NBA Draft Lottery Thread - 7:05pm CT Tonight! (ESPN)

[Treebeard]

They WERE lucky. If LeBron doesn't go back to Cle what is the next best offer out there for Love? If Cle doesn't win a lottery they had no business winning what was Min going to get for him? I think Bos pulled back #6 when he didn't promise to resign there. There were ZERO offers out there for him that were even remotely comparable.

Really? Cause what I remember was that GS a breath away from a deal that would've included Klay Thompson. True GS didnt want to trade Klay but its not out of the realm of possibility that if Lebron never signs with the Cavs that they would have buckeled n pulled the trigger eventually. But sure if you believe Minnisota lucked into it because they got a high return so be. Must be one of the people that thinks TT lucked into Rodgers too.

I'll add Hinkie has been neither lucky or good yet. Nobody has a clue if what he's doing is shrewed asset management or just managing to fool fans into thinking it wont blow up on him by selling the future. Only thing we know is that we wont know for at least 2-3 more years.

But seriously. How can u call a team lucky that negotiated a good deal. Thats like negotiating a great salary and then somone telling you that you only got lucky to be paid so much. Oblivious to the fact that you had to get the job in the first place

No, they famously refused to include him. They were trying to dump Lee in the deal. That was never even close to happening. Find me one offer that was on the table that was for 20% of what they ended up getting. Without Cle winning the lotto they end up with a ~#6 pick. MAYBE.

They were lucky because the circumstances were simply perfect for them to extract 10X the value they would have gotten elsewhere because of a wild series of lucky occurances, including Cle landing the pick with a 1% chance of landing it. They were every bit as lucky as any lotto team has ever been.

The Wolves could easily have underplayed their options and watched Kevin Love walk at the end of the contract, or overplayed the back-and-forth with other teams and ended with nothing as well. Instead, they played Goldilocks and got it just right. Seriously, you have to give them some credit here.

[paulpressey25]

Love is who I was thinking about with the recruiter thing. I wouldn't want to play for the guy. I can't imagine Kevin Love would. I think he stays put for another year.

I think Love will look the other way on the Thibs thing. His alternative is to sit in Cleveland with LeBron and his posse. I think I'd rather be the man in LA, which he would.

Would be ironic for Cav's fans if they won the title this year with Love on the bench in a suit.

[Profound23]

Love is who I was thinking about with the recruiter thing. I wouldn't want to play for the guy. I can't imagine Kevin Love would. I think he stays put for another year.

I think Love will look the other way on the Thibs thing. His alternative is to sit in Cleveland with LeBron and his posse. I think I'd rather be the man in LA, which he would.

Would be ironic for Cav's fans if they won the title this year with Love on the bench in a suit.

As a Cavs fans I think it would be bitter sweet. GREAT to win a title, terrible to think you just gave up a future superstar for nothing. I still say if they had kept Wiggins this team might not have lost a game in the postseason.

[drew881]

Love is who I was thinking about with the recruiter thing. I wouldn't want to play for the guy. I can't imagine Kevin Love would. I think he stays put for another year.

I think Love will look the other way on the Thibs thing. His alternative is to sit in Cleveland with LeBron and his posse. I think I'd rather be the man in LA, which he would.

Would be ironic for Cav's fans if they won the title this year with Love on the bench in a suit.

Other than Atlanta winning, the Cavs are my next choice for this reason alone.

[HurricaneKid]

Love is who I was thinking about with the recruiter thing. I wouldn't want to play for the guy. I can't imagine Kevin Love would. I think he stays put for another year.

I think Love will look the other way on the Thibs thing. His alternative is to sit in Cleveland with LeBron and his posse. I think I'd rather be the man in LA, which he would.

Would be ironic for Cav's fans if they won the title this year with Love on the bench in a suit.

I'm still quite confident that he opts in this year. It means he signs his mega deal when the salaries are significantly higher, and I'm still pretty sure there is a backroom handshake agreement in place. It also brings him into LA to be the star rather than Kobe's asst his last season. If he was frustrated playing with LeBron, playing with old Kobe would make him pull out all his hair.

And if you think Cle can beat GSW (or even Houston) you haven't watched the games the last 3 days.

[raferfenix]

Rondo would want to play for Thibs. He did already in Boston.

Maybe that's how they justify him signing in LA 'below his market value' in order to play for his old coach while still leaving enough room for them to sign another max free agent.

[jakecronus8]

I've been laughing at Cleveland since they traded Wiggins + for Love. Looking more and more like they'll look even more stupid.

Besides giving up the guy Lebron could eventually pass the torch to, I never thought Love was a good running mate for him in the first place.

[drew881]

Rondo would want to play for Thibs. He did already in Boston.

Maybe that's how they justify him signing in LA 'below his market value' in order to play for his old coach while still leaving enough room for them to sign another max free agent.

