Lynx Lottery Audio
Vice President Roger Griffith Audio
The Minnesota Lynx have been awarded the first and fourth overall draft picks for the 2010 draft. The Lynx had a 42% chance of winning the first overall pick, edging the Sacramento Monarchs with a slightly worse percentage at 40%.
"We got what we wanted, number one, you can't beat that." said Roger Griffith, Executive Vice President for the Lynx. "We've been there once before and there's nothing that beats going into draft day knowing what's going to happen with at least one of the picks. It helps you plan, it helps you scout, it helps you be in control of the entire thing. It's a great feeling."
With a lot of options, the Lynx will eye the college season very carefully to make the appropriate selection for the team. Two players the Lynx will be monitoring closely are centers Jayne Appel from Stanford and Tina Charles from Connecticut.
"Those are the two big names, but there's a long college season ahead and other names will arise, because we aren't going to look at two people, we will look at a lot of people for that spot," said Griffith.
The Lynx have been in the lottery the previous four years, this year being the second time they received the first overall pick. In 2006 the Lynx picked Seimone Augustus of LSU first overall.
"Certainly having the first overall pick helps us out a lot because we've really strengthened the guard position, and there are some very talented centers in this years draft so it will let us add some very talented players in the post," said Griffith.
This year was the Lynx were guaranteed two of the top five picks. Last year they made a multi-team trade trading Noelle Quinn for New York's top pick. With the odds stacked, the Lynx came out on top.
Having the fourth overall pick in the draft will also help a team that has not made the playoffs in four years. Griffith noted that with the fourth pick they will have to scout very carefully and make a game time decision.
"With number four we will get a very, very talented player; it's just a little harder to guess where that position will fall," said Griffith.
In the eight years of the current Draft Lottery system, the team with the best odds has won the top overall pick just four times (Atlanta in 2009, Los Angeles in 2008, Phoenix in 2004, Minnesota in 2009).
The three other teams in the lottery were Sacramento, who was given the second overall, Connecticut with the third overall and Chicago with the fourth overall.
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