The luck of the Irish

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming…

That was the first time I had ever watched the NBA Lottery. I had no idea they counted the picks down in reverse order. What an ingenious and suspenseful way to draw out the opening of envelopes!

I suppose I shouldn’t be too upset about the Bulls’ placement at 9; they were facing pretty long odds and the pick is basically a freebie anyway. But two things happened tonight that may turn out to benefit the Bulls if they are to pick a big man who’s not Spencer Hawes or Roy Hibbert (or Joakim Noah, who has fallen out of my favor once I realized that we already have Tyrus Thomas and Ben Wallace). Of course, this is all pure speculation based off excessive viewing of ESPN’s Lottery + Mock Draft, all assumptions could easily turn out to be wrong. So bear with me.

First, the Grizzlies dropped to #4, and from all indications I’ve seen, they’re so keen on Mike Conley that they’re willing to take him there. That’s huge; if the Suns were there with the Hawks pick (the more likely scenario), they were most likely going with a big like Brandan Wright. It also helps that the Sonics got moved up to #2. They were huge on Yi Jianlian and would have snapped him up if he fell to them, but now they’ll obviously be taking Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. The more guards and swingmen picked in the top 8, the better the chances are that Brandan Wright, Al Horford or Jianlian fall to #9. It’s possible. The Bulls just need a little more good fortune than they had tonight.

The big winners up in Portland have to be ecstatic right now. They already have a great young core with Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Zach Randolph (plus Sergio Rodriguez and Martell Webster). Now they’re going to be adding either Oden or Durant, a win-win scenario. More on this later.

And finally, this lottery taught us one thing (in a resounding way, I might add): tanking doesn’t pay. The Bucks and Celtics, the season’s two most egregious tankers, both ended up empty-handed in the Oden-Durant sweepstakes. The Bucks shouldn’t be too worried; they’ve still got Redd, Bogut, and Villenueva, but this really does hurt for the Celtics, losing out on another potential savior. I’ll leave the rest to Bill Simmons, who’s probably already typing his column. The poor Grizzlies didn’t really tank this season—they were legitimately bad. Oh well. That’s what they get for asking for Luol Deng and refusing to budge.