NBA Draft Winners, Losers: Miami, Minnesota come away looking good

By Kurt HelinJun 26, 2015, 2:45 AM EDT

Trying to assess winners and losers in the immediate aftermath of an NBA Draft is a fool’s errand — we are at least three years out from really knowing who did well. Think back three years, would anyone take Dion Waiters in front of Damian Lillard if you redid the 2012 draft?

That said, we’re going to give it a shot.

I’ll start with this comment: I’m not putting the Knicks in the loser category straight away. Porzingis was not who I would have picked but the guy has upside and a lot of teams like him. If the Knicks can develop him — which is another question — they have a steal. But this is a franchise that has tried the quick fix for years, I don’t completely hate them trying to get the best guy by going slower. If James Dolan lets them stick with it.

Here are our winners and losers from the 2015 NBA Draft.

WINNER: The Miami Heat
(Justise Winslow at No. 10, Josh Richardson at No. 40)
Winslow is the guy the Knicks should have taken at No. 4 (unless you think the Knicks are good at player development suddenly), but instead he falls right into Pat Riley’s lap. He can defend multiple positions at an NBA level right now, plus he showed some versatility to his offense at Duke. He’s going to get most of his offense in transition — the Heat want to run — and he shot 41 percent from three last season. Winslow fell to the perfect team for his style of play, and the Heat catch a big break.

LOSER: NBA Fans
This was going to be the NBA draft with the wild trades, all sorts of player movement, crazy surprises and… not so much. Mason Plumlee and Tim Hardaway Jr. got traded, but that’s not exactly the kind of wild thrills we had in mind. Look for a lot more movement come the start of free agency on July 1, but this draft did not live up to the hype.

WINNER: The Minnesota Timberwolves
(Karl-Anthony Towns at No. 1, Tyus Jones at No. 24)
Flip Saunders didn’t over think it, he just took the best player on the board with the first pick, a guy who is going to fit beautifully with Andrew Wiggins and the rest of the young core in Minnesota. I also like the move to make a trade and land a quality point guard — he can back up Ricky Rubio… and considering Rubio’s injury history Jones may get a fair amount of run. This is a team on the rise.

LOSER: Atlanta Hawks
(Traded to end up with Tim Hardaway Jr., took Marcus Eriksson at No. 50)
I get trading out of the 15 pick (giving it to the Wizards) for the No. 19 pick, they picked up a couple of second rounders there. But then they traded that No. 19 pick too, when guys who could have helped then like Bobby Portis and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson were still on the board. Maybe you can say Hardaway is better than those young stars, but he regressed last season with the Knicks and Mike Budenholzer has some work to do there.

WINNER: The Chicago Bulls
(Bobby Portis at No. 22)
They had only one pick but they made the most of it, drafting a high energy, defense first kind of guy. Tom Thibodeau would have loved him, but alas. To make up for that bulls fans will love this guy because he fights and outworks guys at both ends of the court. He defends well in the paint and on the perimeter. Offensively, put him in a modern offense (like Fred Hoiberg wants to run) and he will get you hustle points and knock down some jumpers. This is just a great fit.

LOSER: The Memphis Grizzlies
(Jarell Martin at No. 25, Andrew Harrison at No. 44)
I don’t get the Martin pick, but this was a guy the Grizzlies loved and promised very early on. Martin’s offensive game suits an up-tempo team, but he struggles when the game grinds down — and all the Grizzlies do is grind. Martin wasn’t even the best forward on his team, the Grizzlies should have taken Jordan Mickey (the Celtics got him at 34, and that helped keep them off the loser list since they badly overreached at 16).

Nets thrash Heat, move back up to No.6 seed in East

Associated PressMar 26, 2023, 9:30 AM EDT

Megan Briggs/Getty Images

MIAMI (AP) — All the Brooklyn Nets needed, coach Jacque Vaughn insisted, was one win.

They got it, and made it look easy.

Mikal Bridges scored 27 points, and the Nets opened the third quarter on a 31-6 run on the way to rolling past Miami 129-100 on Saturday night and leapfrogging the Heat back into the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference.

Mikal Bridges dropped 27 points and 7 assists as the Nets picked up the win in Miami 🔥 pic.twitter.com/3pNaj7wAGW

— NBA (@NBA) March 26, 2023

Cam Johnson added 23 points and Spencer Dinwiddie scored 15 for the Nets (40-34), who snapped a five-game slide. They’re only a half-game up on Miami (40-35) in the race for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff berth, but swept the Heat 3-0 this season and would also own a head-to-head tiebreaker.

“We had the mindset coming in that this was a playoff game,” Johnson said.

Max Strus scored 23 for the Heat, all of them in the first half. Tyler Herro scored 23, Jimmy Butler had 18 and Bam Adebayo finished with 16 for the Heat. Miami was outscored 64-31 after halftime.

“We have not been defending at a world-class level, the way we’re capable of … and the second half just became an avalanche,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Strus came off the bench and made his first nine shots, one of them putting Miami up 51-37 midway through the second quarter. Over the next 14 minutes, the Nets outscored Miami 54-24 – completely turning the game around, eventually leading by 32 and, for now, putting Brooklyn in position to escape the play-in tournament that’ll decide the final two East playoff berths.

“You see how this March Madness is and you’re one and you’re done,” Vaughn said. “And that’s part of it. I have not discussed any of the standings with this group. Really, we have gone day to day and tried to get a win.”

The Heat could have moved 1 1/2 games up on Brooklyn for sixth with a win.

“There has been nothing easy about this season and that doesn’t necessarily mean that has to be a negative thing,” Spoelstra said. “You have to embrace the struggle. You have to figure out ways to stay together … but we just got categorically outplayed tonight.”

