Winners and losers: Wolves, Ball family score at draft
The 2017 NBA Draft was a wild, busy affair with nearly a dozen trades consummated as teams shuffled picks to find the players they liked.
There were no surprises in the lottery, for the most part, with the top-six selections unfolding exactly according to the word of prognosticators. Markelle Fultz went first, followed by Lonzo Ball, and then the Celtics landed Jayson Tatum as their forward of the future.
And that's when it all went haywire, especially when the Chicago Bulls reunited Jimmy Butler with his former mentor Tom Thibodeau in Minnesota. That deal, followed by a fresh wave of Paul George speculation, put the league on notice that it would be an eventful night.
Here are some winners and losers from Thursday's draft.
Winner: Lonzo and LaVar Ball
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Don't say the Ball family didn't warn you months ago, because despite all the hubris, Lonzo Ball did head to the Los Angeles Lakers at the No. 2 pick.
He should be ecstatic to join his hometown club. The Lakers had a glaring hole at point guard after dumping D'Angelo Russell on the Brooklyn Nets, which paves the way for Lonzo to have plenty of the ball in his rookie year. More touches and more minutes should translate to big rookie numbers as he looks to lead a up-tempo offense in Los Angeles.
LaVar was also vindicated after officially speaking the Lonzo-to-L.A. scenario into existence. Playing with the Lakers gives the Ball family an even bigger platform to sell Big Baller Brand products, especially if Lonzo can translate his immense success at the collegiate level to the NBA.
For anyone already suffering from Ball fatigue, this is only the beginning. Lonzo and LaVar are going to be in our lives for a long, long time.
Loser: Chicago Bulls
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Not only did Chicago lose its lone star player in Jimmy Butler, its reputation was dragged through the mud in the process.
The Bulls swore up and down that they wouldn't deal Butler, said they valued him as a top-12 player, and then unceremoniously punted him to kick-start a rebuild with a questionable collection of prospects. Butler's trainer called out the organization's two-faced approach on his way out.
With two years left on the contract of a durable, coachable, elite two-way wing coming off a career year, Chicago turned him into three unspectacular prospects, and none of them are guaranteed to come close to Butler's level.
Another loser here: Dwyane Wade. He exercised his $24-million player option days before the draft to commit to another playoff run that isn't possible without Butler. Wade can only hope to be freed by way of a buyout from a famously cheap Bulls squad that sold the best defender in the draft to the Golden State Warriors for cash. Good luck.
Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves
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Tom Thibodeau will ride Butler as hard as possible to propel the Timberwolves to a playoff spot next season.
Minnesota surrendered three future assets with nearly two decades of control in Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the No. 7 pick that became Lauri Markkanen, but its future is bright enough between Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Timberwolves are ready to take the next step toward playing meaningful basketball and Butler fits the bill perfectly.
Thibodeau now boasts three 20-point-per-game scorers on his roster and a lockdown wing to shore up his porous defense. Wiggins and Butler can both create their own shot and get to the line, while Towns might already be the most prolific frontcourt scorer in the league. Add some shooters to surround their core and the Timberwolves should finally make the leap.
Minnesota's 13-year playoff drought should end next season.
Loser: Boston Celtics
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Danny Ainge is testing the patience of Celtics fans by bucking conventional wisdom at every turn.
Passing on Fultz and trading down to No. 3 to grab Tatum only makes sense if the Celtics liked both players equally. Ainge made that very claim after the draft as he put Tatum and Fultz on the same level as prospects. Ainge said he would have taken Tatum first overall anyway, so why not grab more assets for a future trade?
Well, there was no trade either. The Celtics stubbornly refused to part with the No. 3 pick, thus allowing Minnesota to steal Butler. They reportedly made a pass at Paul George, but those talks also died down.
Ainge is left with largely the same roster he had at the end of the season - one that comes woefully short of challenging for East supremacy. Isaiah Thomas appears to be his long-term solution at point guard, while Tatum and last year's No. 3 pick, Jaylen Brown, will struggle to find minutes in Boston's cluttered rotation. Free agency might change the dynamic, but for now, Ainge keeps Celtics fans squirming as he stands pat.
Winner: Sacramento Kings
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It says a lot about the Kings that mere competency counts as a win for the beleaguered franchise. It's not about making great moves so much as not shooting themselves in the foot as usual, and the Kings audaciously avoided that Thursday.
Sacramento landed the point guard it coveted in De'Aaron Fox with the No. 5 pick, then flipped the 10th pick for Nos. 15 and 20, which it used on a shooter in Justin Jackson and a potential lottery ticket in Harry Giles.
None of their players are perfect. Fox needs to add a jumper, Jackson is limited for a wing player, and Giles can't stay healthy. But there's no denying they all hold upside, and they nicely complement Sacramento's existing collection of prospects.
Fox figures to be the Kings' point guard of the future alongside backcourt partner Buddy Hield; Jackson stretches the floor as their small forward; and there's enough ability between Giles, Skal Labissiere, Georgios Papagiannis, and Willie Cauley-Stein for one to eventually land as their solution at center.
A few more days like this and the Kings might actually climb back to respectability.
Loser: Ike Anigbogu
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Nobody slid further in the draft than Anigbogu, who had to sit in the stands with his family as team after team passed on him.
The UCLA center with Rudy Gobert-esque proportions was supposed to be a late lottery selection. But apparent medical red flags caused him to slide - first past the lottery, then out of the first round, and eventually all the way to 47th, where the Indiana Pacers mercifully took a flyer on the talented center.
Anigbogu can only wear it as a chip on his shoulder. He was one of the youngest prospects in the draft, and boasts great physical tools to become an impact player. He stands at 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan and a 9-foot-2 standing reach. Anigbogu needs some coaching and development time, but he could be a physical paint presence on both ends of the floor.