The Timberwolves, Not The Jazz, Control The Fate Of The Lottery Teams - The Downbeat -#497

   Tom Ziller of SBN released his latest mock draft where the Jazz send ripples throughout the lottery,

3. Utah Jazz: Enes Kanter, C, Turkey

Ah, the keystone pick. If the Jazz go point guard with Brandon Knight or Kemba Walker, the teams from No. 5-7 will have difficult decisions to make on remaining guards and wings and the plethora of big men available. But O'Connor is an avowed acolyte of the "best player available" strategy. Though the Jazz have three solid power forwards -- Al Jefferson (who masquerades as a center), Paul Millsap and promising if raw Derrick Favors -- Kanter currently looks like the most impressive player on the board. Luckily, Kanter measures out as a likely center; imagine he and Favors holding down the frontcourt with Millsap off the bench and Jefferson starring for the Charlotte Bobcats. Beautiful days ahead.

I think he underestimates the Kahn.  That's really where things hinge.  They could keep the pick and take Kanter and play him as their center.  They could keep the pick and draft Derrick Williams even though they have Love and Beasley.  If they trade the pick, then then it's likely for Williams.

A lot of other mocks still have the Jazz taking Brandon Knight who conveniently falls to Ziller's Kings at #7 addressing one of their biggest needs.

  Is it wrong to glee a little bit in what's going on in Portland right now?  The team just fired their general manager, again, just before the draft.  Rich Cho was let go after a reported conflict in chemistry with owner Paul Allen.  However, there was an ominous article two days prior from John Canzano in the Oregonian where Cho wanted to suspend Brandon Roy during the playoffs because of insubordination,

The well-placed source said Cho was talked off his initial position by McMillan and owner Paul Allen, who were in agreement that a suspension was neither warranted, nor a welcome distraction for a team down 0-2 to the Mavericks.

Being outranked by Allen is one thing. But the larger issue is whether the need for Allen to step in, and Roy’s subsequent performance, spells trouble for Cho in the big bossman’s eyes moving forward.

That's eerily similar to what allegedly went down with Sloan's sudden retirement.

So now the Blazers head into an off-season with no GM to lead over the draft.  Remember last year that then-fired GM Kevin Pritchard stuck around for the draft.  There haven't been any indications that Cho would do the same.  They also have a decision to make on Greg Oden.

Who's the next to be (f/h)ired?

  While Derrick Williams wants to be a three in the league, Chad Ford says that he measures out as a four (insider),

"NBA scouts have been wondering for months whether Williams was big enough to play the 4 in the NBA and have been trying to project him as an NBA 3. Williams' measurements strongly helped his cause as an NBA power forward. He measured nearly 6-foot-9, with an impressive 7-1 wingspan and 9-foot standing reach. Those wingspan and standing-reach measurements (the two measurements NBA teams really care about) put him on par with Greg Monroe and Ed Davis. He's actually taller and longer than both Blake Griffin and Kevin Love, two NBA All-Star power forwards. While Williams may be trying to sell himself as a 3, the truth is he's more valuable to most NBA teams as a 4 who can also stretch the floor and take his man off the dribble."

If the Jazz were to land him, they would almost have to use him as a three.  We have two players in Millsap and Favors that play the four.  If you believe that Favors should be starting and that Millsap should be coming off the bench, then there's certainly no room there.

Would you want to move Favors to the five and then play Millsap/Williams at the four?  If you do that, then Jefferson is the odd man out.  Someone is going to get moved based on this pick.

  Just by virtue of Phil Jackson leaving the Lakers, the world was going to be a better place.  Now word is that Mike Brown is going to become the head coach of said team.  From Yahoo!

Although the move has yet to be finalized, it sounds like the Los Angeles Lakers and owner Jerry Buss have decided to go with former-Cleveland Cavaliers' coach Mike Brown as their replacement for Phil Jackson. Brown, the cheapest of the three finalists, should be signing a contract with the Lakers within the next day or so.

If you're a Laker fan, you're hoping that they're not basing this decision mainly on pay.  They just got done paying Jackson $12M a year so anything would be a step down from that.  The team has more money that they know what to do with so skimping on a coach seems odd.

Brown was often criticized for his lack of offensive coaching while he was over LeBron and the Cavs.  It seemed to be a clear out everyone and let LeBron go to work style.  He'll have more talent overall with the Lakers than he had with the Cavs.  It will be interesting to see how he can control that team in that city under a lot more pressure.

The other question will be where does Brian Shaw end up?  He was one of the finalists for the head coaching job.

We'll see if Brown can turn the Lakers around after their dismal finish to end the season and sweep at the hand of the Mavs.

  Wednesday poll...