With no surprise and being on the clock since winning the draft lottery, the New Orleans Hornets drafted Kentucky’s Anthony Davis. Davis was last years AP Player of the Year, leading his Kentucky Wildcats to a National Championship victory. Davis will look to help the Hornets regain some confidence after a rough 21-45 season. Although Davis is defensively NBA ready, he will need to develop his offensive game to help make a bigger impact on both ends of the court.

The second pick of the draft belonged to the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bobcats finished the 2011-2012 season with the worst winning percentage in league history. With their pick, the Bobcats drafted another Kentucky star, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. This was the first time ever that the top two picks of the NBA draft were from the same school.

Washington was able to land Florida guard Bradley Beal with the third pick in the draft. The freshman guard has been compared to current NBA star and future Hall of Famer, Ray Allen.

Cleveland, who had their eyes on Beal, settled with Syracuse sophomore guard, Dion Waiters. This was a shock to some, considering Waiters did not start a single game for Syracuse last year, but should have an immediate impact for the Cavaliers.

Sacramento fans should be thrilled after drafting Kansas forward, Thomas Robinson. Through all the off court tragedy Robinson dealt with, he still led the nation with 27 double-doubles averaging 17.9 points per game and 11.8 rebounds.

Guard Damian Lillard from Webber State was drafted 6th by the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard averaged 24.5 points per game, 2nd in the country. Lillard faces a tremendous amount of scrutiny based on the college competition he encountered. However, the 6’3 guard will look to make a quick impact for the Blazers.

Harrison Barnes, North Carolina forward, was drafted 7th by the Golden State Warriors. Barnes led the Tar Heels in scoring last season, averaging 17.4 points per game.

The second surprise of the draft was the Toronto Raptors’ 8th pick, Washington sophomore guard Terrence Ross. Ross, an excellent shooter, was not expected to be drafted so early; however, he can definitely make an impact on the Raptors 28th ranked offense.

Detroit decided to go big with their pick, drafting Connecticut center Andre Drummond. There is concern about Drummond’s youth, being only 18. Also, it was a bit of a surprise considering Detroit already has a young center, Greg Monroe.

The Hornets were back on the clock with the 10th  pick of the draft, and added Duke guard Austin Rivers. Rivers led Duke in scoring an average of 15.5 points per game. Rivers will likely play an important role off the bench behind current Hornet, Eric Gordon.

The Hornets can easily claim to be this year’s draft winners. Combining Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers with Eric Gordon gives the Hornets hope for a very bright future.

July 1st marks the 2nd day of excitement for organizations to make a push from being a good team to becoming an elite team with free agency.

Check out the rest of Round 1 and Round 2

Image Courtesy of  Anthony Davis

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A potent offense is something that every team needs to be successful in the NBA. We saw last season that even though the Chicago Bulls had the stingiest defense in the league, the lack of help for Derrick Rose on the other end of the court essentially led to their downfall.

Crawford is, by far, one of the most explosive, electrifying scorers in the NBA. With his dazzling crossovers, his crafty shake-and-bake move, and his nearly unstoppable jump shot, Crawford is a threat anywhere on the court.

Now that his time with the Atlanta Hawks is up (the Hawks did not offer him a contract extension last season), Crawford has expressed interest, in one form or another, in joining quite a few teams around the NBA.

1. Portland Trail Blazers

Because of his unbreakable bond with superstar PF, LaMarcus Aldridge, Crawford has expressed interest in joining the Portland Trail Blazers. Aldridge, with a little bit of a sales pitch, has been trying his hardest to snag him while the lockout rages on.

On October 26th, Aldridge tweeted:

Rip City when @JCrossover come play in my game we need to make him feel at home so he will sign with us!

Crawford then responded:

@aldridge_12 —yall have GREAT fans too!! And love u and broy’s game!!!

