Who Deserves To Win The 2012 NBA Draft Lottery?
Every year there is the team with the worst record in the NBA, and then the team that deserves the No. 1 Overall Pick. As David Kahn so eloquently put it, “this league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines.”
This year there are a few story lines in play. Like the team in Louisiana that lost its superstar point guard and was run by the NBA Commissioner? Or how about the team with the worst winning percentage and ironically owned by the player who led the team that had the best winning percentage in a season?
How about a team winning back-to-back lotteries after losing the best player in the NBA to begin its rebuild with two of the best young players in the NBA?
So who deserves to win the lottery?
There is the obvious choice; the Charlotte Bobcats, who are the team that needs this lottery the most. Why do the need this? Let me count the ways… First let’s go back to 2004 when the expansion Bobcats did not win the lottery and get Dwight Howard. That was a franchise altering bounce of the ping-pong balls as the Bobcats settled for five seasons of 14 PPG 10.65 RPG from Emeka Okafor in an average of 66 games per season.
That leads us to today where the Bobcats are a far cry from the team that made the playoffs in 2010 going 7-59 in the lockout shortened season this year. Will the law of averages finally escape Michael Jordan? The man who won at every level at an extreme quality has not been able to find a way to win at this level.
The addition of a cornerstone caliber talent like Anthony Davis could be the first move in making this a respectable franchise. The Bobcats more than any other team in this league need talent and could use their most important win of the season on Wednesday night.
Then you have two teams with very interesting talent mixes for Davis to come into. First there is the Washington Wizards with John Wall, Nene, and some nice athletes taken in last years daft with Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton. Wall has shown the capacity to be an elite, Top 10 point guard in this league.
Back in 2010 the ping-pong balls bounced their way, same as in 2001, but this year would cement them as a team to watch for the next ten years.
Then there are the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sure they won the lottery last year drafting Kyrie Irving and complimented him with the fourth pick Tristan Thompson. Adding Davis to this team that went from the top of the Eastern Conference to the basically the cellar after they lost LeBron James. Winning this years lottery could catapult the Cavaliers right back towards the top of the East. Talent wise the one-two punch of Irving and Davis could be the best young tandem in the NBA.
Karma has to be on the side of the New Orleans Hornets. The Cavaliers won the battle with Karma last year and the Hornets have a claim to the pick this year. Why? They lost Chris Paul. In return they gained the services of Chris Kaman and Eric Gordon for potentially just one year. They were owned by the NBA Commissioner (sold to Tom Benson recently) for a time. Enough? The team went through relocation after a hurricane, have been on sale with no takers for a while, and have a great fan base in Louisiana.
Sure the conspiracy theories and story lines are always going to be floating around, which plays directly into the Hornets favor.
The Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons are an athletic power forward away from being a perennial playoff contender every year. Davis could play a very similar role as he did in college on either of those teams. He could develop into a superstar on either team, or he could be the ultimate compliment player doing all the dirty work.
Can the Nets beat Karma and get the player they want in Deron Williams AND win the lottery? If they do so it looks like the team is prepared to send him to Orlando for Dwight Howard. No need to waste print on what ifs featuring Williams and Davis.
Golden State and Toronto are not sexy destinations for the No. 1 pick, but make a lot of sense basketball wise. The Raptors would have a bevy of big men with Davis in the rotation with Andrea Bargnani, Ed Davis, Amir Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas to dominate the paint. For the Warriors they would add Davis to the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, David Lee, and Andrew Bogut.
One lottery has been won by teams slotted after 10, so that is bad news for the Portland Trailblazers, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets.
Who will win? Time will tell whether conspiracy, karma, justice, or shock will be the final verdict on the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery. My gut? Anthony Davis will enjoy Bourbon Street.draftinsider.com/2012/05/who-deserves-to-win-the-2012-nba-draft-lottery/anthony-davis-2/” rel=”attachment wp-att-10209″>Every year there is the team with the worst record in the NBA, and then the team that deserves the No. 1 Overall Pick. As David Kahn so eloquently put it, “this league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines.”
This year there are a few story lines in play. Like the team in Louisiana that lost its superstar point guard and was run by the NBA Commissioner? Or how about the team with the worst winning percentage and ironically owned by the player who led the team that had the best winning percentage in a season?
How about a team winning back-to-back lotteries after losing the best player in the NBA to begin its rebuild with two of the best young players in the NBA?
So who deserves to win the lottery?
There is the obvious choice; the Charlotte Bobcats, who are the team that needs this lottery the most. Why do the need this? Let me count the ways… First let’s go back to 2004 when the expansion Bobcats did not win the lottery and get Dwight Howard. That was a franchise altering bounce of the ping-pong balls as the Bobcats settled for five seasons of 14 PPG 10.65 RPG from Emeka Okafor in an average of 66 games per season.
That leads us to today where the Bobcats are a far cry from the team that made the playoffs in 2010 going 7-59 in the lockout shortened season this year. Will the law of averages finally escape Michael Jordan? The man who won at every level at an extreme quality has not been able to find a way to win at this level.
The addition of a cornerstone caliber talent like Anthony Davis could be the first move in making this a respectable franchise. The Bobcats more than any other team in this league need talent and could use their most important win of the season on Wednesday night.
Then you have two teams with very interesting talent mixes for Davis to come into. First there is the Washington Wizards with John Wall, Nene, and some nice athletes taken in last years daft with Jan Vesely and Chris Singleton. Wall has shown the capacity to be an elite, Top 10 point guard in this league.
Back in 2010 the ping-pong balls bounced their way, same as in 2001, but this year would cement them as a team to watch for the next ten years.
Then there are the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sure they won the lottery last year drafting Kyrie Irving and complimented him with the fourth pick Tristan Thompson. Adding Davis to this team that went from the top of the Eastern Conference to the basically the cellar after they lost LeBron James. Winning this years lottery could catapult the Cavaliers right back towards the top of the East. Talent wise the one-two punch of Irving and Davis could be the best young tandem in the NBA.
Karma has to be on the side of the New Orleans Hornets. The Cavaliers won the battle with Karma last year and the Hornets have a claim to the pick this year. Why? They lost Chris Paul. In return they gained the services of Chris Kaman and Eric Gordon for potentially just one year. They were owned by the NBA Commissioner (sold to Tom Benson recently) for a time. Enough? The team went through relocation after a hurricane, have been on sale with no takers for a while, and have a great fan base in Louisiana.
Sure the conspiracy theories and story lines are always going to be floating around, which plays directly into the Hornets favor.
The Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons are an athletic power forward away from being a perennial playoff contender every year. Davis could play a very similar role as he did in college on either of those teams. He could develop into a superstar on either team, or he could be the ultimate compliment player doing all the dirty work.
Can the Nets beat Karma and get the player they want in Deron Williams AND win the lottery? If they do so it looks like the team is prepared to send him to Orlando for Dwight Howard. No need to waste print on what ifs featuring Williams and Davis.
Golden State and Toronto are not sexy destinations for the No. 1 pick, but make a lot of sense basketball wise. The Raptors would have a bevy of big men with Davis in the rotation with Andrea Bargnani, Ed Davis, Amir Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas to dominate the paint. For the Warriors they would add Davis to the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, David Lee, and Andrew Bogut.
One lottery has been won by teams slotted after 10, so that is bad news for the Portland Trailblazers, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets.
Who will win? Time will tell whether conspiracy, karma, justice, or shock will be the final verdict on the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery. My gut? Anthony Davis will enjoy Bourbon Street.
