Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: Another draft-day miss for Wolves

Michael Conroy, Associated Press

Indiana’s Danny Granger, scoring against Al Jefferson, has had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

The Wolves, and many other teams, were deterred from taking Danny Granger because of knee worries.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: February 14, 2009 - 11:39 PM

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Today's All-Star Game in Phoenix features, as any attentive and long-suffering Timberwolves fan knows, Indiana's Danny Granger and Portland's Brandon Roy.

Roy, of course, briefly wore a Minnesota cap on draft night 2006. Granger also is high on a growing list of shoulda-been Timberwolves embraced by fans who believe Kevin McHale is incalculably a better coach than executive decisionmaker.

McHale bypassed both -- traded Roy for Randy Foye, selected Rashad McCants over Granger in 2005 -- because, among other reasons, he was concerned about doctors' reports that "red-flagged" both players' knees.

The irony here is the Wolves have lost three consecutive draft picks -- McCants, Foye and now Corey Brewer -- to knee injuries for nearly a season and now have star Al Jefferson gone until at least next fall because of a torn knee ligament.

"So it's weird," McHale said. "Who knows?"

Roy's junior season at Washington was disrupted by a torn meniscus. Granger missed three games his senior season at New Mexico because of a similar injury and participated in predraft workouts that summer with a swollen knee that also kept him out of summer-league play. "Everybody was in a panic about his knee," McHale said.

The Pacers had him rated fifth overall on their draft board and never expected he'd fall until the 17th pick, which is where McHale's former Boston teammate Larry Bird grabbed him. "I called Larry up that night and said, 'Boy, you took a shot on his knee.'" McHale said. "And he said, 'You know, not as much as you might think.'"

The Pacers' physical therapist thought a six-month conditioning program could ensure Granger a long NBA career. Second only to Andrew Bogut in Mountain West Conference scoring his senior year, Granger, a 6-7 small forward, now is sixth in the NBA in scoring with a 25.4-point average and probably is the third-best player from that draft after Chris Paul and Deron Williams.

"I really liked him," McHale said. "I didn't see him becoming this type of scorer in our league, but I saw him as a really good, solid player. He rebounded well there. He shot the ball well. He had size. He was kind of funky: Was he a 'three' [small forward]? Was he a 'four' [power forward]? He was a basketball player, that's what he was."

Both Granger and Roy have been nagged by knee troubles during their pro careers, but not enough to keep Roy from his second consecutive All-Star Game and not enough to keep Granger from being, along with New Jersey's Devin Harris, among the only two players from losing teams to play in today's game.

McHale said he consulted with friends in the league who were with teams selecting well down in the first round, without a chance to take either Roy or Granger.

"And they all said their doctors really red-flagged that guy, " McHale said. "You say, boy, if everybody says the same thing ..."

McHale might have learned his lesson. Some NBA team doctors had concerns about UCLA forward Kevin Love's knees in last summer's draft. McHale traded for him anyway.

"We talk about this with other guys in the league all the time," McHale said. "Those doctor things, sometimes I think you end up hurting yourself more than not because you truly never know. Some guys have a bad knee injury in college, and you never see it again. Then you can get a guy who's never had an injury in his life and in his first year he blows out his knee.

"After the draft, who knows? You just never do."

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