Hoiberg, teddy bear: Lottery bound
Posted on May 15th, 2008 – 8:31 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Wolves assistant GM Fred Hoiberg is taking a stuffed bear with him for good luck in Tuesday’s draft lottery.
The bear belongs to a 12-year-old Brooklyn Park boy whom Hoiberg has befriended the past two seasons. The boy is a big Wolves fan who has had more than 100 operational procedures — a few big, including a liver transplant, and many small — and he always takes the bear with him into surgery.
The boy, Matthew Gamber, attended a game two seasons ago at Hoiberg’s invitation and the Wolves ended Phoenix’s 17-game winning streak that night. He attended three games last season — two against Phoenix and one against Utah — and the Wolves won them all, in a 22-victory season.
“He’s always brought us a lot of luck when he’s in the building,” Hoiberg said. “Hopefully, he can help us out with this lucky bear.”
Somebody asked Hoiberg Thursday if he considers himself a lucky man.
“Well, I’ll tell you, I feel I’m lucky to be alive right now,” said Hoiberg, who underwent open-heart surgery to correct a life-threatening condition in 2005. ” I was lucky to find out about my heart condition when I did. So, if you look at it that way, I do feel like I am a lucky person.”
Hoiberg on a variety of other lottery-related topics…
On the possibility of landing one of the draft’s top two picks and the chance to take either Memphis guard Derrick Rose or Kansas State forward Michael Beasley: “This is a big year to move up. There are a couple of players who I think could really help accelerate the building process. But even if we don’t get one of the top two picks, I still think there are some players who’d fit in well with the players we have.”
He said he has a good idea who’d the Wolves pick if they land the No. 1 pick, although the team’s basketball staff still must interview and bring in players for workouts and continue to do their background checks.
NBA teams for the past decade and more have almost always (Allen Iverson being the one big exception) selected size when it doubt. On Thursday, somebody asked Hoiberg if the playoff impact Chris Paul and Deron Williams have provided this spring has changed how NBA teams value potentially great point guards.
“I think with the way the rules are now — not being able to touch anybody on the perimeter — it really has turned into a guard’s game,” he said. “You want a guy who can score on the low block and we’ve got that in Al Jefferson. He’s as good as anybody in the league right now on the block. So if we get a guy on the perimeter to go along with Randy to go out there and make plays and create and defend, that’s big in today’s game.”
The Wolves can pick no lower than sixth and Hoiberg said he thinks there are seven players in the draft who can make an impact in their rookie seasons.
“Even if we pick sixth, I’m confident we can get a player who can come in and make an immediate impact on this roster,” he said. “There’s a couple of big players we could put on this team who’d help us right away. There’s some playmakers who we could come in and take some pressure off in the fourth quarter.”
The big players he’s referring to are Stanford center Brook Lopez and perhaps LSU freshman forward Anthony Randolph or maybe UCLA freshman forward Kevin Love. The playmakers likely are Pac 10 freshman guards O.J. Mayo from USC and Jerryd Bayless from Arizona or maybe Indiana’s Eric Gordon.
Two things to remember if the Wolves pick third or lower — their best chance is to pick fifth (29.05 percent) or fourth (23.82 percent) — and must make a decision on Mayo, likely the subject of a forthcoming NCAA investigation for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars of gifts and cash from a sports agent while he was in high school and college: The agency who allegedly paid up in return for the future right to represent Mayo is run by Bill Duffy, Kevin McHale’s former college roommate. And Mayo’s college coach was Tim Floyd, who coached Hoiberg at Iowa State. Hoiberg said he has talked “a lot” with Floyd recently about his USC players.
30 Responses to "Hoiberg, teddy bear: Lottery bound"
[…] EmptyTheBench.com - Sports News, Fantasy Sports, NBA Games, NFL Players wrote an interesting post today on Hoiberg, teddy bear: Lottery boundHere’s a quick excerptNBA teams for the past decade and more have almost always (Allen Iverson being the one big exception) selected size when it doubt. […]
Good story Jerry…
Mayo could equal Marbury.
Rose
Beasley
Lopez
Gallinari
Love
Randolph
Mayo
Jordan
Bayless
Gordon
That is the order I would look at strictly from a T-wolves perspective.
In the second round I would also look at Dorsey, Anderson, DJ White, I’ve seen a few places projecting Kousko (the Ohio State Center) to drop to the 2nd round), or do some indepth scouting on one of the European big men that are always around in the 2nd round. Load this team up with bigs, and just start pounding the hell out of teams. They come in, foul em, and foul em hard. Bring in rebounders, and inside guys because we have Foye, we have McCants, hopefully Gomes can come back, and I’m praying that last year’s 1st rounder spends the summer doing nothing but shooting drills. I want him to be able to ark up shots with his eyes shut and know they are going in by the time he’s done. He has to learn how to score.
Then after McHale’s idiotic comment about the team winning 40-46 games next year… I think we hold them accountable. This team for ANY REASON including act of GOD does not win 40 games next year those two should be fired. NO GM stays in their job through 4 coaching changes, and 3 consecutive losing seasons. There are too many GOOD coaches, and good GM candidates out there for these two clowns to be left in charge!
