The following scenario is based on the mounting and overwhelming, if anecdotal, evidence of one increasingly incontrovertible fact:
The Clippers want Mayo...BAD.
What kind of evidence? A lot of little dots that, when connected, draw a compelling and crystal clear picture:
1. Riley hypes Mayo for weeks for no logical reason.
2. The Clips need a shooting guard in the worst way.
3. Mayo would be a P.R. dream for them in L.A.
4. This week, the Clips worked out Mayo secretly at a secluded private facility.
5. Riley wants two things...BAD: Elton Brand, and to win NOW. With Brand to go with Wade and Marion, the Heat could conceivably pull a Celtics from-worst-to-first in one year.
6. Riley DOESN'T want one thing: Michael Beasley
SO: if you see these little dots like I do, you might connect them like I do and deduce that one of two things will happen:
1. Miami will draft Mayo and trade him to the Clippers. The Wolves then will draft Beasley.
The Clips know that Brand can, and likely will, opt out of his contract after this season. If they don't trade him, they'll lose him for nothing a la KG. Brand would like to play in Miami. The trade would be complicated; L.A. might have to eat Blount, Banks, and others to make the numbers work. But Pat Riley usually gets what he wants.
2. Miami and L.A. are unable to work out a trade involving Brand, so it drafts Beasley and does another trade with some other team. Minnesota drafts Mayo and trades him and Antoine Walker to the Clippers for #7 and Chris Kaman. With #7, Minnesota drafts Danilo Gallinari.