. . World News – US – “We’re Excited, But We Are Confident”: After months of preparation, Timberwolves is on the clock at. 1 | Grand Forks Herald

If they weren’t traded out of the slot in the NBA draft, Timberwolves would be in this position first on Wednesday evening. Owners not. 1 General selection will make the option that will start the domino effect at the bottom of the draft board. No. The first choice doesn’t come often, and what the team does with it can set the course for their future for years to come.

Even for a clichéd series like Minnesota, which has only played in qualifiers once since 2004, everything can change within five minutes..

“It’s funny, because . . . More than a year (-process) long, basically compressing it in three or four hours, and within five minutes, « said Timberwolves’ assistant general manager, Gianluca Pascucci. « it’s a wonderful feeling. Adrenaline is part of the day. You feel ready and try to take a look at everything you’ve done. It feels so good, which is incredible once you’re there and just how fast it goes. It’s four hours, but it goes fast, because you’re interested in it, and you’re trying to use all the work I’ve done over the years in those few hours..

Compared to an Olympic runner who worked four years about 10 seconds on the track, Draft Night is the culmination of years of work trying to decipher an inaccurate flag.

Sachin Gupta, executive vice president of basketball operations at Wolverhampton, said, « We understand that there is no guarantee of anything, and once we make that choice, we are very confident. ». . “We put in an enormous amount of work, and that makes us confident whoever we pick.

Pascucci challenged the notion that the drafting process began immediately after the previous year’s draft had expired. It goes back much further.

This might be true of seasoned college basketball players, but it’s just that. Discovery of international players begins when they are 16 or 17 years old. Pascucci notes that you want to start your homework as soon as possible. If you see someone you like, write them down and the tracking begins.

Pascucci said: “There is piece-by-piece to appraisal and how it gets better over the years, that then leads you to draft when these people are actually available to craft.

While 60 players will be drafted on Wednesday, Pascucci said front desks should be « comfortable » with their ratings of « more players » more so, especially now with undesigned Free Agents and G-League lists playing a big role. In organizational development.

Controlling this volume of leads takes time and effort. This is why Pascucci, who heads the team’s scouting operation, walks the road on average 15 to 18 days a month during the season to watch matches – as well as watch Timberwolves matches – while coordinating the efforts of team scouts.

While Zoom has taught us just how much it can get online, there is still a need for in-person evaluation. This is why the few personal training teams allowed in recent weeks have been so valuable.

“It’s the feeling of the player. Pascucci said it’s a completely different feeling to watch video versus live broadcast, and it’s clear that you’re probably closer in the stadium when you’re live.. . So you can see the player’s body, body structure, sports, as well as how the player relates to teammates, coaches, referees, and some things that you can only rate if you are close to you.

Scouts go beyond limiting a player’s ability to shoot, pass, dribble and defend. Wolves also want to define the type of person the player belongs to, from preferences to habits and their health history. It’s all part of a big pie, Pascucci said.

“We have the opportunity to meet these men and understand who they are and what motivates them. “It gives us some sense of what we might feel like they fit,” Gupta said.. The other piece Intel. We try to collect as much information as we can to talk to former coaches and their teammates to try to understand what kind of player is in the locker room and how they contribute to the team environment..

“We are trying to get to know these guys as people and as players. We want to know their strengths, and we want to know their weaknesses, said Gerson Rosas, head of basketball operations at Timberwolves.. . “We want to understand them as best we can, and we want to make sure as an institution that they can be a good environment, a good culture and a good home so that they become the best person and the best player that they can be.. The ability, time, and exposure we got through this process were very helpful in this regard.

Pascucci recalls a time when the NBA team didn’t have international scouts. Once these scouts were hired, their mission was simple: Hey, we need videos.

« You can get videos from colleges, but it’s still difficult to collect VHSs from international teams, and some of those potential customers haven’t played that many minutes, » he said.

Technology has progressed significantly since then. Information is abundant, as is the time Minnesota had to dig into this off-season. Traditionally, the team has six to eight weeks to go about draft preparation. Minnesota seven or eight months passed.

“We did a serious, in-depth analysis of the draft body that we normally wouldn’t have time to do,” Rosas said.. “We did multiple interviews, conducting exploration perspective, production perspective, analysis perspective, and medical perspective in such a way that you often don’t have the time to do so starting in the regular season of a project..

As Pascucci heads the scout, he points out that everyone in the front office is involved. They all study every player and bring their views to the table. This is believed to enhance the evaluation and decision making process.

« One of the secrets of good groups is to challenge each other, right? » Pascucci said. “And if you have different opinions, that means there are questions, there are answers, and it is good to have healthy discussions, and different points of view, because it helps. We feel that all of this makes the final decision better.

Despite all of this, the draft process is not accurate. No matter how much data or time you have, some players don’t develop as you might expect. Gupta admitted that there are no models that can predict with absolute certainty how a player will produce at the NBA level.

« I think that part of our strength as a front desk is that we take all this information, but we also have the humility to know that these models are not perfect, this information is not perfect, and this exploratory evaluation is not saying » perfection « . « We are trying to integrate all this information, trying to make holes in it, find out what is real and what is not, and reach our best expectations.. We will not know for a few years if we are right, but we try to collect as much information as possible and humbly try to guess our best..

All months of work led to this. Rosas said Wolves’ board of directors is ready. Expectations are that trade talks are heating up. Time to decide.

Rosas said the staff are « pretty much working around the clock right now. ». « Draft Night is upon us, and it is time for the Timberwolves to determine the fate of their future, probably in five minutes or less. ».

You have to be confident in what you have done in your operations, try to enjoy the moment, but are also very focused, Pascucci said.. Reaction times are very small.

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