• Wolves, Jazz hold keys to the lottery

  • By Chad Ford | June 22, 2011 7:17:29 AM PDT

The 2011 NBA draft is Thursday, and teams are still trying to figure our their boards. Most teams were up late Tuesday, poring over data, finalizing draft boards and prepping for Thursday. As you can gather, teams are narrowing their lists, but few have made actual decisions about who they'll be drafting. Here's the latest:

How the Wolves and Jazz might shape the lottery

Yesterday, we were about 90 percent sure that Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams would be the first two players off the board Thursday night.

Scratch that. Late Tuesday, sources told ESPN.com that the Timberwolves are strongly considering taking Enes Kanter with the No. 2 pick. Kanter, Minnesota believes, is a better fit than Williams. If the Wolves don't make a trade and do take Kanter, it will shake up the draft. At that point it's highly likely that the Jazz would take Williams at No. 3. If the Wolves take Williams at No. 2, things get much murkier for Utah.

At No. 3, the Jazz aren't sending out any signals as to which way they would go if Williams is not available to them. Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor is notoriously tightlipped about these things. Often a player's agent doesn't know a player is being drafted by the Jazz until it happens.

What happens at No. 2 and No. 3 can reshape the rest of the lottery. That's not an overstatement. If the Jazz take Brandon Knight (or Kemba Walker), the rest of the lottery probably will play out in a particular way. If Utah takes Williams or Kanter (or Jan Vesely), it will probably play out in a very different way. Get the No. 3 pick wrong and you can kiss your mock draft goodbye.

Here are three scenarios:


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