I think there is a fairly good chance next year's Lakers rotation is:

Rondo/Clarkson
Bryant/Clarkson
Nick Young/W. Johnson
Love/Randall
Okafor/Hill

I'm not a huge fan of that team, but I think the draft pick ends up being 11-12 or so. That team will at least feast a bit on the bottom feeder east coast teams.

[Licensed to Il]

The Lakers won't make the playoffs out west until Jeannie Buss fires her brother and Kobe retires.

[HurricaneKid]

Rondo would want to play for Thibs. He did already in Boston.

Maybe that's how they justify him signing in LA 'below his market value' in order to play for his old coach while still leaving enough room for them to sign another max free agent.

I think there is a fairly good chance next year's Lakers rotation is:

Rondo/Clarkson
Bryant/Clarkson
Nick Young/W. Johnson
Love/Randall
Hill/X

I'm not a huge fan of that team, but I think the draft pick ends up being 11-12 or so. That team will at least feast a bit on the bottom feeder east coast teams.

That is a defensive train wreck and I don't even think they will be able to get that far.

[drew881]

It definitely isn't perfect, but it also isn't Hill, Sacre, and Boozer. I don't think they'll get him, but if the Lakers got Gasol and Okafor that would be a very complimentary front court.

[AussieBuck]

Rondo would want to play for Thibs. He did already in Boston.

Maybe that's how they justify him signing in LA 'below his market value' in order to play for his old coach while still leaving enough room for them to sign another max free agent.

I think there is a fairly good chance next year's Lakers rotation is:

Rondo/Clarkson
Bryant/Clarkson
Nick Young/W. Johnson
Love/Randall
Okafor/Hill

I'm not a huge fan of that team, but I think the draft pick ends up being 11-12 or so. That team will at least feast a bit on the bottom feeder east coast teams.

I think you'd have to sub in Nash's Suns on offense just to break even with that D. Looks like 112 per 100 on D.

[drew881]

I suppose, but I don't think the Lakers are going to construct an idea team either way next year. And I think they are realistic about that. I think if you offered them the possibility of signing Rondo/Love and drafting Okafor as an outcome of their offseason they take it immediately and figure out what to do later. Replace Bryant and Young with two 3-D types the following offseason, and I think they accept the front court deficiency.

[TroyD92]

I like Clarkson more than I like Rondo. I think it would be dumb to demote him to the bench.

[vegaspacker]

I like Clarkson more than I like Rondo. I think it would be dumb to demote him to the bench.

Yep, Rondo is not in a good state of mind... Old and entitled.. I say bad fit.

[paulpressey25]

If the Lakers hire Thibs or another power coach who can recruit, and give that coach some personnel say, I don't see them making tons of stupid moves and signings.

Draft Okafor, do everything to recruit LMA and Dragic. Then sign the bandwagon three and D guys. That team could be 50 wins next year if they could pull that off.

[CaptainAwesome]

I like Clarkson more than I like Rondo. I think it would be dumb to demote him to the bench.

Yep, Rondo is not in a good state of mind... Old and entitled.. I say bad fit.

And pair him with another guy who is old and entitled in Kobe for his last year...

I want Kobe to fail so badly next year.

[CaptainAwesome]

If the Lakers hire Thibs or another power coach who can recruit, and give that coach some personnel say, I don't see them making tons of stupid moves and signings.

Draft Okafor, do everything to recruit LMA and Dragic. Then sign the bandwagon three and D guys. That team could be 50 wins next year if they could pull that off.

Think Kobe and Thibs can coexist? I would fear Kobe going Spree on him at some point.

[paulpressey25]

If the Lakers hire Thibs or another power coach who can recruit, and give that coach some personnel say, I don't see them making tons of stupid moves and signings.

Draft Okafor, do everything to recruit LMA and Dragic. Then sign the bandwagon three and D guys. That team could be 50 wins next year if they could pull that off.

Think Kobe and Thibs can coexist? I would fear Kobe going Spree on him at some point.

With the Lakers it all comes down to Buss and his sister. If they insist on running the place like morons, the Lakers will suck.

I think you look for a bigger name and give that guy all the power. But even Thibs works if you accept the fact you can't then sign Herb Kohl guys and cater to Kobe.

[Treebeard]

If the Lakers hire Thibs or another power coach who can recruit, and give that coach some personnel say, I don't see them making tons of stupid moves and signings.

Draft Okafor, do everything to recruit LMA and Dragic. Then sign the bandwagon three and D guys. That team could be 50 wins next year if they could pull that off.

Think Kobe and Thibs can coexist? I would fear Kobe going Spree on him at some point.

With the Lakers it all comes down to Buss and his sister. If they insist on running the place like morons, the Lakers will suck.

I think you look for a bigger name and give that guy all the power. But even Thibs works if you accept the fact you can't then sign Herb Kohl guys and cater to Kobe.

At this point, shouldn't they be following the standard magicians mis-direction program: get the rubes focusing on Kobe, while everything else in the organization is focused on the post-Kobe world....

Also, what happens 20 games into this season when Kobe's shoulder/knee/achilles goes?