The Warriors were one of a few teams to benefit from Wednesday night's draft lottery results, hanging onto their lottery pick for another year. According to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, GM Bob Myers doesn't intend to use all four picks the Warriors hold, but views them as valuable trade assets. Myers also aims to land a starter with the seventh overall pick, pointing out that "I don't think anyone would accept the thought of drafting a backup" with a top-10 pick. Here are a few more of the morning's Warriors updates:
The NBA's draft lottery played out nearly exactly as expected last night, given the odds. Only one team, the Hornets, moved up into the top three, with the top-ranked Bobcats, Wizards, and Cavaliers each sliding down a spot and the rest of the order holding to form. Despite the lack of drastic movement, the lottery results had major ramifications for a number of clubs besides the Hornets. Let's take a brief look at the teams whose fates were most affected by the ping pong balls….
The NBA draft lottery brought good fortune to the Hornets organization, robbed the Bobcats of a chance to quickly advance in the rebuilding process and saw teams like the Nets and the Jazz miss out on securing lottery picks. The Cavs will have to use the fourth pick in the draft to build around Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson and the Warriors should simply be happy they were able to keep their spot at seventh. Beyond the Hornets, count the Trail Blazers as the second biggest winner Wednesday night as Portland will make two selections among the first 11 picks.
As the talking heads put together their latest mock drafts, let's take a look around the NBA to catch up on the the news and rumors making headlines as Hurricanes and Hand Grenades flow freely on Bourbon St…
The city of New Orleans caught a rare break on Wednesday evening. In a place riddled by murder, inadequate public education and general blight, the redeeming nature of sports put everything else on hold if but for a moment when the Hornets won the draft lottery and the right to select Kentucky's Anthony Davis. The franchise that saw Chris Paul leave via trade and David West sign with the Pacers within the last year has the chance to build a foundation for success heading forward thanks to the pairing of a legitimate big man and a healthy Eric Gordon. With the addition of new owner and New Orleans businessman Tom Benson to rehabilitate the general health of the franchise, the future is surely bright for basketball in the Crescent City.
The Bobcats set an NBA record for futility during the 2011/2012 season as the team finished the year with the lowest winning percentage in league history. Fast forward to earlier this evening and the Bobcats, with the best chance to secure the top spot in the NBA draft, lost out on the opportunity to select consensus first-overall pick Anthony Davis to the Hornets, who are partying like it's Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Instead of having the chance to stock the roster with a seemingly sure-fire franchise player, owner Michael Jordan and his front office will have to continue the rebuilding process by finding the best fit with the second pick. Here's the latest news and happenings from the Bobcats…
The results are in and New Orleans has won the right to draft Anthony Davis this June as the Hornets secured the top spot in the NBA draft. Count the Nets and Jazz among the lottery's losers as Brooklyn lost their draft pick to the Trail Blazers and Utah missed out on an opportunity to take the Warriors' selection. The Nets would have kept their pick if they had landed one of the top three spots in the draft whereas the Jazz would have netted a lottery pick if the Warriors fell outside of the top seven selections.
Tonight's draft lottery holds the potential to rewrite the history of the 13 different franchises eligible to select first come June. For the Bobcats, winning the lottery would allow owner Michael Jordan to move past an especially trying season and re-energize a fan base hungry for a quality product on the court. Adding a player like Anthony Davis to complement last year's top pick Kyrie Irving would go a long way to continue to the healing process for the Cavaliers in a post-LeBron world. In Brooklyn, securing the top spot in the draft could lead to Dwight Howard wearing a black and white Nets jersey.
The draft lottery is dominating NBA headlines today, but the team with the best shot at landing the first overall pick isn't losing any sleep over tonight's drama. Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he's not stressed about the lottery since the results are out of his hands, and adds that he still expects Charlotte to add a solid player even without the top pick.
As we count down the hours until the winner of the Anthony Davis sweepstakes is announced, let's round up a few odds and ends from around the NBA….
We're just a little over 24 hours away from tomorrow night's draft lottery, aka the Anthony Davis sweepstakes. While fans of the Bobcats, Wizards, Cavaliers, Hornets, and the rest of the lottery teams hold their breath, let's round up a few of today's draft-related items:
- The Celtics may be trying to package their two first-round picks to move up in the draft, tweets SI.com's Zach Lowe.
- Damian Lillard appears to be a likely top-10 pick, writes ESPN.com's Chad Ford in an Insider-only piece that also touches on Terrence Ross, Arnett Moultrie, Fab Melo, and a number of other prospects.
- Ford also fielded draft questions in his weekly ESPN.com chat earlier this afternoon.
- Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio identifies his picks for the sleepers of this year's draft class.
- Seven-footers Tyler Zeller and Meyers Leonard highlighted the participants at the Trail Blazers' first draft workout today, and interim Kaleb Canales had compliments for both players, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com writes.
With 48 hours to go until the draft lottery, here's the latest from the draft front:
- Kyle Nelson of Draft Express speaks with St. John's freshman Moe Harkless, the site's 18th-ranked prospect who says he's putting in 12-hour days in advance of the draft.
- TNT's David Aldridge, writing for NBA.com, ranks Andre Drummond as the top center in the draft but says Tyler Zeller is the only center most teams would feel safe taking high in the lottery.
- Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group passes along observations from the Warriors pre-draft workout Monday, centering around Stanford power forward Josh Owens, whose "incredible" athleticism, according to one NBA executive, has helped him move from anonymity into the second-round picture.