This may feel like a cop-out because Minnesota had the No. 1 overall pick and used it to draft Anthony Edwards, the best prospect in the draft according to most big boards and mocks heading into Wednesday night.
But look closer at the business Timberwolves president Gersson Rosas conducted on a whole, and you’ll see why Minnesota had itself quite the night.
Not only did the Timberwolves manage to secure Edwards, they also swung a trade that saw Ricky Rubio return to the Twin Cities, as well as trades that allowed them to land Leandro Bolmaro at No. 23 and Jaden McDaniels at No. 28.
Minnesota has a long way to go to compete with the West’s powers, but it took a significant step forward Wednesday. Edwards looks to be a seamless fit as a scoring wing, Rubio’s return will bring the team some much-needed veteran leadership, and the two other draft picks, talent-wise, are among the best in the draft — even if they’ll require additional seasoning before making an impact in the NBA.
Though the Kings started off the night poorly (more on that in the losers section below), their evening still ended up being pretty damn good for one reason only: Tyrese Haliburton.
Sacramento had the 12th overall selection Wednesday and Haliburton, a player that was expected to be a lock for the top 10 coming into the draft, managed to fall all the way down to them, making for a no-brainer decision.
Haliburton is a six-foot-five guard from Iowa State who should form a three-headed guard monster with De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield. His versatility will make him useful in multiple lineups.
When you acquire top-10 talent picking out of the top 10, it’s an automatic win.
The move Dallas made with the Philadelphia 76ers to acquire Josh Richardson was a good piece of business.
Yes, the Mavericks gave up Seth Curry, an undeniably good shooter, but they needed more individual shot-creation to help complement Luka Doncic. Richardson can provide that.
He’s coming off a down year in Philadelphia, but that version of Richardson isn’t indicative of the player he truly is. During his breakout season with Miami in 2018-19, Richardson was an aggressive three-level scorer who could take over games at times.
Doncic is a brilliant player, but there will be times where the Mavericks need a bucket and they won’t be able to go to him for a myriad of reasons. Having Richardson as a Plan B is pretty good.
Nate Darling
For the first time since 2009, a Canadian was not selected in the NBA Draft, but that doesn’t mean Canada wasn’t represented on draft night.
The Bedford, N.S., native reportedly signed a two-way deal with the Charlotte Hornets as an undrafted free agent.
Darling played this past season at Delaware, averaging 21 points and shooting 39.9 per cent from three-point range.
The six-foot-five, 200-pound guard may not have been drafted, but he still gave the country some Canadian content on draft night.
So hats off goes to Darling on the beginning of his NBA journey.
Emotions
Obviously, because of COVID-19, the NBA was forced to do its draft virtually, taking away some of the pomp and circumstance of the green room and players heading up on stage to shake the commissioner’s hand.
What the virtual draft offered, however, might have been even better: real-time looks at players realizing their dreams, surrounded by family and friends.
Instead of polished, prepared answers, we got to see these kids truly take in the moment, with many of them breaking down in tears of absolute joy, a good reminder that these NBA draft prospects are human beings.
The Bucks lost draft night before it even began, when the bombshell report came out that the reported sign-and-trade they had arranged with the Kings for Bogdan Bogdanovic hadn’t actually been approved by Bogdanovic himself.
Milwaukee made a huge splash Monday evening with word that it had, essentially, sold its future for Jrue Holiday followed by this move to bring in Bogdanovic — all in an effort to accumulate more talent around two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and convince him to stay (or just bet the farm and try to win a title before he leaves in free agency).
Now it looks like this plan is in jeopardy because of the hiccup with Bogdanovic, which left the Bucks in a bad position.
Of course, seeing as free agency hasn’t officially opened yet, this might be a case of Milwaukee doing damage control and trying to avoid any sort of anti-tampering penalties the league may be looking to punish them with for executing a sign-and-trade before the moratorium. But even if that’s the case, this still robs them of their negotiating power with Bogdanovic, who could take advantage of this gaffe to force the Bucks to pay him more than they might have previously offered.
Hopefully this situation gets resolved with free agency opening Friday, but for now the Bucks have a big, fat egg on their foreheads.
Thompson, of course, missed all of last season recovering from a torn ACL. To see him potentially miss more time would be a big blow for both the Warriors and the game itself.
No one ever wants to see a player miss time because of injury — especially stars like Thompson.
It’s still unclear how long he’ll be out for, but here’s hoping the best for him.
The rumour mill hasn’t been treating the Rockets kindly of late, with word that both Russell Westbrook and James Harden want out of Houston. The team’s lone move on draft night probably won’t help their cause much, either.
You may remember that heading into the draft Houston traded away Robert Covington for Trevor Ariza and a couple of first-round picks. Well, on Wednesday, the Rockets decided to move Ariza and one of those picks (No. 16 overall, which turned into Isaiah Stewart) to the Detroit Pistons in an effort to, essentially, create room to make use of the mid-level exception.
A puzzling move when you start thinking about the free agency market and if the Rockets would even find someone as good as Ariza using the mid-level exception, let alone Covington, whom they traded for Ariza in the first place.
Elton Brand
You have to wonder what Brand was thinking if he was watching Wednesday night. Daryl Morey, Brand’s replacement as 76ers general manager, is not even a full month into the job — but he’s almost completely undone everything the former boss did, accomplishing the brunt of his work on draft night.
First, before the draft, Morey managed to offload Al Horford’s albatross contract by attaching a couple of picks to it, while acquiring some needed shooting in Danny Green in the process. Then, during the draft, Morey swung the aforementioned deal with Dallas to get even more shooting by acquiring Curry, and then proceeded to add even more shooting by drafting Arkansas marksman Isaiah Joe in the second round.
The 76ers’ problems always came down to the fact their two best players — Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons — are best when operating inside, and they needed to find ways to space the floor better.
In the two years he was GM in Philadelphia, Brand never solved this problem. But Morey appears to be solving it in just a few weeks.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
