Open Mic: If I were Kevin McHale on Thursday Night....

The Minnesota Timberwolves have loads of young talent on their roster and are in need of being pointed in the right direction. 

I think they need to make at least one if not multiple trades tomorrow evening.  First they should start with Antoine Walker. 

'Toine can still produce in the NBA but he doesn't have enough leadership qualities to be at his best with a young team like Minnesota.  They should look to trade him to a team that is a contender that could use him.  One big reason is the 8.3 million dollars his contract entitles him too. 

There are plenty of options out there, I think an interesting one would be sending him to Philadelphia.  Try to work out a deal involving Antoine Walker for the Sixers' Reggie Evans.  Walker would give a young playoff-caliber team in Philadelphia veteran experience and a much needed three point shooter.  Philly averaged less than four three pointers made per game as a team.

The Timberwolves currently have four centers on the roster.  Al Jefferson is naturally a four and shouldn't be forced into playing center because of guys like Michael Doleac, Chris Richard, and Mark Madsen. 

I think the point guard position will be fine as Sebastian Telfair is sort of coming into his own as an NBA point guard and Randy Foye should be ready to go as well. 

They are doing fine at shooting guard as Rashad McCants came out of his shell and averaged 15 ppg this season.  I'm not sold on Cory Brewer just yet but his length, defense, and potential makes me want to keep him.  He was a winner in college so hopefully he can bring that attitude to the rest of the guys. 

We can all assume Derrick Rose is going number one to Chicago.  Depending on what Miami ends up doing at number two, something tells me Mike Beasley will be gone.  If Beasley is there, our choice is a no-brainer. 

All likelihood points to that not happening so I'll get off dream street for a second.  The next best player available is without a doubt OJ Mayo.  Eric Gordon and Jerryd Bayless are close behind. 

I will go down a few situations: 

I am going to stay at number three and take the best player available.  OJ Mayo now moves from the nice weather of So-Cal and is welcomed with open arms to Minnesota.  My biggest fear is that he turns into the next Isaiah "JR" Rider.  So now we have a starting line-up that goes Foye, Mayo, Brewer, Gomes, Jefferson.  We now need to address the issue in the paint. 

Now that I think of it I want to start strengthening our post presence at the top fo the draft instead.  We will likely trade out of the three spot and draft Kevin Love lower to save cash.  So now we have Kevin Love and Al Jefferson in the paint.  Jefferson becomes a true center and the Wolves have one of the best up-and-coming posts in the NBA alongside the most skilled big man the draft has seen in a long time. 

They could also look at taking Brooke Lopez from Stanford.  The 7-footer would allow Jefferson to move to his natural position and there are now two capable scorers in the paint.  This would open up outside shots for Foye and McCants. 

There are many different ways the Wolves can go on Thursday.  My personal hope, outside of Beasley falling to three because D-Wade convinced Riles to take his friend, is the Wolves upgrade in the paint.  You need to have two capable men to play in the paint.  Kendrick Perkins developed into a capable center right in front of our eyes this postseason playing alongside KG.  In Detroit Rasheed and McDyess can get it done.  The Lakers problem was that they didn't have another presence in the paint to get physical with the Celtics. 

Hopefully Kevin McHale gets on the world wide web tomorrow and stumbles across this article due to some kind of miracle and takes this advice.  Go after a big man.  Even if it's not a draft pick, trade for one.  Our team needs someone to take pressure off Al Jefferson.  He had his surprise year this year to open up the NBA's eyes to him but we need a capable man alongside him to increase our chances of success.