The Minnesota Timberwolves passed up a key opportunity when looking for their next star at the wing in the 2010 NBA Draft, reportedly interested in Paul George, who they failed to draft, despite holding the fourth overall selection.
According to Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer, the Timberwolves' front office hesitated on going with George and ultimately let the mock draft do the work for them, selecting Wesley Johnson out of Syracuse instead.
“With the Minnesota Timberwolves and the 2010 draft, I have heard—and you hear this about a lot of situations about, ‘Oh, we were thinking about taking this guy,’ but I buy this that—in the 2010 draft, they had the hots for Paul George, who ended up going 10th to Indiana.”
“They really, really wanted to take him with the fourth pick. But because of the fact that George, seemingly the consensus amongst—whether it was public, whether it was internally, whether it was other NBA teams—most people thought of Wesley Johnson as a better prospect, so they didn’t go with their gut and take Paul George, the guy they ultimately felt actually was the right guy.”
George was coming out of Fresno State, a smaller school without the nationwide recognition of Syracuse, or playing for a well-regarded coach like Jim Boeheim, who also was an assistant for Team USA at the time.
Johnson looked like an extremely versatile player back then, but his game didn't translate as efficiently as George's did in Indiana, ultimately replacing Danny Granger as the next one coming in The Hoosier State.
Chris Vernon of The Ringer offered that front offices are at times very scared of overdrafting a player, and will go with the consensus to save face and not subject themselves to ridicule upon a couple of tough seasons.
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