
All the time we spent fretting over
who the Timberwolves would take with the third overall pick (hey, you spend
five hours live blogging the entire NBA draft and you're allowed to come up with headlines like that too, okay?) is all for naught because of
a deal that broke shortly after the draft.
Minnesota and the Memphis Grizzlies have apparently made a monster swap -- a far bigger deal than
that new Minny logo -- that revolves around their two first round picks. The Timberwolves will receive the draft rights of
Kevin Love,
Brian Cardinal,
Jason Collins and
Mike Miller. In exchange, the Grizz will receive
O.J. Mayo,
Marko Jaric,
Antoine Walker and
Greg Buckner.
Obviously, Mayo and Love are the two big components in this deal.
Kevin McHale has made no secret of his Love-love leading up to the draft, but knew he had to take Mayo in the third slot, because of their draft position. However, the addition of Miller is pretty ridiculous, as is the dumping of Jaric's contract (although the
loss of his ladyfriend Lima certainly hurts).
For the Grizzlies, they get Mayo, of course, and he could be a pretty nice shooting guard addition beside
Mike Conley in the backcourt. The Grizzlies have also been trying to dump Cardinal's contract ever since they
gave their last good tradable piece away moved
Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Buckner, Collins and Walker are essentially throw-ins to make everything work.