With the first pick in the 2015 National Basteball Association Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves choose Kentucky big man, Karl-Anthony Towns.
Advertisement
In the short term, Towns is the key piece of what has quickly become a strong, young core of players who could become the first competitive Timberwolves franchise in over a decade. New York, Kristaps Porzingis (Latvia), forward, Cajasol Seville 5.
Jones, who was born and grew up in Minnesota, said: “I was just super excited and extremely blessed and honoured [when he heard about the trade]”.
“You have no idea”, he said. Next year may be a little ambitious, but the Wolves think they’re closer than they’ve ever been.
Karl-Anthony Towns was widely considered the best player in the draft, and he made no secret about his happiness in being selected by the Timberwolves, even though the tradition-rich Lakers playing in glitzy Los Angeles were sitting there at No. 2.
Before that, the Timberwolves went for a center in their first time owning the No. 1 pick. They have the reigning Rookie of the Year in Wiggins and a proven playmaker and perimeter defender in Rubio.
The Los Angeles Lakers – once dominant, now coming off of a bruising 21-61 season – had second pick and chose guard D’Angelo Russell of Ohio State University. Russell averaged 19.3 points, five assists and 5.7 rebounds in his only season for the Buckeyes. “I didn’t know at all”, Russell said on whether he knew the Lakers would select him.
“You have to be great every game”, he said via Cisco Telepresence on Friday. “Not knowing how much he has left in the tank is the scary thing”. Im 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.. Embiid, who sat out all of last season with a foot injury, has suffered a setback in his recovery, which could have pushed the 76ers to land Okafor.
Minnesota opened the second round by picking Macedonian forward Cedi Osman, who played in Turkey last season, while Philadelphia selected Spanish big man Guillermo Hernangomez, who played for Sevilla, four picks later at 35th. “My bread and butter is the post”. “I didn’t need to do a lot of it at (Kentucky) because we had it at other positions, but now I’m on another level and I’ll be able to do more”.
The 6-11, 220-pound Porzingis averaged 10.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1 block in 33 games for Cajasol Seville in the Spanish League during the 2014-15 season.
Porzingis has been compared to Dallas All-Star Dirk Nowitzki.
With chants of “Let’s Go Knicks” in the moments before the pick, crowd quieted before commissioner Adam Silver reached the podium. “So we’re really happy we got a chance to draft Justin Anderson from the 2015 NCAA College World Series champion Virginia Cavaliers”, Carlisle said, with a slight smile. “The fans are harsh sometimes; that’s how it is in New York, and I’m ready for it”. 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.
Advertisement
The sharp-shooting, 6-foot-8 (2.03m) guard Mario Hezonja of Croatia, who also played in Spain for Barcelona, went fifth to the Orlando Magic. He has a textbook shooting touch on mid-range jumpers and runs the floor well. He connected on 39.6 percent of his 3-point attempts. The Wildcats were hoping to have a record seven players picked.
