Apparently not.

After much trade talk in the 48 hours before the draft, the Grizzlies settled on UCLA center/power forward Kevin Love as the No. 5 pick in the first round. Later in the first round with their No. 28 pick, the Griz grabbed 6-9 forward Donte Greene of Syracuse.

But ...

An hour after the end of the draft, the Grizzlies traded Love and current players Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins to Minnesota for the Timberwolves' first-round choice, guard O.J. Mayo, who was taken at No. 3, along with three current Wolves -- guards Marko Jaric and Greg Buckner and forward Antoine Walker.

Where's the Love?

And then the Grizzlies traded Greene and a second-round pick to Portland (via New Orleans) for forward Darrell Arthur of national champion Kansas.

What happened? The Grizzlies began having conversations with the Timberwolves about a week ago, then thought nothing of it until Kevin McHale called them a couple of hours before the draft.

Both teams made their picks, but early in the second round, the Grizzlies and the T-Wolves began dealing.

"We felt it was a chance to bring back a player who we ranked as the third-best player in the draft, a player we felt had a chance to make an impact like Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley," Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said in the wee hours of Friday morning. "I don't want to say he's going to be a star, but he's a major talent who has been a household name since he was a teenager.

"Once the deal got going, it was an absolute whirlwind. It took the entire second round to get the deal done. I've never been involved in a draft night deal with this many moving parts."

Wallace also felt he got a steal in Arthur, who dropped in the draft because of a supposed kidney problem. Grizzlies team doctors told Wallace that Arthur was healthy.

"We feel lucky that Darrell fell to us," Wallace said. "We originally had him on our list to look at for the No. 5 pick. We got an absolute gift, a good, athletic player who comes from a great pedigree college program. We wanted him so badly."

Coach Marc Iavaroni said the Grizzlies got two lottery players with one pick.

"We got lucky," Iavaroni said.

From the T-Wolves, the Grizzlies get:

Jaric, 29, is a 6-7 guard who started 56 games last year, and averaged 8.3 points. He has played in 394 NBA games and averaged 7.8 points and 2.9 rebounds. His salary last season was $6,050,000. He has three years and $21 million left on his contract.

Walker, 31, is a 6-9 forward who started once in 46 games last season and averaged eight points in 19.4 minutes. His salary was $8,329,460.

Buckner, 31, is a guard who started in just four games and averaged four points. His salary was $3,750,746.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT: On Dec. 19 in an 88-85 victory over the Spurs, Rudy Gay announced to the rest of the league that he might be the league's Most Improved Player. After the Grizzlies blew a 23-point lead, Gay hit a game-winning three-pointer over Tim Duncan. The play wasn't even set up for Gay, but first option Mike Miller was guarded. Gay fired from 27 feet. "You've always got questions when you take a shot like that, but it felt good, and that's all you can say," Gay said.

TURNING POINT: When the Grizzlies hit a stretch in December when they lost 12 of 14 games, it didn't seem like that even with a healthy Pau Gasol that nothing was getting done. Gasol was struggling to adapt to the new running offense, he wasn't getting enough touches and it became clear to management that they needed to start fresh. That meant Gasol, as the player with the most trade value, would be dealt.