In Minnesota we consider not falling the same as winning.

I can't tell you how excited I got when the NBA had named the teams up to the 3rd spot in the lottery and the Timberwolves had not been called yet. I was sure that we would end up with the 5th pick. Picking 5th in itself wouldn't be that bad seeing as there is no solid 3rd best player behind Rose and Beasley, but knowing that we can trade out, get something extra and still get our guy is good to know. This will of course blow up in our face (see Roy v. Foye and Allen v. Starbury) but writing it down gives me peace of mind.

The player that I would select for the T-wolves with the #1 pick is Derrick Rose. The player that fits the Wolves best after Rose and Michael Beasley are off the board is in my opinion Brook Lopez. The thing is that one of the teams right behind us might O.J. Mayo or Jerryd Bayless badly enough to trade up. The last thing we need is another J.R. Ryder type personality (Mayo) or Foye backing up Foye (Bayless). Rose is a horse of a different color and good reason to turn Foye into an undersized shooting guard and then move McCants somewhere else.

The Grizzlies would make the most sense as trading partners assuming they want O.J. Mayo that badly. That would move us back to the 5 spot I was talking about and put Seattle between us and selecting Lopez. Having a division rival between the pick we've been given and the pick I've facetiously traded scares me, but I think that the Sonics have many big men on their squad and would go for Bayless as their PG. That allows us to select the guy I want on our team and hopefully would give us a third second round selection.

I'd like to turn around and trade 2 of those 3 for somebody in the 20's of the first round if he fits. I have no clue who or even what type of player we'd go after since we need so many different things. (Stephen Curry, Joe Alexander, Russel Westbrook, Ty Lawson, Kevin Love, Joey Dorsey?) This is all speculation of course... we'll probably end up taking Mayo at 3 because of the McHale/Hoiberg ties even though I don't want him and I don't think we need him.