BROOKLYN -- With the No.1 pick in the 2015 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Karl Anthony-Towns on Thursday night at the Barclays Center.
The 6-foot-11, 248-pound Anthony-Towns will join a Wolves team that finished the 2014-15 regular season with a mediocre 16-66 won-lost record. The 19-year old center in expected to make an immediate impact as a hybrid center who can also play small and power forward.
Anthony-Towns went to the University of Kentucky where he helped the Wildcats finish the NCAA regular season with an undefeated slate.
Minnesota has missed the NBA playoffs for 11 straight seasons but with Towns joining Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine, the Wolves can contend for a post-season berth in the talent-heavy Western Conference.
LAKERS PICK RUSSELL ON NO. 2
With the 2nd pick in this year's NBA draft, the expectation was that the Los Angeles Lakers would take 6-foot-11, 275-pound Jahlil Okafor and make the Duke star as the next franchise player.
But the Lakers veered from convention on Thursday night and selected D'Angelo Russell, a 6-foot-5, 193-pound point guard from the Ohio State University.
"We felt (Russell), at No.2 was a player we couldn't pass up," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told ESPN.com.
"I'm still in shock," said the 19-year old Russell as he is about the join the storied ranchise now headed by Kobe Bryant.
Okafor, meanwhile, fell to No.3 3 and was snatched by the Philadelphia 76ers.
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