Players Minnesota Timberwolves passed on in NBA Draft: Steph Curry
Steph Curry, Guard, 2009 NBA Draft
Strange enough as it was that a single team chose to draft two point guards with back-to-back picks in the top six, both of those point guards were chosen instead of Steph Curry.
One of the many blunders of the David Kahn era, the 2009 NBA Draft still stings for Timberwolves fans. Though it took a few years for Curry’s game to come to full form, he has evolved into one of the best point guards in NBA history.
He has become the best shooter in NBA history, on pace to smash Ray Allen’s all-time 3-point record. Curry’s game has also resulted in winning, raking in three rings and leading one of the best teams of all-time in the 2017-18 Warriors.
Drafting Curry could have completely altered the state of the Timberwolves franchise. Instead, the team selected Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio.
While Rubio has turned out to be a respectable starting point guard in the NBA, he didn’t even join the team until 2011 after choosing to stay in Spain. Though he provided flashes of greatness, Rubio’s career with the Wolves was filled with injuries and inconsistent shooting, which led to him being traded to Utah after Tom Thibodeau took the reigns of the franchise.
Jonny Flynn was demoted to the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the then-D-League in December of 2010 amidst injury issues. Flynn’s career never recovered.
Even though Rubio and Flynn haven’t nearly become the player Curry is, the hardest part to comprehend about these picks was that the Wolves chose two point guards. The original vision was to have Rubio and Flynn share the court together, which seems even more insane knowing what we know about these players today.
Additionally, to make matters worse, DeMar DeRozan was drafted just two picks after Curry, meaning the Wolves could have reasonably come out of the 2009 draft with Stephen Curry and DeMar DeRozan.