Can Hawkins be what we wanted NAW to be?

I'd expect him to be mostly what you saw on the first half last night in his rookie year. Camp in a spot as a spacer and take the open pass when he receives the pass. He's not ready to do more than that right now.

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NAW signed a 2/$9m contract. Minny believes in him.

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That's end of the rotation money.

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That's end of the rotation money.

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He started in the playoffs against Denver.
He started both preseason games.

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Nickeil Alexander-Walker was an add-on in the three-team trade that brought Mike Conley to Minnesota and sent D’Angelo Russell to Los Angeles. In the span of 23 regular season appearances and five playoff games including four starts, NAW went from trade afterthought to an important cog in Minnesota’s playoff push. Alexander-Walker inserted himself into the lineup immediately as a much-needed 3-and-D guard with the versatility to matchup 1 through 3 effectively. He shot 36 percent from three in a Wolves jersey down the stretch. In the first round of the playoffs, he shot 40 percent while helping McDaniels, Edwards, and Minnesota’s 10th-ranked defense shut down opponents. Most notably, he locked down his cousin, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, allowing the Wolves to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in 19 years.

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Regardless of what he makes, he's not an end of the rotation guy for them.



I think more importantly here, as we get off the topic, is that it took NAW a good bit of time to find his groove in the NBA, and we are going to have to be patient with Hawkins.

He is not a starter. He played 15 min a game in 23 games last year. $4.5 million a year is not showing belief. It is showing that they think he may be a decent 9-12 player.

Pels have enough guards/wings who can’t shoot, we don’t need more.

Good for NAW for developing into a decent player. He was a bust with us and couldn’t play much defense, but he’s developed into a Herb Jones light (very light), but he’s still bad at offense and fairly easy to replace.

Hawkins already looks better than he did during summer league. He can has a chance to be sniper/instant offense player, but not this year. Just like NAW he needs a year or 2 to develop

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Hawkins was 4/14 and 1/6 from 3 last night. He was also was bad on defense and had multiple bad fouls. He was exactly the same in summer league.

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He was garbage last night lol. We should’ve traded that pick

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Or drafted whitmore- which some of us on this board wanted

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That too. Hawkins is a bum.

NAW is and will be a better player than Hawkins will be. You can easily see how NAW even as a rookie was more athletic, better scorer, better defender and passer. Hawkins honestly seems like a lazy Pels pick because they were preoccupied with trying to get Scoot.

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Not sure what you were watching, but NAW was arguably the worst player in the nba his first 2 years. I guess when you’re that bad there’s lots of room for improvement.

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I don't think anyone would say that he was productive on the court for us for the most part.
But it was very obvious that he had the potential to be a very good serviceable player once he got it all together, which he has done. That was clear to see in the summer league, and several times during the season. The potential was always there for him. His size, athleticism, even mentally you could tell he had it, he just needed the game to slow down for him and that took a good 3 years to happen for him.


Hawkins has one skill. shooting. and he's looked abysmal at it thus far. I mean he even bricked an open 3 after the whistle blew off the bottom of the backboard last night. I dont' think anyone sees defensive potential, dribbling, passing, or scoring in any way other than being a shooter for him thus far.
I'm not writing him off, as he without a doubt has time to grow into a good player, but he hasn't looked good at all to start his career than hasn't even really started yet.

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Zion, Trey, Herb, Jose, Naji, Dyson, not many teams have 6 players they drafted under 25 years old who are good

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No one gets credit for drafting Zion. That wasnt' a choice.

Herb working out is luck. It's so hard to know who's going to work out in the 2nd round and undrafted pool.
Jose and Naji weren't drafted. All 3 of those guys are guys that can be found in the 2nd round/undrafted every year. I guess you have to give them credit for finding those hidden gems, b/c it isn't just 1 guy. I think BDJ was going to be a good find as well.


They've had 6 lottery picks in the last 5 years.
Jaxson was ok, but when you draft someone 8th and they just go through their rookie contract and you get nothing for them, then that's a bust.
NAW did nothing for us, and had no trade value.
Kira has done nothing for us, and has no trade value, and might even cost us assets so we can get out of the tax.
Trey is awesome.
Dyson at worst will be one of the best defenders in the league.
Hawkins TBD but not looking too hot.

so 3 of those 6 were worthless. 1 of them is going to cost us a lot of money, and i say that in a great way. 1 of them is trending in the right direction. 1 is TBD.
2 out of 6 not being worthless is actually about what you would expect drafting in the late lottery.

I think the issue most have is how we all felt when we made the pick.
-the trading down from 4 to Jaxson/NAW wasn't a good move, and most people weren't thrilled about it.
-Plenty of people were wanting other guys instead of Kira. Don't think anyone was clamoring for him before the draft, and the fact that so many guys have had flourishing careers that were picked right before and after him is frustrating.
-I think most people were indifferent about drafting Trey, didn't know much about him, but seemed like a decent pick at the time.
-I think most people liked the Dyson pick. I think most of us wanted 1 of the 3 guys picked right before him, but since they were off the table Dyson was a good pick.
-Not sure many of us liked the Hawkins pick. He's looking like a James Bouknight kind of pick.