NBA's losing teams hope for big score in lottery

[azuquita8]

NBA's losing teams hope for big score in lottery
May 20, 2008 1:16 PM EDT
Lucky Lefty and Larry Legend are the latest characters looking for a big score in New Jersey.
Mike D'Antoni will try to make the Knicks fortunate before he can make them good, and the Seattle SuperSonics are sending Kevin Durant in hopes of landing the next, well, Kevin Durant.
They are all expected Tuesday night at the draft lottery, the NBA's shortcut to go from loser to winner.
Just like last year, two stud freshmen are the top prizes. The Miami Heat have the best chance to win the right to choose between Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose, but history says they won't. Only twice, in 2003 and '04, has the team with the best odds won under the current lottery format, which began in 1994.
That's why the other 13 teams headed to Secaucus, N.J., will do what they can to boost their hopes. The hometown Nets, back in the lottery for the first time since 2001, are sending team investor Shawn Carter, better known as rap mogul Jay-Z, to take their seat on the stage.
"This is very exciting and I hope my nickname 'Lucky Lefty' holds up," he said.
The Nets have just a 1 percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick. Jay-Z will be seated next to Indiana Pacers president and Hall of Famer Larry Bird. Durant and Miami's Dwyane Wade are among the star players representing their fallen franchises.
The Knicks, with a lottery pick again after shipping top-10 choices to Chicago each of the last two years in the Eddy Curry trade, are sending new coach D'Antoni.
"I want Mike to come with me because he's lucky they tell me," new president Donnie Walsh said. "We need somebody with luck. I haven't been lucky in that thing."
The lottery determines the top three picks, with the rest of the first 14 spots made in inverse order of a team's record. The Heat's NBA-worst 15-67 finish gives them a 25 percent chance of choosing first and they can do no worse than fourth.
Seattle has a 20 percent chance of getting the top pick, with Minnesota and Memphis at 14 percent.
The odds meant nothing last year, when Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee, the teams with the three worst records, all fell out of the top three spots, the first time that had happened under the current format.
Portland moved up from sixth to get the No. 1 pick, which it used on Greg Oden, and Seattle vaulted to second and settled for Durant, who won the Rookie of the Year award. The favorite next season will be Beasley, a forward who averaged 26.5 points and an NCAA-best 12.5 rebounds for Kansas State, or Rose, the point guard who nearly carried Memphis to the national title.
The Celtics were one of the devastated teams last year, when they had the second-best chance of landing a top-two pick and instead tumbled all the way to fifth. Boston then packaged that pick in a trade with Seattle to acquire Ray Allen, and later pried Kevin Garnett from Minnesota in another deal.
The Celtics will be hosting Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals a few minutes after the lottery finishes, so perhaps the Heat or Sonics shouldn't despair if the balls don't bounce their way.
"If it's not No. 1 or No. 2, the balls fall as they may, the chips fall as they may," Wade said. "We've just got to make the best choice that we can make. Whether it's keeping the pick, trading the pick, whatever we're doing, we've just got to make the best choice for the team that we have and the faces of the team that we have ... bringing the right guy in, that's what it's all about."
New York has the fifth-best chance at No. 1, with the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Chicago and New Jersey rounding out the top 10. Indiana, Sacramento, Portland and Golden State - which missed the playoffs in the powerful Western Conference despite a 48-34 record - are the four biggest long shots.
The Knicks can do no worse than eighth, still an improvement after losing what would have been the Nos. 2 and 9 choices the last two years. That's little reassurance to Walsh, hoping to quickly jump-start the rebuilding in New York.
"I'm not comfortable at all. I want to win it. I really want to win it," Walsh said. "There's good talent, one through eight. Obviously one is going to be better than eight."

