The NBA Draft lottery final results are in. Here is how the ping-pong balls played out.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Los Angeles Lakers
Philadelphia 76ers
New York Knicks
Orlando Magic
Sacramento Kings
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Pistons
Charlotte Hornets
Miami Heat
Indiana Pacers
Utah Jazz
Phoenix Suns
OKC Thunder
So now, the Timberwolves will have 3 straight #1 overall picks (Anthony Bennett #1 pick 2013, Andrew Wiggins #1 2014, and the 2015 #1 pick overall.) Owner, Glen Taylor said that what they want for a number 1 pick is "a guy that has a good heart." I honestly think he has no idea what he is talking about and has no idea how his team is. He probably isn't even aware of all the people on his team with an answer like that. Maybe he think Kevin Love still plays for them. That or he just didn't see that question coming. Either way, just leave the talking and desicion making for Timberwolves president of basketball operations, Flip Saunders.
Who should they draft? I honestly think they should draft Towns. Not Okafor. Now, I could go on and breakdown who all the teams should draft and how the draft should play out. But that is for a different post where I take a preview of the draft. This was probably the most boring NBA Draft Lottery I've seen. Nothing really changed except for the Lakers and Knicks swicthing places. So, I don't have much to talk about. But hey, the Lakers keep their pick and the 76ers don't get any extra picks. Also, the New York Knicks really could have used a higher pick. They are in some trouble here with them having a really inexperienced roster with little potential.
The Draft Lottery is a very important part of the NBA. It could be the difference of a team getting Blake Griffin or Hasheem Thabeet. Stephen Curry or Johnny Flynn. James Harden or Ricky Rubio. (Notice how these are all from the 2009 draft, which was my favorite draft.) It can determine a teams future. One little change can be big. Imagine Blake Griffin being drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies. The whole franchise would be different. Zach Randolph probably wouldn't even be on the team. They would be a more dominant team with great defense and great offense. The NBA Draft Lottery decides a lot. It's funny how little ping pong balls can create the future of the NBA.
The teams that are done and will not enter the playoffs are the Hornets, Pistons, Magic, 76ers, Knicks, Suns, Jazz, Nuggets, Kings, Lakers, Wolves
More will be decided tonight. I want to give a shout out to the best plays from these teams.
Hornets: Kemba's multiple buzzer beaters this season.
Kemba was probably the most clutch guy this season. He hit multiple shots to win and tie the game. Gotta love Kemba. Good bye Hornets. We will miss those close games.
Pistons: Reggie Jackson Trade. Ever since Reggie Jackson came to this team, it has been great. I will admit. I miss Singler, but you have to love what Jackson has done. Ever since he came to the Pistons, he has averaged 17.4 PPG, 35% from 3pt, and 9.1 APG. Just throwing this out, those are numbers that John Wall is pretty much averaging. Bye Pistons, we will miss Jackson's new numbers.
Orlando Magic: Elfrid Payton's hair. Wait! That was an April Fools Day joke! He sure fooled NBA article writer Lang Whitaker. Good Bye Orlando Magic. We will miss all the jokes and laughs you have given us.
Philadelphia 76ers: We will miss the stats you have given me. You ranked 1st in steals and second in blocks. You also ranked 1st in turnovers though. Still, thanks for the stats. But really, don't trade off anymore of your players for future draft picks. It gets a little old. We will miss you 76ers. We will miss your crazy defensive stats you gave us.
New York Knicks: Knicks winning against the Hawks. That was pretty good. You have put up some fights. Not to mention your fans are probably booing you for lessening your chances at the #1 draft pick. Still, you had some great games. Most bad, but there were some good ones. And thanks for finally taking Lou Amundson out of the starting line-up. We will miss you New York Knicks. For your wild win over the Hawks.
Phoenix Suns: That Trade deadline wouldn't have been crazy without you. You traded off Miles Plumlee, Isaiah Thomas, and Goran Dragic and changed your team completely. Wow, this was one of the most interesting trade deadlines of all time, and we owe most of it to the Suns. Them and Sam Hinkie, who makes no sense at all. Why is he a GM?! We will miss you Suns. Thanks for the trades we will miss so much.
Utah Jazz: Thank you Jazz for upsetting a lot of teams and going to make a playoff run, even though you were already eliminated. You put all your effort but just could 't make it. I would also like to make a shout out to Gordon Hayward for leading his team and making the Cavs go home with a frown on their faces
We will miss the Jazz and that face LeBron had after Hayward made that shot.
Nuggets: I don't know that I will miss much from this team. Sure, Gallinari had 47 points, but that's the best that has happened. We will miss you Nuggets, I guess.
Kings: All three coaches. Let's face it, they will have a new coach next year. It's just what the Kings do. They love finding new coaches. C'mon they had three this year. I know that their arena isn't that good (more like horrible). But you can't tell me that it hasn't been fun seeing a variety of post-game conferences from a variety of coaches. We will miss you Kings. And all three of your coaches too.
Lakers: Steve Nash. He is gone. Never played a game for the Lakers this regular season. And now he is gone from our lives. Never got a ring. Just two MVP trophies. We will miss you Steve Nash. And so will the Starters. Good bye Lakers, and good bye Steve Nash.
