Let me preface this by saying I'm a Timberwolves fan and was ecstatic when KBD fell to us in the second round. I knew Thibs liked his tight rotation but figured KBD would steal minutes here and there, especially on the second night of a back-to-back.
That rarely happened, but honestly was the least of my concerns given how the season started. Once Thibs was finally canned, I was interested to see how Ryan Saunders would shake up the rotation and whether KBD could benefit (he'd been playing in the G-League at the time). At first, no opportunity. Then Robert Covington gets hurt, leaving the Wolves with just 2 regularly rotating wings (Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie), the other realistic options being Derek Rose and Luol Deng's corpse. Then Thursday night vs. the Lakers, Rose gets hurt. Instead of inserting KBD, Saunders plays Jared Terrell, an undrafted FA out of Rhode Island, who actually plays some good minutes. Then tonight on the back end of a back-to-back against the Jazz, Saunders' wing rotation consists of Terrell, Deng, and CJ Williams, another G-League call up who played poorly.
With the extent of the injuries, ejections, and fatigue the Timberwolves faced, it seemed like tonight would be the night KBD would play. Yet it didn't happen. At this stage, it seems like there is no way KBD is going to crack the rotation in Minnesota, a middling team that is outside of the NBA playoff picture right now.
Given this extremely long-winded backstory, I now come to my main point. Would KBD have been better served sticking around for one more year at OSU? Could another dominant year at the college level have helped his draft stock or increased an NBA coach's confidence to actually play him in game situations? Or would it have made no difference, and KBD was always going to have to wait his turn for a couple of years on the NBA pine?
Selfishly, I wish he would have stayed, as Holtmann could have used him a lot more than the Timberwolves. It is incredibly frustrating to see that talent consistently passed over for other options off the bench night after night (he's only played in 5 games this year). At the same time, I'm not sure his NBA career would've benefitted, other than giving him the golden opportunity to be drafted by an organization that isn't run by Glen Taylor. Improving upon his dominant performance last year would've been difficult and a fall off in production might have destroyed his NBA shot.