[azuquita8]

Chicago Bulls win No. 1 pick in NBA draft lottery
May 20, 2008 9:13 PM EDT
SECAUCUS, N.J. - The Chicago Bulls expected to be in the playoffs, not the lottery. This will ease the sting a little. The Bulls won the NBA's draft lottery Tuesday night, giving them the right to choose between star freshmen Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose.
Coming off a miserable season and still without a coach, the Bulls vaulted from the No. 9 spot, where they had just a 1.7 percent chance of landing the top choice.
"After this season, we needed a break and I think we just got one tonight," said Steve Schanwald, the Bulls' executive vice president of business operations who represented them on the podium.
Chicago will almost certainly choose between Beasley, the Kansas State forward who averaged 26.2 points and an NCAA-best 12.4 rebounds, or Rose, the point guard who carried Memphis within minutes of the national title.
"We'll have an opportunity to get close to those guys. We'll really take a long look at what makes the most sense for our basketball team," executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said on a conference call. "Having the pick puts you in a unique position to make your team better.
"I certainly understand this was pure luck. Now it's our job to make the most of it."
The Miami Heat, who had a 25 percent chance of landing the top pick thanks to their NBA-worst 15-67 record, fell to second. The Minnesota Timberwolves will go third.
The Seattle SuperSonics, who moved up to No. 2 last year to pick Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant, fell from second to fourth. Memphis will pick fifth, followed by New York, the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee, Charlotte and New Jersey.
Indiana has the 11th pick, followed by Sacramento, Portland and Golden State. The lottery settled the top three spots. The remainder of the first 14 picks are determined inverse order of their record.
The NBA draft will be held June 26 in New York.
Chicago came into the season with high expectations after reaching the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. But the Bulls never recovered from a dismal start and finished 33-49. They fired coach Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve and have already decided not to retain interim coach Jim Boylan.
The Bulls failed to land the coach they wanted, Mike D'Antoni, but the position became much more appealing Tuesday, giving them a chance to draft first for only the second time. The Bulls, who took Elton Brand No. 1 in 1999, could turn this time to hometown star Rose, who D'Antoni said was like Jason Kidd with a jump shot.
"Everybody was picking us to go to the conference finals last year, actually to the NBA finals because we won 49 games the year before and pushed the Detroit Pistons to six games in the second round last year and we have a very exciting good corps of young players, and we added Joakim Noah to that mix," Schanwald said. "Now we will get a chance to add another great player, a really great player. So it is very exciting for us."
Chicago got the No. 2 and 9 picks the last two years from New York as a result of the trade for Eddy Curry. Schanwald gave a fist pump early on when he realized he would move up, then took a deep breath and pumped both fists after beating out the Heat, represented by All-Star guard Dwyane Wade.
Only twice have teams with the worst record won the lottery since the current format began in 1994. Though the lottery is weighted to give teams with the poorest records the best chance to win, the long shots keep finding a way.
Last year, Portland and Seattle moved up to grab the top spots, taking Greg Oden and Durant. Again, two star freshmen are the top prizes.
"Obviously the lottery as a precursor to the draft is a time of great hope," commissioner David Stern said.
The Bulls already had a busy offseason planned. Besides hiring a coach, they have to make contract offers to restricted free agents Luol Deng and Ben Gordon.
Now they've got another decision: Beasley or Rose?
"As I sit here tonight, what I think is again you've got two players who are different and unique," Paxson said. "One is point guard. The point guard is a natural leadership position on a team. It's something every team covets. And the other ... just has the unique ability to put the ball in the basket, just will be a go-to scorer.
"I'm certainly not going to throw myself into this thing and do something quickly."
Nor will the Heat. President Pat Riley likes both players, but implied the pick could even be traded.
"Based on their performance and what they did in one season, both of them showed that they can help their team win," Riley said. "Both showed enough physical maturity to be dominant at times as a 19-year-old. All of the intangibles when it comes to competitive desire and when it comes to leadership and character and all of those things, we still have a lot of work to do in terms of a lot of players in the draft."
The Bulls' surprising victory should quickly restore interest in the underachieving team. Interviewed immediately following the result, Schanwald read the number for callers to buy season tickets.
"I thought it was a waste of time. I thought coming here was an absolute waste of time. I knew I would get a great meal out of it, but I thought it was a waste of time," Schanwald said of the Bulls' chances.
"I'm on top of the world. I feel great. It's the most exciting day of my life."
(This version CORRECTS Beasley's stats).

[JD67]

Rose!