Here's how you know this was a bad draft, at least on the kneejerk analysis we are providing hours after it was completed: The teams that did the best were the ones that acquired established players. 

The biggest winners were the Orlando Magic, who didn't even have a draft pick but pried Vince Carter away from the New Jersey Nets. Dwight Howard should have been ecstatic, but was obviously preoccupied with other matters revealed in his Tweet: 

"rip micheal jackson," Howard wrote. "wut a sad day. my homies gone. c lee my lil big brother tony and the legend skip. dang" 

Other winners were San Antonio, Cleveland, Atlanta, Denver and Washington, which combined had a total of one pick higher than 30 in the draft. 

The other end of the spectrum is comprised primarily of teams that clearly are more concerned with costs than competing. There was a very familiar refrain throughout the evening. 

"We needed to get our cap under control," New Jersey's Rod Thorn said. 

"It's gonna take us a couple of years," Minnesota's David Kahn said. 

"We know now we're not a championship contender," Phoenix's Steve Kerr said. 

No shiitake, Sherlock. 

WINNERS

1. Orlando. The Magic didn't wait very long to counter Cleveland's move, did they? For the pittance of Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston and Tony Battie, they landed Carter and the underrated Ryan Anderson, who -- surprise -- can shoot the 3-pointer. 

Carter provides star quality and insurance should the Magic find Hedo Turkoglu's asking price to be too steep. Moving Alston ends any possible controversy at point guard. And if Turkoglu walks, the Magic may be able to re-sign Marcin Gortat. 

2. San Antonio. The Spurs stole Richard Jefferson from the Bucks and will plug him right in at small forward. Does it occur to anyone that Jefferson makes the corner 3-pointer, which is always available in San Antonio's offense? 

Without a first-round pick, the Spurs plucked rebounding machine DeJuan Blair at No. 37 and Eddie House clone Jack McClinton at No. 53. Don't be surprised if both guys are in the rotation next season. 

3. Cleveland. Allen Iverson, listen up. Your buddy Shaquille O'Neal said he will come off the bench if it will help the Cavaliers win a championship. 

"If that's what they want me to do, I'll be a team player," O'Neal said. "I came off the bench before at LSU, behind the great Stanley Roberts." 

When The Big Comedian is on the court, one of the guys he will be finding when he passes out of double-teams is second-round steal Danny Green, who may never start but will have a 10-year career. GM Danny Ferry also saved some coin by using his first-round pick on raw swingman Christian Eyenga, who will stay in Europe. 

The Cavs still need some length and quickness at forward and could find it in free agency with Rasheed Wallace or Matt Barnes. 

4. Atlanta. Next season's "Prison Break" should detail how the Hawks sprung Jamal Crawford from Alcatraz -- oops, sorry -- Golden State. They traded Acie Law and immediately replaced him with the more talented but erratic Jeff Teague, who also provides some insurance if Mike Bibby develops delusions of grandeur. 

Bibby might be able to get eight figures out of some team, but it won't be Atlanta. The Hawks have Crawford, Teague and Joe Johnson as part-time ballhandlers and can get away with that group running the point while threatening 50 wins. 

5. Denver. Executive of the Year Mark Warkentien wasted no time getting to work on defending his title as he used next year's first-round pick to land Ty Lawson from Minnesota's small army of point guards. Lawson goes from UNC coach Roy Williams to UNC alum George Karl, with Chauncey Billups to hold his hand. 

6. Taj Gibson. Projected as a second-round pick on many mock boards, the USC forward ended up with guaranteed money when the Chicago Bulls tabbed him 26th overall. 

7. Washington. The Wizards drew some criticism for moving the fifth pick, but no team drafted two players who will be as good as Mike Miller and Randy Foye will be next season. Washington's rotation is Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, Gilbert Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson, with Miller and Foye off the bench. If everyone's healthy, that's pretty darn good. 

8. James Harden and Jrue Holiday. Both players are joining teams where they will play right away and could be starting before season's end. Harden will go offense-defense with Thabo Sefolosha at shooting guard for Oklahoma City and Holiday could see big minutes at point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers if Andre Miller leaves via free agency. 

9. Memphis. Three solid draft picks in shot-blocker Hasheem Thabeet, energy guy DeMarre Carroll and skilled Sam Young. Thabeet's presence allowed GM Chris Wallace to move perpetual bust Darko Milicic to New York for gunner Quentin Richardson and his expiring contract. The Grizzlies are still a ways off but moving in the right direction. 

