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Warriors At #1, Unlikely: Warriors executive vice president of basketball operations Larry Riley won’t be holding his breath tonight has the ping-pong balls of the NBA Draft Lottery determine the fate of the 2011 NBA Draft’s top three selections.

"It seems like every year, somebody moves up," Riley said to Marcus Thompson of the Mercury News. "If we get it, we will definitely celebrate. But I’m not banking on it happening."

Co-owner Joe Lacob will represent the Warriors at the draft lottery in Secaucus New Jersey tonight at the NBA Studios.

"The way we’re looking at it," Riley said, "we’re staying at 11. We need to get a good player. I don’t see a guy at 11 that will change your franchise. What we have to do is improve the roster via trades and free agency."

The Warriors, like the L.A. Clippers, have made it clear around the league they are open for deals and are looking to make roster changes in and around the draft.

As more and more executives label the 2011 NBA Draft as flat and lacking star level talent, teams are looking at draft picks in this class as the grease to move a bigger transaction involving current players.

While the Warriors would love to land the top overall pick, the odds of them getting #1 overall are less than 1%, so tonight’s pomp and circumstance will be for show. The real work will take place in the 37 days remaining until the 2011 NBA Draft and the Warriors hope whatever pick they land tonight helps make a bigger deal possible inside the next month.

Not Trading Rudy: Memphis owner Michael Heisley has heard enough talk about his club trading injured forward Rudy Gay. If fact Heisley got on the phone with Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins and pleaded with him to set the basketball world straight.

"Would you please make it clear that we’re not trading Rudy Gay?" explained Heisley.

Calkins said he explained the rampant rumors to Heisley who said pretty clearly trading Rudy Gay was the furthest from the truth.

"It (ticks) me off. I think it’s cruel to the guy," explained Heisley. "He died during this period. That’s how much he wanted to play. And to now have to hear that we’re trading him? There’s nothing more untrue than that."

"Let me tell you something," said Heisley. "No disrespect to Oklahoma City, but if we had had Rudy Gay, we would have won the bleepity-bleep series going away. I really believe that."

"Rudy is one of our best players and a big part of what we plan to do in the future," Heisley said.

As for retaining free agent Marc Gasol who may be eligible for restricted free agency if it exists in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, Heisley says it’s about more than just paying Gasol, something he says he’s open to doing. Heisley says it’s about Gasol wanting to be in Memphis.

"I’m not going to sit and pay a contract which everyone says is ridiculous," said Heisley. "But my intention is to bring Marc back. If he wants to be here, he will find I will be very, very receptive."

Heisley was also clear that despite a botched trade at the trade deadline his intention is to keep guard O.J. Mayo despite what seems to be a second failed attempt to trade him.

"I was the one guy who didn’t think we should trade O.J. before," Heisley said. "The reason we finally made the trade, in defense of Chris (Wallace), is that we had a lot more players at the guard position and not as many at the bigger positions. But do I want O.J. back? I want the whole team back. But if someone was going to tell me I could have LeBron James for Rudy Gay, I’d have to make that trade."

It won’t just be O.J. Mayo the Grizzlies plan to retain, trade deadline acquisition Shane Battier ranks up there too.

"When we traded for Shane, it was with the intention of keeping him," explained Heisley. "But more than any person, Shane will make his decision on multiple things. He has the rest of his life to think about. Where does he want to live? I think, basically, that Shane’s next team is up to him."

Heisley said clearly the notion that he wouldn’t pay big dollars to keep the team together was flawed thinking, and based on how the season and ticket sales have gone the Grizzlies’ owner seem ready to try again next year.

"It’s been a long time since I’ve been happier than I have been the last few weeks," Heisley said. "Just to see the people of Memphis that happy was very meaningful to me."

Where The Magic Go From Here: If you are rooting against the Magic in their quest to retain center Dwight Howard and hoping your team gets his services you will have to wait.

The Orlando Magic have turned away every offer made for Howard and the general message is Dwight Howard is not available in trade at any price.

That’s a smart decision for a team under siege.

There is a lot of unknowns ahead for Orlando, and while tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery will shed some light on the draft order, it will also set in motion the next wave of talking points – who will be traded during the 2011 NBA Draft.

Multiple league sources confirm Orlando has been active in the past few weeks gauging trade assets and trade values.

Sources near the situation say there is nothing brewing, that everything is fact finding as of now, but the Magic are armed with a $6.4 million Traded Player Exception from trading Marcin Gortat and a $1.6 million Traded Player Exception from the salary difference between Rashard Lewis and Gilbert Arenas and seem willing to use them for the right players.

The Magic do not appear "eager" to consummate a deal as one insider characterized it, but they are seeing what’s out there.

The well circulated trade rumors suggesting the Magic would be acquiring Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala around the draft seem to be overstated according to sources on both sides, with the 76ers downplaying any desire to trade Andre at all.

With labor uncertainty on the horizon and an unknown cap situation, the Magic are trying to acquire assets now under the old rules, because whatever the new rules end up being the Magic are radically on the wrong side of them with $76 million in salary commitments next season.

There are two things that play in Orlando favor going into the labor talks.

The first being across the board salary reductions of existing player contracts.

The latest proposal from the owners has a tiered reduction of existing deals starting with a 15% reduction for smaller deals, a 20% reduction for middle tier deals and a 25% reduction for top tier deals – in all it represents a 23% reduction in costs or in Orlando’s case a $17.5 million savings.

The second major provision would be another "Allan Houston" provision which would allow the Magic to pay off one unfavorable contract without having to play Luxury Tax or that salary counting against the cap.

The Magic could opt to pay off Gilbert Arenas and his remaining $62.4 million owed over three years.

Removing the Arenas’ $19.2 million 2011-2012 salary puts Orlando at roughly $57 million in salary commitments, added to the 23% across the board reduction on the remaining contracts and the Magic swing from $76 million in salary next season to $43.8 million and under whatever new labor system comes into play.

So while trading Dwight Howard seems to be the dominating topic surrounding the Magic these days, they are not at all focused on moving him, rather they are trying to add a few more pieces around him.

If the next labor deal goes down as currently constructed, the Magic could get out of cap hell pretty quickly… assuming they do not take on another bad long-term contract.

The Magic seem open to deals using their Traded Player Exceptions and they seem willing to take on dollars, but with the next labor deal likely opening up the roster for future moves, don’t be surprised if Orlando plays this smartly, rather than trying to make a bold move that handcuffs them even further.

A Few Lottery Notes: The 2011 NBA Draft Lottery will be held tonight at 8:30pm EST on ESPN.

{AUTHOR_BOX}The Minnesota Timberwolves by virtue of the worst regular season record will have 250 numbers assigned to them, giving them a 25% chance at landing the top overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will get 199 lottery numbers, giving them a 19.9% chance of landing the top pick.

The Toronto Raptors will get 156 draws; The Washington Wizards get 119 draws, with Sacramento receiving 76 draws.

The Houston Rockets, who were the best of the lottery teams, gets 5 draws for the first pick and have a .5% chance of landing the top pick.

Interestingly enough over the last ten NBA drafts the worst team in the NBA has landed the top pick just twice (2004 – Orlando Magic, 2003-Cleveland Cavaliers).

So if history holds true, the Minnesota Timberwolves may be in for a long night in New Jersey and someone else may come home with the ability draft Kyrie Irving #1 overall.

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