Lottery Is Tonight

For 12 teams tonight could be the beginning of an era. Draft picks one through 14 will be determined tonight, with the Cavaliers and Jazz owning multiple picks. The Cavaliers were given the Clippers draft pick in the Mo Williams and Baron Davis trade. Utah received the Nets first round pick when they sent Derron Williams to NJ for Devin Harris. Obviously, there were other players in the two trades but those were the highlighted players. Good news for Cavalier fans, the last time the team with the worst record won the NBA Lottery was in 2004, when Orlando selected Dwight Howard. There currently are four teams trying to start their own history, as the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz, Charlotte Bobcats, and Phoenix Suns have never won the lottery. Whoever wins the rights for the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft will have a tough decision to make. 


There is no clear number one draft prospect this year. In recent years, there were plenty of "can't miss" rookies, such as; Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin and last year with John Wall. With that not being the case, this year's class does have two top prospects with everyone else filling in behind. Kyrie Irving, the point guard from Duke and Derrick Williams, the forward from Arizona are projected as the two best players in the 2011 draft class. With the recent success from point guards in the previous years, it certainly would be hard to pass up on Irving. Williams, however, had one fantastic and memorable NCAA tourney run putting up beastly numbers while knocking off Irving and the Dukies. 


Wondering who goes third overall? Well, it depends obviously on the draft order, but there are a few candidates that would fit some teams perfectly. Enes Kanter, a 6-10 forward/center from Turkey would be someone the Raptors would love to have. He initially signed to play at University of Washington, but withdrew his scholarship and committed to University of Kentucky. He ended up being ineligible to play due to signing a contract with a professional Turkey team at age 16. He hasn't played a game in two years, but when he was playing he was MVP of the U18 European Championship, even as he played against prospects   a year older than him. In the semi-final game, he posted 32 points, 25 rebounds and two blocks in 39 minutes
against the tournament champion Serbia team. The bronze medal game was even better. In 36 minutes,
Kanter scored 35 points on 16/22 shooting. He also grabbed 19 rebounds, stole three balls and blocked
four shots against the Lithuanian team and big man prospect named Jonas Valanciunas. His overall tournament statistics were 18.6 points, 16.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.8 blocks. 

Rounding out the top five could potentially be point guard Brandon Knight of Kentucky and Kawhi Leonard of San Diego State. Stay tuned for more to come after tonight's Lottery.