It was Brooklyn’s second trip to Miami this season. The first was Jan. 8 – which ended up being the last time Kevin Durant played for the Nets, and the last time Durant and Kyrie Irving played together. Durant left that game with a knee injury, then got traded to Phoenix, and Irving has since been dealt to Dallas, as well.

The Nets were 27-13 after that night, second in the East, just a game behind Boston for the best record in the NBA. They’re 13-21 since, yet still have the Heat looking up at them in the standings – which Vaughn insists he hasn’t discussed with his team.

“You need the momentum, the confidence, the reassurance that you can get it done,” Vaughn said. “So, haven’t tried to complicate it more than that.”

Jokic scores 31 points with 11 assists, leads Nuggets past Bucks 129-106

Associated PressMar 26, 2023, 7:30 AM EDT

DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic had 31 points and 11 assists, Jamal Murray finished with 26 points and nine assists, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 129-106 on Saturday night in a late-season showdown of the NBA’s conference leaders.

Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 points for West-leading Denver (50-24), which outscored East-leading Milwaukee 68-40 in the second half.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 31 points — just seven in the second half — and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bucks (53-20).

“It’s better to win games, but our goal is to do something in a playoffs,” Jokic said.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1639823102891761664

The battle of the top teams in each conference — and two strong MVP candidates — was more competitive than the teams’ first meeting, won by the Bucks 107-99. Then, the Nuggets held out four starters — Jokic, Murray, Porter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — in the game in Milwaukee on Jan. 25. Denver had played the night before in New Orleans and opted to rest its stars.

The circumstances were reversed, with the Bucks having played in Utah on Friday night.

“We still play, still got to be better, there’s no excuses about that,” Khris Middleton said. “But I’m sure for a lot of fans, a lot of people out there, they’d love to see healthy teams, or not coming off back to backs.”

Antetokounmpo scored 24 points on 11-for-14 shooting in the first half, with all but one of those field goals coming at the rim. Murray (20 points) and Jokic (17 points) kept Denver within three at the break, and then the Nuggets outscored Milwaukee 34-19 in the third quarter to take a 97-85 lead.

Jeff Green dunked on Antetokounmpo to open the fourth as the Nuggets’ lead swelled to 15 points. Grayson Allen hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 103-91 with 9:54 left, but Milwaukee went scoreless for 4:10 while Denver built a 111-91 lead.

“It was an amazing dunk,” Jokic said of Green’s dunk. “I didn’t think he was going to do it. He almost fell down, so it was a really nice dunk.”

Antetokounmpo went to the bench with 5:54 left and didn’t return.

The Bucks lost some composure in the third quarter. Bobby Portis Jr. was called for a take foul on Jokic and, immediately after, a technical. Denver hit both free throws and Bruce Brown hit a 3-pointer for a 84-76 lead. Minutes later, Brook Lopez got a technical while sitting on the bench.

Antetokounmpo picked up Milwaukee’s third technical with 6:41 left in the game.

“It was a night where we were grumpy, and it happens,” coach Mike Budenholzer said.

Denver coach Michael Malone got a technical late in the first quarter, and it was to prevent Jokic from getting one. Jokic was frustrated by the physical play, so during a timeout Malone told him he would get the technical.

“I can get kicked out, he can’t. I understand the pecking order here,” Malone said.

Watch Trae Young get ejected for launching ball at referee

By Kurt HelinMar 26, 2023, 1:31 AM EDT

Trae Young screwed up and he knew it.

“It’s just a play he can’t make,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said via the Associated Press after the game. “I told him that. He knows it.”

With the score tied at 84 in the third quarter, Young had a 3-pointer disallowed and an offensive foul called on him for tripping the Pacers’ Aaron Nesmith. A frustrated Young picked up a technical foul for something he said.

Then walking back to the bench, Young turned and launched the ball at the referee with two hands. It was an instant ejection.

Trae Young ejected after throwing the ball at the Ref 😳 pic.twitter.com/4f4Tj7vHlM

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 25, 2023

“There wasn’t a single part of him that tried to rationalize what happened,” Snyder said.

Young can expect a fine for this. It also was his 15th technical of the season, one more and he will get an automatic one-game suspension.

The Hawks went on to win 143-130, improving Atlanta to .500 at 37-37 and keeping them solidly as the No. 8 seed in the East.

Report: ‘Strong optimism’ Anthony Edwards could return to Timberwolves Sunday

By Kurt HelinMar 25, 2023, 3:19 PM EDT

Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images

What looked so bad when it happened may only cost Anthony Edwards three games.

Edwards rolled his ankle last week but could be back Sunday when the Timberwolves travel to Golden State, reports Chris Haynes at Yahoo Sports.

There’s strong optimism Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards (ankle) could make his return Sunday against the Golden State Warriors, league sources tell @NBAonTNT, @BleacherReport.

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) March 25, 2023

Edwards is averaging 24.7 points and 5.9 rebounds a game this season, and he has stepped up to become the team’s primary shot-creator with Karl-Anthony Towns out for much of the season. The Timberwolves have been outscored by 3.4 points per 100 possessions when Edwards is off the court this season.

Towns returned to action a couple of games ago, and with Edwards on Sunday it will be the first time since November the Timberwolves will have their entire core on the court — now with Mike Conley at the point. With the Timberwolves tied for the No.7 seed in an incredibly tight West (they are 1.5 games out of sixth but also one game out of missing the postseason entirely) it couldn’t come at a better time. It’s also not much time to develop of fit and chemistry the team will need in the play-in, and maybe the playoffs.

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