regrading all 30 teams for the 2019 NBA Draft

Regrading all 30 teams for the 2019 NBA Draft: F Grade

Minnesota Timberwolves: F

Jarrett Culver (6); Jaylen Nowell (43)

In our 2020 NBA Redraft, the Phoenix Suns sat all alone at the bottom with their “F” grade for the draft. Here we yet again have a single team at the bottom with that loathsome “F” glaring on their report card. Simply put, the Timberwolves blew the draft.

First, they traded up from the 11th slot with the Phoenix Suns, sending out Dario Saric in the process. Saric has been a solid veteran option for the Suns, and a Timberwolves team in desperate need of help at the 4 could have used him the last two years. That being said, trading up means you get the better prospect, right?

For the Timberwolves, wrong, wrong and wrong. Jarrett Culver, the Timberwolves’ pick at 6th in the 2019 NBA Draft, has been atrocious thus far in his career. While he is still only 22 years old the start has been terrible and no one can have confidence in a recovery, just wild hope.

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Despite playing on a perennial lottery team Culver has struggled to earn minutes, averaging just 14.7 per game last season to go with 5.3 points on 41.1 shooting from the field and 24.5 percent from 3-point range. Culver is a career 50.3 percent free-throw shooter, so it’s not looking like he simply got a little cold from outside. This is who he is as a scorer and shooter.

Culver was supposed to be a devastating wing defender, and he has been fine on that end. To earn a starting job he would need to prove he is elite on defense and survivable on offense, and to this point, he has been neither. In fact the offense is so bad that it would take a miracle for things to turn around for Culver. He did not even go in the first round of our 2019 NBA Redraft.

The 2019 NBA Draft brought the league Zion Williamson, and throughout its ranks, stars and interesting players pop off the screen. Even with all of the modern tools at their disposal, NBA teams still make huge errors when drafting. For the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors, those mistakes by others were opportunities for them; for the Minnesota Timberwolves, it was a reminder of the poor decision-making that gets a franchise in a perpetual rut.

There is still a lot of basketball to be played for these prospects, and a year from now these grades will likely look a little different. The story is still being written, and if the first two seasons of their careers are any indication it should be a good one.