A week ago, Nolan Schmidt wrote a piece here at DWW about some Timberwolves-related “what-ifs.” It’s always interesting to go back and look at how different this franchise could be if a small decision was made differently, so that piece had me thinking about some other things the Timberwolves could have done in other ways. The biggest “what-if” I came up with was this: what if the Joe Smith debacle had never happened?
After the NBA lockout ended in January 1999, Joe Smith became a free agent. His career started with the Warriors after being selected with the number-one overall pick in the 1995 draft, so even though he hadn’t been a star through his first few years in the league, many teams still saw plenty of promise in him.