What the results of the NBA draft lottery mean for the 14 participants:
Minnesota _ Happy days are here again! OK, so there’s no LeBron James or Shaquille O’Neal in this draft, but the Wolves had never won the lottery before the 2015 edition. “When people said we had a 25 percent chance of winning, I was thinking that we had a 75 percent chance that somebody else would win it,’’ said long-time owner Glen Taylor.
Yeah, when you’ve been consistently losing, you tend to look for the dark, threatening cloud and not the silver lining. The last team to finish with the worst record and also win the lottery? Orlando, which got Dwight Howard, in 2004.
Now the T-wolves get to choose between the two top players in the draft, Duke’s Jahlil Okafor and Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns. Either will be an excellent partner for the new Rookie of the Year, Andrew Wiggins. Look for Kevin Garnett to return for another season with the T-wolves to mentor the No. 1 pick. “He’s working out hard right now,’’ Taylor said. “I don’t know why he’d be doing that if he wasn’t still interested in playing.’’
So who will Garnett work with? Okafor is the more polished offensive player who should be able to walk right in and score in the low post. Towns has the better all-around game and is the more mobile athlete.
“I know who I’d take with that pick with the team they have,’’ Indiana president Larry Bird told me.
Who?
“I’m not telling you,'' Bird said.
But if you're looking for clues, Larry Legend raved more about Okafor, citing the fact that he's bigger than Towns, has a game built for the NBA and should be able to pound his way to the basket as soon as he steps on the court.
Lakers – They flipped places with the Knicks, finishing second, and did they ever need it. They’re looking ahead to the post-Kobe Bryant era and the last thing they needed was to fall in the lottery or even stay at No. 4, unless you really believe in Emmanuel Mudiay, who skipped the college scene at Southern Methodist and played in China.
If they had slipped below the top 5, the Lakers' pick would have gone to the Sixers. Instead, they were the only team to jump up in the lottery, moving ahead of the Sixers and Knicks from their No. 4 slot. They’ll get whoever’s left between Okafor and Towns, putting him with forward Julius Randle, who was KO’d by a broken leg on opening night last season.
Philadelphia -- For the NBA’s reigning tankers, the joke going in was that if you saw a college big man in a wheelchair getting rolled into the lottery in Manhattan, he was their man.
With Nerlens Noel, who represented the Sixers on the dais, and Joel Embiid, who didn’t play a minute in his rookie season due to injury, they’ve got two big men for the future. Well, maybe. Noel has no offense at all, while the 7-foot Embiid could be the real prize if he can ever get on the floor. He showed skill, size and a nasty disposition when he played at Kansas.
So in the upcoming draft they can focus on addressing their anemic backcourt, meaning Ohio State’s D’Angelo Russell. He looks like the perfect fit at No. 3. Some scouts feel he has the best court vision among all backcourt players and the “it’’ factor all teams are looking for. Who knows, the Sixers might actually start trying to win this coming season. How refreshing.
Jahlil Okafor, who helped Duke win the national title as a freshman, could be going to Minnesota as... [+]
Knicks – Those basketball gods Phil Jackson always invokes must have taken the night off. Coming off a 17-win season, their worst ever, they needed to score big in the lottery. But they were easily the biggest losers. Slotted to get the No. 2 pick, they dropped down two spaces, to finish with the No. 4 pick. So the chaotic start to the Jackson Era has taken a real nose-dive.
Local flavor: The live audience in the Manhattan Hilton let out a loud, pained groan when the Knicks learned that they won too many games down the stretch, surrendering the top spot and best chance for the No. 1 pick with meaningless road wins over Orlando and Atlanta in the last week of the season. Coach Derek Fisher was clueless, as always, marching the team to victories while losing sight of the overall importance of losing for the good of the franchise down the road.
More local flavor: Where was Jackson, anyway? The team’s president wasn’t anywhere to be found, although he lives a mere five blocks from the lottery headquarters. Although Jerry West, Pat Riley and Bird have come and sat over the years on the losers’ dais, that’s apparently beneath the Zen Master. So he sent Steve Mills, his GM in name, who dropped his head in agony when deputy commissioner Mark Tatum opened the envelope with the Knicks' log and announced the brutal news.
Now Jackson will probably try to move the pick. Not that he has a lot to package with it.
