MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Minnesota
Timberwolves fans went to bed
wondering how O.J. Mayo would fit in
with their guard-heavy team.
Memphis Grizzlies backers hit
the hay hoping that Kevin Love would
open things up for
Rudy Gay in the frontcourt.
Both groups woke up Friday
morning to a totally different
reality, thanks to an eight-player
blockbuster trade in the wee hours
of the night that changed the faces
of both teams.
Hours after the draft concluded,
the Wolves sent Mayo, forward
Antoine Walker and guards
Greg Buckner and
Marko Jaric to Memphis for Love,
shooter
Mike Miller and frontcourt
retreads
Brian Cardinal and
Jason Collins.
Timberwolves vice president of
basketball operations Kevin McHale
said he thought the deal was dead
early in the night, but the
Grizzlies reopened negotiations as
the first round came to a close, and
Memphis finally relented and
included Miller in the transaction.
“Actually no one was more
surprised than we were when the deal
came back,” McHale said. “We were
all sitting around there looking at
each other saying, ‘Wow, I guess
it’s back on.’ There were just too
many components in it that fit our
needs not to do it.”
The deal allows the Timberwolves
to dump Walker, who was unhappy
riding the bench on a rebuilding
team, and Jaric’s contract, which
has three years and more than $21
million remaining.
Miller also fills a huge hole on
the team as a perimeter shooter and
gives them Love, a 6-foot-10 power
forward who will play down low next
to
Al Jefferson, who will stay at
center in this revamped lineup
rather than move to his more natural
power forward position.
“This deal really set us up on so
many levels,” Minnesota GM Jim Stack
said. “We couldn’t pass it up.”
The Grizzlies, in turn, get a
dynamic guard in Mayo who was widely
thought of as the third-best player
in the draft behind Memphis guard
Derrick Rose and Kansas State
forward Michael Beasley, who went
first and second, respectively.
Mayo averaged 20.7 points in his
lone season with the Trojans and
also dealt with controversy when a
former friend alleged that he took
money and gifts from an agent while
in high school and college.
Mayo denied the allegations and
impressed the Timberwolves with the
way he handled questions on the
topic during a workout in Chicago
last weekend.
“We felt it was a chance to take
a player who we had ranked as the
third best player in the draft,”
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace said.
“That I think almost all the league
felt was third behind Beasley and
Rose. And if anybody has the chance
to break in and have the type of
impact in the NBA that Rose and
Beasley seem certain to have, it
would be O. J. Mayo.”
Timberwolves fans will likely be
reminded of another lottery-swapping
move two years ago, when Minnesota
selected
Brandon Roy, then traded him to
Portland for
Randy Foye and cash.
Roy went on to become rookie of
the year in 2006-07 and an All-Star
last season, while Foye has
struggled with injuries while
showing promise as a floor leader
and playmaking perimeter threat.
With Foye and
Rashad McCants—two smallish
scoring guards—already on the
roster, the Wolves started their
evening by drafting the 6-foot-5
Mayo out of USC with the third pick.
Memphis took Love, the
fundamentally sound Bruin, with the
fifth overall pick.
Despite the apparent similarities
between Mayo, Foye and Rashad
McCants, assistant GM Fred Hoiberg
told hundreds of fans gathered at
Target Center for a draft party that
he thought Mayo would fit in just
fine with the guard-heavy
Timberwolves.
“We thought there was a realistic
chance Miami would take him at No.
2,” Hoiberg said of the Heat, who
chose Beasley. “We think that he’ll
come in and be able to help us out
right away.”
Hoiberg raved about Mayo’s
outside shooting and competitive
spirit, calling him “a complete
player, a complete person” and
someone who can “come in and be able
to help us out right away.”
It turns out that Mayo helped
them for about four hours.
McHale and the Wolves brass sat
sequestered in the team’s draft room
for more than two hours after the
draft concluded, hammering out the
particulars of the deal.
“We fully expected to have O.J.
on our team next year,” Hoiberg said
at about 1:45 a.m. CST. “This deal
came up very late in the draft. We
just felt this deal had too many
pieces that addressed needs that we
had that we just couldn’t pass it
up.”
Collins only has one year left on
his contract, making him a hot
commodity on the NBA trade market.
Cardinal has two years left, while
Miller is the outside shooter the
team has been craving for years.
Miller averaged 16.7 points and
6.7 rebounds a game and, most
attractive for the Wolves, shot 43
percent on 3-pointers last season.
Love set UCLA freshman records
for scoring and rebounding on his
way to being the conference player
of the year in his only season with
the Bruins. The Timberwolves were
impressed by his passing, shooting
range and knack for coming up with
rebounds in traffic.
McHale called Love the best big
man in the draft and the deal also
will give the team plenty of cap
space two years down the road.
“Going forward, we are going to
be a big free agent player,” Stack
said.
They also drafted Nikola Pekovic,
a 6-foot-11 center from Montenegro
who won’t play in the NBA for at
least three years because of a
lucrative offer he signed with a
team in Greece, with their first
pick of the second round.
Minnesota used its second
second-rounder on Kansas guard Mario
Chalmers, then shipped him to Miami
for two future second-round picks
and cash.
In Walker and Buckner, the
Grizzlies get two veterans whose
best days are long behind them and a
guard/forward in Jaric that never
fulfilled the promise McHale had for
him when he traded
Sam Cassell and a first-round
draft choice for Jaric in 2005.
Memphis also traded the rights to
Syracuse forward Donte Greene, the
No. 28 pick, in exchange for the
rights to Darrell Arthur, who was
picked 27th and traded three times.
New Orleans dealt his rights to
Portland, which then traded him to
Houston. The Rockets then traded his
rights to Memphis early Friday
morning.
