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Steve Neff's Draft and NBA Lottery Preview

More photos » by John Bazemore - AP

Blake Griffin will most likely be the prize for the winner of the NBA lottery on Tuesday night.

If you are a team looking for a big man, look elsewhere. This is a guard draft plain and simple. With big men like Patrick Patterson pulling out of the draft, there are very few big men that are solid first round picks (aside from Griffin, Thabeet and Jordan Hill). There are a ton of good point guards though - there will be alot of guys under 6'3'' getting drafted early in the 2009 draft.

The only big men after the Big 3 are Earl Clark (if you consider him a big man), DeJuan Blair (all 6'5'' of him), James Johnson and B.J. Mullens. Austin Daye is too skinny to be a low post threat in the NBA. So if your a Nets fan and you think the team needs a Big man do not be surprised if they draft Jonny Flynn. The talent belongs to the guards this year.

Tuesday night is one of my favorite nights of the year. The NBA Lottery. Is it fixed? Who knows, maybe.The prize for the winner of the lottery is Blake Griffin. He is a scoring and rebounding machine that everyone wants. The Kings have the best shot to get him. Don't be surprised though if he doesn't end up in Sacramento. The team with the greatest percentage to win the lottery actually rarely wins it. The Bulls won it last year with a 1.7 % chance!  The lottery can completely change your team as shown by the Bulls, led by Derrick Rose, taking the defending champs, the Celtics, to 7 games.

The last four seasons the team with the best chance to win the lottery was the 5th worst team in 2006, Toronto. The sixth worst record has won it two of the past four seasons (so Memphis, you might be getting Blake Griffin.)  The team with the highest percentage has only won the lottery twice since 1991.  The last time the team with the worst record won the lottery was Orlando, in 2004, who got Dwight Howard and Cleveland, in 2003.  You know who the Cavs got. 

I think the team who will win the lottery is an up and coming team similar to Portland two seasons ago, the 2007 lottery winner. This team needs a big man and has a star on their team already who will be a great duo with Mr. Griffin. That team is... the Oklahoma City Thunder!!

Griffin is arguably the best player to ever come out of Oklahoma and they would sell out every single night with Griffin on the team. They might even sneak into the playoffs with Blake next year. Griffin and Kevin Durant would be very scary. I'm usually wrong with my Lottery predictions so I wouldn't be celebrating yet, Thunder fans, because this is supposed to be pure luck. Make sure to tune in Tuesday Night and see if the future of your favorite NBA team is changed forever.

Odds here. (H/T to NorskTroll)

Poll
Who will get the 1st pick in the NBA Draft?
Sacramento Kings- 25 %
27 votes
Washington Wizards- 19.9 %
35 votes
LA Clippers- 15.6 %
14 votes
OKC Thunder- 11.9 %
44 votes
Other
43 votes

163 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 2 comments | Add comment | Digg!

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Comments

Display:

Here is a nice overview on the Suns blog for the odds regarding 1, 2, 3 for all 14 teams

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2009/5/13/873549/the-suns-slim-draft-lottery-odds

(And my preview from a Blazers point of view)

by Norsktroll on May 17, 2025 10:33 PM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Picture

I think you picked an awful pic of Blake, if anyone didn’t notice, he’s banging his head on the side of the backboard before a monster dunk. He’s a beast tho, no doubt about that. Hope you’re not jinxing our chances with the OKC prediction, and hope you’re right tho.

by rickpidero on May 18, 2025 10:59 AM EDT reply reply actions actions   0 recs


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