Orlando – They came prepared to win, as team executive Alex Martins sat on the dais with the winning Ping-Pong balls from 1992 (Shaquille O’Neal) and 1993 (Chris Webber, which turned into Penny Hardaway). “Maybe they can deliver,’’ Martins said. “We need it.’’ Nope, the good-luck charms didn’t help a franchise that just doesn’t need talent. The Magic sorely needs veterans, so they'll try to move the No. 5 pick. While they’ll look for trade partners, they also need to find a coach.
Sacramento – Team owner Vivek Ranadive dispatched Vlade Divac to New York, which might be the most telling sign that the former Kings and Lakers center is going to be calling the shots on basketball decisions. He’s got the No. 6 pick overall, exactly what the Kings expected coming in. The only time they won the lottery was in 1989, but Pervis Ellison wasn’t cut out for the top pick or the NBA, as it turned out.
This is a franchise that has been to one conference finals and no NBA Finals. They don’t have a good union in George Karl, their veteran coach who wants to run, per Ranadive’s edict, and center DeMarcus Cousins, who needs to play in a slower, halfcourt game that can better feature his considerable skills. Until that gets resolved one way or another, they’re going nowhere.
Denver – The Nuggets continued their luck-less streak in the lottery. Their best finish was No. 3 in the LeBron drafted of 2003, when they landed Carmelo Anthony. The scoring stud/ball hog got them to one conference finals before forcing his way out of town to New York. They’ll be drafting at No. 7 – not a good position for a team that needs to blow it up and start over.
Detroit – The Pistons once dominated the East with six straight trips to the conference Finals, then LeBron graduated high school and took over the conference. End of reign. They haven’t been heard from since. After making their seventh straight trip to the lottery, new boss Stan Van Gundy has the No. 8 pick. He needs more team-oriented players and stands to lose a B-class free agent this summer in power forward Greg Monroe.
Charlotte – Michael Jordan’s team needs Michael Jordan or someone at least resembling a superstar. Okafor would have been perfect. Duke kid. Big hands. Polished inside game. A potential front-line scorer for a team that can’t find the basket with a GPS.
That major deficiency was on display when Michael Kidd-Gilchrist sat on the dais. Taken No. 2 overall in 2012, he’s averaged just 9 ppg and only 26 minutes per game. Ooof. Did we mention the No. 1 player taken in that year's draft? Anthony Davis, who finished fifth in the MVP balloting this past season and is well on his way to becoming the next Big Deal in the NBA. That’s the harsh reality for Hornets fans, whose team will draft at No. 9.
Miami – The Heat lost LeBron last summer and landed back in the lottery. Figures, right? So maybe the gods would give them a break. Not close. Their best lottery finish was in 2009 when they came in with the worst record in the league, with only 15 wins, and left with the No. 2 selection. Riley was livid that night in Secaucus, naturally. That cost him a chance at Derrick Rose. But he passed over Russell Westbrook by taking _ hide your eyes! _ Michael Beasley. Now Riley has to figure out how to get something with the No. 10 pick.
Indiana – In the first lottery 30 years ago, the Pacers wound up with the No. 2 draft pick. So instead of getting Patrick Ewing, who went to the Knicks at No. 1, sparking the mother of all conspiracy theories that still won't die, they had to settle for Wayman Tisdale. Mega drop-off. Here, Bird left with the No. 11 pick. “At least we didn’t drop,’’ he said. “That’s the one thing we didn’t want.’’
What did he bring for a good-luck charm?
“My car keys,’’ he said, laughing, “to drive the hell out of here and go home.’’
Phoenix – Another franchise that has never won a thing, lottery or Larry O'Brien Trophy. This was only their 10th appearance in the last 30 years. Represented by Alex Len, if anyone knows who he is. Len takes home the No. 12 pick.
Utah _ When they had Karl Malone and John Stockton, they made the playoffs 20 straight seasons. The lottery was for losers outside Salt Lake City. Now, coming to New York looking for the top pick is becoming more common. They’ve started to make some progress, but still don’t have a star. And they won’t find that player at No. 13, which is exactly where they found the incomparable Malone in 1985.
Oklahoma City – Team GM Sam Presti came to New York looking for a miracle. He stayed in the background, per usual, and had star guard Russell Westbrook sit on the dais. “Not many teams can get the top pick from where we are,’’ Presti said beforehand. Sure enough, the Thunder left with the No. 14 pick overall. But for good news, Thunder fans can hang their hats on this: Kevin Durant's rehab is going according to plan. Just don't know where he'll be playing in two more seasons.