Now, it would take a great deal of rotation work to fit him in—the Blazers are stacked at the Guard position with Raymond Felton, Brandon Roy and Wesley Matthews—but if they could find a way to work all four of them into the game plan, Portland would have the best four-guard combo in the NBA. Crawford is sort of a combo guard, possessing the ball handling ability to run the point and the scoring ability to run the two.

It would be an interesting acquisition that just might pay off in the long run.

2. Miami Heat

Could you imagine Crawford coming off the bench and dropping 15 points behind the already offensively savvy Dwyane Wade? It would be ridiculous!

LeBron James already put the thought out there in the twitter world:

Would love to see @JCrossover in a Heat uni! What u guys say?

And while Aldridge tried his best to protect his potential free agent jackpot, tweeting:

@KingJames how are you going to try and steal @JCrossover from us?! I already told Portland to make him feel at home on the 6th.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Crawford would take a contract from the Miami Heat as a potential championship contender for the next decade.

3. Chicago Bulls

Returning back to his true NBA home in Chicago isn’t a distant thought from the former Sixth Man of the Year, either. After being questioned about it from several of his followers on Twitter, Crawford finally budged with a response.

@Raffletickets17: “@JCrossover ever consider the bulls? With you at the 2 we would be amazing! Championship right there”–course I wud.!

With the already dominant scorer, Derrick Rose, leading the way for the Bulls, the only thing they need is a second option on offense. Their defense is already top tier, hanging high above all other teams in the NBA last season. If they could get their hands on Crawford when the free agency period opens up, Chicago could find themselves in the NBA Finals within the next two years.

4. New Jersey Nets

Jamal Crawford and Deron Williams are already good friends. What’s to say he doesn’t join forces whenever the lockout comes to a halt? Crawford’s also good friends with Marshon Brooks, the Nets acquisition on the day of the draft. While Williams and Crawford cut their conversation short on Twitter, moving into private messaging, but one can only speculate as to what they could be talking about.

Crawford to the Nets would only give Deron Williams another reason to stay with the franchise.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until the lockout is over to see where all these free agents end up. With other big names like Tyson Chandler, J.R. Smith, David West and Caron Butler in the market, the NBA could see a complete shift in power. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyozmer/

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This year’s NBA draft was an interesting one. Much of the talk going around was that it was a terrible draft in terms of talent. That being said, nobody will really be able to judge any of these players until they are playing in the league for a while, or not playing for that matter.

The draft was also overrun with foreign players compared to any draft of the past. For some reason, people initially give less credit to these players since they haven’t been exposed to the American fans very much. Realistically, we may look back on the 2011 draft as one full of sleepers, but we’ll have to wait for that.

As for now, it seems as if a few teams stood out with the moves they made on Thursday night. Excluding just giving teams credit for being terrible and having top picks, here’s who I thought did the best job on draft day, and they may not be who you think.

