When Stephen Curry was drafted in 2009, everyone knew that he had potential. However, he still surpassed many expectations. The Golden State Warriors’ superstar would eventually end up a two-time MVP, six-time All-Star, three-time champion, and become the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. With this in mind, there is one team who glaringly missed out on the six-time All-NBA Team member in the 2009 team. What if the Minnesota Timberwolves took Curry instead of Jonny Flynn?
What if the Timberwolves Drafted Stephen Curry?
Stephen Curry: How His Career Would Have Been Different
A player of Curry’s caliber would still have found a ton of success. He would have still made many All-Star Teams and some All-NBA Teams. The Timberwolves would have made their way into the postseason sooner than the season when they had Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler, and Karl-Anthony Towns. A title on the other hand? That is a different story. Keep in mind the Golden State Warriors are one of the best-constructed teams. They drafted extremely well and scouted terrifically to complement Curry and the Warriors’ play style. The Timberwolves would have not had a Klay Thompson or a Draymond Green meaning Minnesota would not have won a title. In this what-if scenario, you could make the argument former Minnesota general manager, David Khan, would have drafted better in future drafts, but asking any front office to strike gold in every draft is a tall order.
Steph on the Timberwolves: How Minnesota Fares
As you can see in Mike Korzemba’s video, one theory is that the team eventually ends up with a superteam consisting of Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, and DeMarcus Cousins. As a result, the Timberwolves rise up to the ranks of the Western Conference soon. They would end up getting to the Western Conference Finals a couple of times. However, we are going to go with a different theory here. Minnesota comes up short each time. As alluded to already, as nice as this hypothetical team is, it is still not quite as good as the title teams the Warriors have had in the past few seasons.
The Warriors are extremely well-coached which tends to go overlooked. It is hard to imagine the Timberwolves getting lucky and nabbing a head coach like Steve Kerr. Not to mention, with all these changes happening in this scenario, the rest of the league is also in flux. As a result, other trades and other superteams could emerge. Scenarios such as the Thunder never trading James Harden or the Miami Heat big-three never breaking up as a superteam. As great as Curry is, it is hard to imagine him having the same amount of success on the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves’ fortunes would have been much better, but there is still no guarantee they would have won their first title with Curry on their squad.
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