NBA Draft Lottery Results 2015: Twitter Reaction, Recap and More
A team won the NBA lottery on Tuesday, and for once, it wasn't Cleveland. Unfortunately for the rest of the NBA, the team the Cavaliers traded their last two No. 1 picks to just got another.
The Minnesota Timberwolves won the 2015 NBA lottery, becoming the fifth team in league history (counting ties) to parlay the worst regular-season record into the top selection. The Los Angeles Lakers wound up with the No. 2 selection, and the Philadelphia 76ers will select No. 3. The New York Knicks and Orlando Magic round out the top five.
It's the first lottery win in Minnesota history, though it certainly doesn't feel that way given its roster construction. The Timberwolves' top selection will join 2014 No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins and 2013 top selection Anthony Bennett.
Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders commented on the unprecedented situation:
Minnesota will almost certainly be choosing between Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke's Jahlil Okafor in June. Towns has largely reached a consensus as the draft's top prospect, but Okafor is by far the safer selection. The Duke big man averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds while leading the Blue Devils to a national championship, whereas Towns didn't really come into his own until late in the season.
Opinions differed on which big man the Wolves will select:
"— Seth Partnow (@SethPartnow) May 20, 2015"
Minnesota sticking at No. 1 falls in line with the theme of the night. All but two of the selections wound up staying where they were during the predraft process. The ones that did not affected two high-profile teams in a major way.
The Lakers moving up from No. 4 to No. 2 means they'll have a chance to land the next foundational big man in franchise history. Bill Oram of the Orange County Register commented on the situation:
As ESPN Stats & Info noted, things tend to go well when the Lakers pick high:
Of course, if the Timberwolves select Towns, not everything will be ideal. Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports made an interesting point:
Still, it's nothing short of a win for a fanbase that came into Tuesday sweating bullets. The Heat and Bulls both came into Tuesday night in danger of losing their picks to the Sixers, depending on the results. L.A. would have conveyed if it dropped outside of the top five, whereas Miami's selection was top-10 protected.
Good fortune in Miami and Los Angeles means the opposite for Philadelphia, which saw its #OneSixEleven dreams go up in smoke. Matt Lombardo of NJ.com provided some solace for disappointed fans:
Andy Katz of ESPN also already has a Sixers pick in mind:
While Philly left disappointed, things could have gone worse. They could be Knicks fans. On the 30-year anniversary of the Knicks winning the inaugural lottery in 1985, New York fell back to No. 4—the largest drop of any team. As one would expect, Twitter went a little Schadenfreudian here:
"oh man, a really good point guard is going to be stuck in the triangle. That sucks.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 20, 2015"
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports already started the rumor mill:
Even if the Knicks keep their pick, they won't be without options. Justise Winslow, Emmanuel Mudiay, Kristaps Porzingis and a number of other solid players should be on the board when they select. What this draft lacks in a surefire foundational piece, it makes up for in the number of solid young players.
That said, the drinks are #goink down much smoother in Minneapolis than New York tonight.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter
