But perhaps the best news was what head coach Brett Brown told 97.5 The Fanatic on Wednesday morning following the Draft Lottery. The Bargnani trade also made Knicks owner James Dolan hesitate on giving more draft picks to the Raptors in a proposed deal for Kyle Lowry a few months later. Finally, they won something.
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What this means is that Ingram, if all goes as suggested, would be the next-best option for the Lakers in the second overall slot. “The city has been incredibly patient, tolerant, choose any word you want”. But I think they’ll lean toward Simmons …
By holding on to the number 2 overall pick, the team can continue to build on what they already have and simply take whoever the Philadelphia 76ers decide to pass on with their first pick.
That pick is still owed to Philadelphia: it will be top three protected again in 2017, and will be wholly unprotected in 2018.
“It’s been a long year”, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said. That would have been disappointing. Thankfully, the lottery held to form and the Lakers will be adding a second overall pick to their collection of young talent, which includes D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson (who will be a restricted free agent).
We’ll see how everything shakes out on draft day. It gives us the injection that we need.
Former NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo either has the ability to travel through time, to predict the future, or maybe he revealed an NBA conspiracy by accident. He sent a subsequent tweet saying he was just excited but was keeping his fingers crossed. They’ve got somewhat of a good problem to work through in the paint, as they try to figure out what to do with their three promising big men: Jahlil Okafor, Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel.
LSU freshman forward Ben Simmons or Duke freshman forward Brandon Ingram are considered to be the top two prospects in the draft. They were careful and meticulous with his recovery yet again this time, and things seem to be going much more smoothly.
The Sixers had a 25 percent chance of landing the top pick, the best odds in the bunch.
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Clarifying reports last week that the team was considering to trade their first pick for a solid veteran point guard (i.e. Derrick Rose), Colangelo said that he never said they “would consider trading the no. 1 pick”.
