For all the hoopla that is surrounding D’Angelo Russell being a great pick for the Lakers’ future, not sure there are many fans of the team that agree with that statement.
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“You have no idea”, he said. “They keep their cards really close to the chest”.
And boosted by Kentucky’s four first-round picks (Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker), the SEC had six selections with Bobby Portis of Arkansas (to Chicago) and Jarrell Martin of LSU (to Memphis) being the other non-Kentucky players getting drafted.
Actually, the beginning came last summer, when Newton and Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders were able to get Andrew Wiggins as the headliner of a package from Cleveland for disgruntled star Kevin Love.
The Timberwolves drafted Towns No. 1 overall on Thursday night, then traded up to No. 24 to get Jones, the hometown point guard.
On Wednesday, Love opted out of the final year of his contract and he will become a free agent on July 1. He was ranked 23rd in the nation with 95 3-pointers and is considered a gifted player with superior court vision who can play both guard positions.
This year’s draft turned out exciting and promising for most of the picks especially the young ones entering the National Basteball Association.
But Russell was the right choice for the Lakers for several reasons.
It feels like a dream, Jones said. Not knowing how much he has left in the tank is the scary thing. “I’m really looking forward to him taking me under his wing if possible and feed me the most knowledge he can and use that as fire against my opponents”.
Okafor averaged 17.3 points and 8.5 rebounds in his lone season at Duke.
Towns will join the Timberwolves, who finished with a 16-66 record last season, to play alongside young talents like 2015 Rookie of the Year awardee Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett.
“I thought they liked me”, Towns said. “My bread and butter is the post”.
“I always wanted to play for the Timberwolves and be a Timberwolf”.
Immediately after Okafor’s selection, Embiid tweeted, ” OK…
The Knicks ended the run of one-and-dones when they took Porzingis with the No. 4 pick.
During his college career, Town’s averaged 10.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, while shooting a field-goal percentage of 56.6%, and 81.3% from the charity stripe. And he let everyone know it when he stepped to the podium in Dallas to announce the No. 21 pick in the first round. He has shown the ability to score consistenlty from mid-range, and was showing off the ability to make threes in workouts. The basketball world is waiting to see how the Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers handle the top three picks in a draft deep with elite prospects.
“I had a weird feeling in my stomach that I was going to be a Timberwolf”, Jones told a massive group of fans at his draft party, a group that chanted his name and swelled in number after Minnesota nabbed him.
And what do those lottery picks say? It was the sixth straight year that a freshman was the No. 1 pick.
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Another global player followed as Orlando took Croatian Mario Hezonja at No. 5. With each ex- Cat drafted, Calipari was right there on TV, hugging and congratulating his players. He connected on 39.6 percent of his 3-point attempts. The Wildcats were hoping to have a record seven players picked.
