2012 NBA Draft Lottery Preview

Let the conspiracy theories begin! The NBA Draft Lottery is only hours away as tonight many lottery teams will watch to see if they will get the chance at a great prize. That prize would be 2012 NCAA Player of the Year, Anthony Davis. Davis won a National Championship after only one season at the University of Kentucky. During his only college season, Anthony Davis averaged 14.2 points per game, 10.4 rebounds per game, and 4.7 blocks per game.

The big question entering tonight’s draft lottery is which team will earn the right to draft Anthony Davis with the #1 overall pick. The way the lottery works is each team that did not make playoffs has a chance to get a Top 3 draft pick (lower winning percentage means higher chance). After the Top 3, the rest of the teams are arranged in order of winning percentage from lowest to greatest.

The team with the best chance to win the #1 overall pick is the Charlotte Bobcats. The Charlotte Bobcats finished the year with a record of 7-59. They are clearly the team that needs the #1 overall pick the most, but many wonder if they will get the pick. The reason for this is because of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the NBA draft lottery.

In 2011, many believed the NBA rigged the draft lottery after the Cleveland Cavaliers won the #1 overall pick over the Minnesota Timberwolves because of the fact that the Cavaliers lost their biggest star, LeBron James. Also, in 2008, many believed the NBA draft lottery was rigged because of the fact that the Chicago Bulls only had a .017 chance of landing the #1 overall pick and won the pick over the Miami Heat who had a .250 chance. The Chicago Bulls went on to draft Derrick Rose who was from Chicago and turned into the hometown star.

Despite all the different conspiracy theories surrounding this year’s NBA draft lottery, this is how I see the Top 3 in the draft order playing out:

Charlotte Bobcats
Brooklyn Nets
Cleveland Cavaliers

Ricky’s Draft Board (May 30th)

Anthony Davis
Thomas Robinson
Andre Drummond
Harrison Barnes
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Perry Jones
Bradley Beal
Tyler Zeller
Dion Waiters
Jared Sullinger
Austin Rivers
Terrence Jones
Damian Lillard
Jeremy Lamb

The only Oregon player to declare for the NBA Draft was Olu Ashaolu. Ashaolu’s minutes and numbers dropped in his only season at Oregon and he will most likely be drafted in the late second round or go undrafted.

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