Winners And Losers Of The NBA Draft Lottery

The Minnesota Timberwolves won the right to have the number one pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. There is a lot of time between now and June 25, the day that the draft will be held, and nothing is set in stone. Minnesota gets to select first, which dictates how the draft will go for several teams. Who the Timberwolves choose will help unveil the winners and losers of the 2015 NBA Draft. For now, we can only go with what we know.

Karl Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor?

Minnesota can’t go wrong with either player. While they are weighing their options, the management team of the Los Angeles Lakers are more than eager to select whomever the Timberwolves do not.

The recent ESPN NBA mock draft has Towns going first. If that scenario indeed happens, Okafor will land into the Lakers lap.

This will be great for L.A. if it happens. Some league observers believe that Towns is a great fit for the Lakers because he has a more developed defensive game than Okafor. In all actuality, his game is suited best for the Lakers. They will have a returning Julius Randle, giving them two frontcourt players at conventional positions – center and power forward.

The NBA has not gone too far away from the traditional starting lineups. Size is void in the Western Conference. As of now, only Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz have a chance to carry the mantle as conventional pivot players, who are under the age of 25, with all-star credentials or potential.

That leaves both Karl Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor in a great position during the draft lottery aftermath.

Other winners of the NBA draft lottery were the Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, and surprisingly, the New York Knicks.

The results of the draft lottery were regarded as a setback and terrible luck for the Knicks. Many will no doubt point to the fact that they ended the season winning two of their last three games. It was pointed out that it cost them in the amount of ping-pong balls that are used in the lottery.

The Knicks, or any other team for that matter, were not guaranteed the draft’s No. 1 pick. Nevertheless, picking fourth gives them a chance at a much-needed table setter on offense, or the dynamic Justise Winslow.

There is one loser coming out of the draft lottery – the fans of the Philadelphia 76ers.

They got to watch their woebegone franchise “purposely” lose games for the sake of gaining assets and wound up with the third selection. They will no doubt get a good player with that pick, but the fans had to suffer through yet another losing season with a team playing inexperienced talent. Not getting the top pick at the end of the draft lottery should serve as notice to any team not appearing to want to win games. You will lose.

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