10. Los Angeles Clippers. Hey, they didn't screw it up. They got the one can't-miss player in Blake Griffin. They have to move Marcus Camby, though. 

LOSERS 

1. Phoenix. Where do we start? How about giving away O'Neal for human cap slots Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic and not even getting back Cleveland's first-round pick? 

The Suns aren't done dumping big men, either. Come July, they reportedly will send Amare Stoudemire to Golden State for Andris Biedrins, Brandan Wright, Marco Belinelli and Stephen Curry, whom the Warriors took with the seventh pick. 

With Barnes and Jason Richardson currently on the roster, the Suns look like they are trying to relocate the Warriors to the desert. Maybe they can sign Patrick O'Bryant as a free agent. 

The Suns used the 14th pick on Earl Clark, whose soft label will fit right in. In the second round, they chose Taylor Griffin, making it two straight years where they have drafted the less skilled brother. 

Genius. 

"We've gotta move forward," said Kerr, who should be putting out feelers to see if he can get back his old analyst job at TNT. "We've gotta have cap flexibility. We've gotta have assets and young players." 

2. Ricky Rubio. Dan Fegan's verbal strong-arming didn't work for the second straight year. Rubio slipped past undesirables Memphis and Oklahoma City, but he also slipped past Sacramento -- one place where he wanted to play -- and landed in Minnesota, which he described as "too cold." 

Asked if he was excited to go to Minnesota, Rubio replied, "I'm excited to come to the NBA." Asked whether he might stay in Europe, he said, "I don't know yet. I have to think about that. ... I'm going to talk to my agent about that and we're going to see."

Late Thursday, a Spanish website quoted Rubio as saying he would probably stay in Spain for another year. How many people do you know that postpone the achievement of a lifelong dream for another year? 

And if Rubio does go back to Spain, does every blogger put together a post whenever the kid sneezes? He's not Pete Maravich, folks. 

3. Minnesota. Here's the positional breakdown of the Timberwolves' roster this morning: five point guards, one shooting guard, two small forwards, seven power forwards and two centers. 

Kahn truly believes the teenage Rubio and undersized Jonny Flynn can play together. 

"I absolutely do or we wouldn't have done it," he said. "I see Jonny as a scoring point and I see Ricky as an orchestra leader." 

Kahn gave up two starters to get the pick he used on Rubio. One of his small forwards is burgeoning bust Corey Brewer, who is coming off an ACL tear. Until Kahn selected Wayne Ellington with the 28th pick, he didn't have a shooting guard. He also drafted point guard Nick Calathes in the second round. 

Whoever the new coach is will be running a lot of 1-4 pick-and-rolls. 

3. New Jersey. Yeah, they saved $40 million in the Carter deal. You think that might have been a mandate from Bruce Ratner? The starting lineup is Yi Jianlian, Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Devin Harris and Lee. 

The Nets will have oodles of cap room next summer -- and a 55-loss team still playing in the New Jersey swamp that no one will want to join -- not even with Jay Z's influence. 

4. Milwaukee. Moving Jefferson for cap slots shows the Bucks are in full renovation mode. Drafting Brandon Jennings wasn't a bad move, but it will test Scott Skiles' patience and means Ramon Sessions is a goner unless they can find a taker for Luke Ridnour, which is unlikely. Even if the Bucks are able to keep Charlie Villanueva, they are going to be in the 50-loss range for a while. 

5. Chase Budinger. A first-round pick in many mock drafts, the forward from Arizona slid to 44th and was promptly traded from Detroit to Houston, which has Ron Artest and Shane Battier at his position. 

6. New York. It looked like Curry was going to drop to the Knicks at No. 8 before Golden State grabbed him, which nearly started a riot at the WAMU Theater. Donnie Walsh recovered nicely with Jordan Hill but paid the max $3 million and a 2010 second-rounder for Toney Douglas, too steep a price for the 29th overall pick. And does Walsh know that Milicic is the one guy from the 2003 draft that he shouldn't be targeting? 

7. Kevin Pritchard. Given his activity in recent drafts, the Blazers GM looked like he was at it again when he swapped with Dallas to move up to 22 and Sacramento to move to 31. But it never got more interesting as he kept drafting nondescript players who have little chance of making Portand's roster. 

Chris Bernucca has covered the NBA since 1996 and is a regular contributor to Pro Basketball News. You can disagree with him at cbernucca@comcast.net.

MORE NBA DRAFT COVERAGE

* Mejia: Team-by-team grades

* Mejia: Pick-by-pick analysis

* Amico: Random draft thoughts

* Results: Draft board & early-entrants