NBA Draft Lottery 2015: Selection Order and Post-Event Comments

Minnesotans are waking up with smiles on their faces this morning. Their Timberwolves parlayed the NBA's worst record into the No. 1 overall pick Tuesday night, winning their first draft lottery in franchise history.

They are the fifth team in league history to parlay the most ping-pong balls into the top pick. Barring a trade, Minnesota will also boast the distinction of employing the last three No. 1 overall picks. Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, the 2014 and 2013 picks, respectively, came over last offseason in the Timberwolves' trade of Kevin Love.

With Tuesday's win, the Timberwolves will get a chance to select their next foundational big man. 

Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke's Jahlil Okafor are widely expected to vie for the selection. Towns has emerged as the near-consensus top prospect, a potential two-way bully with a smooth jumper and solid athleticism. His shot-blocking ability helps give him two-way potential Minnesota hasn't seen since Kevin Garnett.

Okafor, on the other hand, is the safer bet. He's a big body who will instantly translate to the next level—an Al Jefferson clone waiting to happen. Defense and athleticism are issues for Okafor, but he's a throwback; there's a can't-miss quality about him.

Were there any clues given about where Minnesota might be leaning? Let's check in on the comments from Tuesday night and see what everyone's saying.

Flip Saunders Open to Players Other Than Okafor, Towns

This might be a classic Saunders misdirection, but the Timberwolves head coach/general manager/czar sure seemed determined to eliminate the notion this is a "two-player race." In a conference call with reporters Saunders complimented Towns and Okafor but made it clear he's doing his due diligence on the other players:

"

Both those guys have the ability to score and both those guys are great kids. I've known about those kids for a couple of years. I know they're both great kids, as are the other kids who are talked about in the top five or six, whether it be (D'Angelo) Russell, whether it be (Emmanuel) Mudiay, whether it be (Kristaps) Porzingis, whether it be (Willie) Cauley-Stein. We're going to be very open-minded and we'll do our research, both internally when we bring them in here and we'll do our research out into their respective communities – where they grew up, where they went to college and where they played overseas.

"

Odds are, this is conjecture. No general manager or coach is going to be straightforward about their plans within hours of winning the lottery. This isn't the Anthony Davis lottery. Neither Towns nor Okafor are surefire All-Stars. It's smart for Saunders to at least publicly keep his options open, just in case a team falls in love and wants to make a Godfather offer.

But seriously. He's taking Towns or Okafor.

Kobe Is Dope

I could bore you with Byron Scott's post-lottery comments or just post this Kobe Bryant tweet and move on:

Yep. I made the right decision.

Hinkiebot Offers a Little Insight to His Life

Notoriously private Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie ain't telling us a thing about his draft plans. Dude's a vault. That said, he did offer some personal touch when discussing how he prepared for the lottery. 

"My five-year-old gave me a kindness coin this morning," Hinkie said, per Dei Lynam of CSN Philly. "He got it at school for being kind to someone else. I told my wife I don't think this matters on the outcome at all, but I will take it because we reward this sort of behavior in our house."

The Sixers, who had a chance to land three lottery picks, wound up with just the one. Hinkie attempted to soothe the disappointment of fans with some math.

"I think tonight is a good outcome for us," Hinkie said. "It was better than I anticipated. I thought we would get the fourth pick. That was our single most likely outcome to get one pick. We had a 77 percent chance to come out of this with only one lottery pick."

This has been your daily reminder that Sam Hinkie is the best.

Knicks Go From Dreaming of Towns or Okafor To...No One?

No team had a worse night than the Knicks. Thirty years after winning the most controversial lottery in history, New York dropped back to No. 4 and out of a chance at landing its next foundational big man. The Knicks will likely get the leftover of D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay, far from a booby prize but nonetheless disappointing.

Or will they get anyone at all?

Knicks general manager Steve Mills seemed to put a nice "for sale" sign on the pick in his meeting with reporters:

On one hand, it's hard to criticize anyone for saying they're open to making a trade. That's just smart business in general. On the other, this is the worst possible outcome. The Knicks technically can't trade their pick without getting another first-rounder, so they're probably going to be "stuck" at No. 4 until June. 

But the odds of that player staying in New York might not be that high.

On Twitter

Here's the greatest hits from #LotteryTwitter:

"

Lakers fans are real pleased with themselves considering Jordan Hill is their second best player.

— Tom Ziller (@teamziller) May 20, 2015"

See you next year, folks.