Minnesota Timberwolves: The worst team had given us some great plays. And by great plays I mean Dunks. From Zach LaVine to Andrew Wiggins to Anthony Bennett, we have seen some great dunks.
Thanks Zach for the Dunk Comp.
Thanks you Wolves for the worst season and turning it into a dunk festival. We will miss you Wolves and we will miss the highlight dunks from you.
As the Regular season closes. These teams are done til next season. So I ask that everyone dedicates this moment to these teams and all they have brought. Whether it's Mo Williams 52 points or Payton's Triple-Double. They made the NBA season just that more special. Besides, without them, we would have no regular season. It would just be the playoffs and the playoff teams. We will miss all these teams, and we will miss the Regular season.
Kemba Walker comes up from behind, Blocks Him! Kemba, last second shot! Wins It!
That's what the beginning of the season was like for the Hornets. However, newly acquired, Lance Stephenson, was not fitting well with this group. Coach Clifford started to bench Lance. Then the most devastating thing that could happen to a Hornets fan, happens. Kemba Walker goes down. He is injured. Small Forward, Gary Neal, was having a great season with this Hornets team. It was impossible for him or Lance to come off the bench and play Point Guard though.
Point Guard, Zach LaVine for the Minnesota Timberwolves was about to participate in the Dunk competition as well as the Rising Stars challenge. He was seeing a lack of minutes, and with Ricky Rubio coming back from injury, he would be placed behind not only Rubio, but Mo Williams too. The Timberwolves made the decision to trade off Mo Williams to get some playing time for a rising Zach LaVine. Of course, the Hornets needed a great veteran Point Guard. Mo Williams had 52 points with the Timberwolves. Obviously this guy could help the Hornets, right?
The Hornets traded off Gary Neal for the Timberwolves, Mo Williams. Mo already was familiar with the Hornets center, Al Jefferson, who had played with Mo on the Jazz. Mo was an immediate impact when he came to the team. They ended up going on a winning streak, Mo won the Eastern Conference player of the week award, and Kemba Walker was close to returning.
Kemba Walker's return didn't help them. It made them worse. Kemba couldn't find rhythem, and Mo couldn't produce that well off the bench. They ended up a couple games out of the playoffs. Now to make matters worse, team center, Al Jefferson has a knee injury. Poor Al could be benched for the rest of the season. As the Celtics and the Nets are on the rise, the Hornets are slowly fading.
This year has been struck by injury for many team. Many teams were hoping for playoffs and more but then injury got in the way. Lets take a look at the worst 5.Oklahoma City Thunder: Durant and Westbrook went down. But Westbrook came back with fire in his eyes. After Ibaka went down and Durant was out for the rest of the season, it's really hard to see this team making much noise in the playoffs. But you never know with Westbrook. 4. Minnesota Timberwolves: This is a team that suffered way too many injuries this season. They were looking at the possibility of the 8th seed in the West. All of a sudden, Rubio went down on their 5th game against the Magic. Kevin Martin played against the Knicks and broke his wrist at the beginning of the game. After he broke it, he scored 37 points that night. Nikola Pekovic went down (as usual) Shabazz Muhammad went down for the season after averaging about 13 points per game. And this is just to start with.
3. Miami Heat: It's bad enough that LeBron James left their team. Now Chris Bosh is out with blood clots on his lungs. This team thought they could do some great things in the playoffs. Dwayne Wade and Shabazz Napier are out. How does this team expect to beat anyone with two of their stars out. It's going to be a bumpy ride for this Heat team. Someone needs to send them a sympathy card. 2. Los Angeles Lakers: Julius Randel goes down before the season even starts. So does Steve Nash. Kobe goes down of course. Nick Young is injured. The playoff hopes that this team had pretty much flew away. They had to start players like Wayne Ellington who was supposed to be a bench player this year. No playoff for this team. And no more Steve Nash. 1. Indiana Pacers: This team was coming back from the loss in the Eastern Conference Finals looking toward next season. Then Paul George goes down ruining all their hopes of a title run for next season. Minor injuries occurred along the way like George Hill going down. They still await the return of Paul George. We all miss him. But I'm pretty sure the Pacers miss him most.
Monday night was what could be a future dunk contest next year in Toronto at the all-star weekend. Andrew Wiggins had four monster Dunks (two on Rudy Gobert) last night at the Wolves vs Jazz games. His teammate Zach LaVine also had a great dunk. Everyone was saying, wow, these are amazing dunks! Nobody can top that! But the whole NBA was dunking last night. DeMar DeRozan had a great dunk. One of my favorites though, was the Jeff Green dunk. It was a night of Dunking last night. Everyone was throwing it down.
Kevin Love has not been so great with the Cavs, why? Well obviously he is not getting the attention he got with the Timberwolves. He is not the #1 player on the team. The other part is that the coach for the Wolves was Rick Adelman who was one of the best offensive coaches in history. Compared to David Blatt, who I am not too fascinated with, he is not much. The Cavs don't run the best offensive plays, and a lot of is just one on one. Not really what you want with three all-stars on the court. That's why I think Kevin Love isn't the same player. Coach Nick describes it a little bit better in this video.