Portland Trail Blazers

For me, it all starts with Portland. Far and away the best job on draft day adding players that will immediately have an impact on a team who was already poised to make a deep run in the Western Conference. If not for injuries, Portland may have already found their way to the top of the conference, but now they have some serious firepower. Andre Miller and Rudy Fernandez were shopped in a three way trade with the Nuggets and Mavericks. Though both of those players contributed well to the team for years, Portland will be okay without them. Raymond Felton is a great point guard in this league, one that is incredibly underrated. He is a tough defender, great outside shooter, and just flat out knows how to run a team. He brings youth to the point guard position and actually can be a solid two-guard if necessary as he proved last season with Denver. Portland also added Duke guard Nolan Smith and Ohio State guard Jon Diebler in the draft. Smith was one of my favorites in the entire field, and for the life of me I can’t understand why he fell so far. He won a championship at Duke, was a great team leader, and can score the basketball almost as well as any guard that was taken this year. Diebler is deadly from the outside. A Kyle Korver clone, he won’t give you much on the defensive end, but if he gets hot from three, opposing defenses will be in trouble. Not much growth needed here, he’ll be an immediate impact player off the bench. Portland filled in spots that they really needed, got younger, and though they didn’t add any size really, they put pieces around their budding star forward LaMarcus Aldridge to propel them to one of the best rosters around the league. Now they need to do it on the court.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks were disappointing last season to say the least. In 2010 they were able to not only make the playoffs, but make noise there. “Fear the deer” was a motto that was lost last year, but could come back soon after the moves they made. The Bucks made probably the biggest splash of the day by landing Stephen Jackson via trade with the Charlotte Bobcats. Corey Maggette was sacrificed, and though he is a very talented offensive player, he has become somewhat of a trade pawn the past few years. The Bucks were dead last in scoring last year and were absolutely desperate for a shooter to stretch the floor as well as another slasher who could get to the rim and allow Brandon Jennings to be open for more outside jump shots. They got both in Jackson, as well as a great defender. He will prove to have a huge impact on this team, and barring any setbacks, the trio of Jennings, Jackson and Bogut should easily grab a playoff spot. Milwaukee also added Tobias Harris from Tennessee, and Jon Leuer from Wisconsin. Harris is very versatile and should be able to fill in anything they lost in Corey Maggette. As for Leuer, he falls into a similar category as Nolan Smith for me. Not as far as play style goes, but for the intangibles. He found himself in deep runs into the NCAA Tournament with Wisconsin in his years there, and just strikes me as a player who will find his role and contribute in a pro system. I don’t expect either of these guys to be all-stars, but good role players to put around an already solid lineup. Fear the deer next season.

Charlotte Bobcats

So here’s my curveball. Let’s think about this rationally for a second. The Bobcats weren’t going anywhere at all with the team they had. Michael Jordan knew this, and made some of the best decisions in his much criticized front-office career. They traded Gerald Wallace last season, leaving the team destined for a terrible ending to the season. I would have to assume that Jordan had been looking to shop Stephen Jackson for a while now, and only on draft day was he able to find a suitor. Did they get value back for him? Immediate it doesn’t seem so, but let’s look deeper. If a team is trying to completely rebuild for the future, what do they want to do? In the NBA you have two tasks. Get some solid young talent at the hard to find positions, and clear cap space to give yourself some leverage for free agency. They were able to do both in one trade. Corey Maggette is still a solid player in the league, and will at least give fans something to watch for the next two years as their young players develop. Also, he will remain as a trade pawn for them, and an expiring contract in the future which will allow them to have some money to work with coming into a year where the exact cap rules are uncertain. They picked up the number seven pick which they used on Bismack Biyombo from the Congo. He most definitely is all raw athleticism. Standing at 6’9 with an absurd 7’7 wingspan, he will have no problem blocking shots and grabbing rebounds in the league. The Detroit Pistons never minded very much that Ben Wallace couldn’t score the ball when he was winning defensive player of the year awards, and the Bobcats shouldn’t worry either. Maybe it’s a bit early for that comparison, but if he works out, he could be a very nice role player to develop. Now we get to the most underappreciated player in the 2011 draft: Kemba Walker. I can’t say enough about this kid. Talent, heart, quickness, leadership, the list goes on forever. The best player on the best team in the country, and one of the best scorers in the nation to boot somehow slipped to ninth in a so-called weak draft. I will never understand how that happened, but Michael Jordan and the Bobcats will be thanking the top eight teams in the future. He can play on both ends, and will have plenty of time to develop in Charlotte without any unfair immediate expectations. Charlotte was also able to sell their 39th pick, Jeremy Tyler, for cash considerations. Everyone likes cash right? Charlotte is bad for now, but made significant progress on draft night, and now has a definite plan for how they want to go. It’s only a matter of time.

Neither I nor anybody can say who will be good or bad right now in the draft, but speculation is what makes it all fun. These three teams may not be the best in the league, but improved the most in just one night. As I said, time will tell…so long as there is a season next year.

Marty Ellis / Shutterstock.com

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