Maybe they should have gotten “Chucky” instead of a teddy bear.
Very heartwarming story. Fred seems like a very nice man.
McHale is still an idiot though.
The Wolves have 138 out of 1001 combinations in the lottery, so we know they have a 13.8% chance of winning on that first draw.
The odds in some 2nd pick scenarios:
Miami wins #1 = Wolves have 138 of remaining 751 combinations = 18.4% chance of #2 pick
Seattle wins #1 = Wolves have 138 of remaining 802 combinations = 17.2% chance of #2 pick
Memphis wins #1 = Wolves have 138 of remaining 864 combinations = 16.0% chance of #2 pick
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Basically if the Teddy Bear doesn’t bring the #1 pick to MN, I’m rooting for Miami to win it to get their 250 combos out of the way for the 2nd draw. Plus, gets that first pick going to the east.
This is what cheering for the Wolves has come to…
Out of the 1001 possible combos, 1 is disregarded, so really there is one less possibility each time. Those percents are accurate though.
[…] of Texas Hoiberg, teddy bear: Lottery bound » This Summary is from an article posted at On the Wolves on Thursday, May 15, 2008 This […]
Needless to say the Wolves need to get lucky in the lottery and get the #1 or #2 pick. But they should also trade players/draft picks to draft 7′center McGee from Nevada later in Rd#1. He is young and not ready for the NBA now but will be Awesome in 2 years when this team is ready to make a playoff run.
David, they would have to have someone to develop that big man. I’d almost rather see them trade into the 1st and get Hibbert because we know what we’re getting and McHale and Wittman couldn’t screw him up.
Congrats, KG, on being back in the conference finals. Nice game by Pierce.
It’s kind of funny that either Flip or KG HAS to make it to the finals this year. I’ll be cheering for the Celts.
I’ll be cheering for the Pistons. Go Flip! and Chauncey!
BC
I sure hope you are joking. Roy Hibbert is basically a fatter version of Shawn Bradley. Or maybe a George Muresan(sp)clone. They may know what they’re getting, what they are getting is a slow unathletic limited 7 footer who will get dominated by NBA Centers.
Plus who says they can’t screw him up? They’ve done a good job of screwing up other players that they knew what they were getting. (i.e McCants, Blount, Davis, etc. etc. etc.)
It’s good Hibbert didn’t come out last year…we probably would have taken him at #7.
take mayo with the third pick
dre - what do you think of Lopez? Did you watch Stanford much out there?
My guess is the Wolves top 6 draft board looks similar to this.
1. Rose
2. Beasley- I’m not sure they wouldn’t take Beasley 1st because they are delusional and think Foye is a PG.
3. Lopez- Makes sense I guess
4. Mayo- Probably going to be pretty good but doesn’t fit their needs.
5. Love- He’s tall and he’s white
6. Gallinari- McHale has heard that he can play.
I’m not saying this is the order I would draft but that is my best guess on what they are thinking. If I were GM and didn’t get a top 2 pick I would look hard at trading the pick and a player for a player. (Baron Davis, Emeka Okafor, Elton Brand, Richard Jefferson, Jermaine O’Neal, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion, Gilbert Arenas)
What time do they grab the balls? Are they doing it at half-time of tonights game?
I’m confused…are Freddy and Teddy back in the room where they grab the balls?
Or will he be out at the table waiting for the results to be unveiled on TV?
“The lottery is conducted in a back room at NBA Studios in Secaucus, N.J., more than two hours before results are announced.”
–
Apparently, the balls have been grabbed already. I guess we got Beasley already, even though we don’t know it…
Probability of Getting the No. 1 Pick:
Wolves = 13.8%
Event with Similar Probability:
Al Jefferson making three straight shots.
“2008 NBA draft lottery (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)”
Celts-Pistons game starts at 8:30 p.m. ET…so the fun tonight starts with the lottery.
Wolves are in top 3!
But where?!
Top 3, let’s do this!
14 - Warriors
13 - Blazers
12 - Kings
11 - Pacers
10 - Nets
9 - Bobcats
8 - Bobcats
7 - Clippers
6 - Knicks
5 - Grizzlies
4 - Sonics
3 - Wolves
2 - Heat
1 - Bulls
Look to trade the pick. I don’t like the chances of the Wolves taking the right player with that pick. I would look to either trade down or trade the pick and a player for a Good NBA Veteran.
Can anyone tell me why the announcers said that the bulls automatically get a top 3 pick after the bobcats received the #9 pick? How would the announcers know this. And why would the bulls automatically get a top three pick because of this?
Uh, well, because the Bulls’ logo should have popped up next after the Nets, meaning they had leapfrogged into the top three.
zbast
In the lottery they only draw for the top 3 picks. So if you are suppose to pick 9th and 9 comes and your name isn’t called that means you have moved up and now have a top 3 pick. They don’t do a lottery for picks 1-14 only the top 3.
