Atlanta Hawks

They didn’t have the best shot of winning but the Los Angeles Clippers managed to beat out the other teams in this year’s NBA Lottery. All the teams that didn’t make the playoffs this past season are eligible for the lottery in the NBA. It was announced on Tuesday night that the Clippers was the lucky team and will have the top overall selection in the 2009 NBA Draft. We also know where every other NBA team will be picking in the draft that will be held this summer. Now that the teams know where they are picking at in this year’s draft, they can start to talk with other teams and see if there might be any trades that take place before draft night.

Most people have penciled in Blake Griffin from the Oklahoma Sooners as the top pick in the 2009 basketball draft. He was the Consensus National Player of the Year this past season in college basketball. He is a very talented big man that has great shot blocking abilities on the defensive side of the court and able to put up huge numbers on the offensive side and he can do this in a variety of ways. There is no doubt that the 6′ 10″ and 255 pound Blake Griffin will be a great player on the next level. He will be starting for some NBA team before his professional basketball career is over and the first team that has an opportunity to take him will be the LA Clippers. Griffin has been spending time in San Francisco working out and polishing his skills that he hopes will lead him to a solid NBA career. He was also in the L.A. area recently to receive the Wooden Award that he won for his tremendous play on the court. The city of Los Angeles or the state of California is not unchartered territory for this young man and the Clippers might just be a good fit for him.

Do you think Blake Griffin is the best basketball player in this year’s NBA Draft?

I got to watch him a few times and he impressed me each time. I can understand why there is already so much hype around this guy and he’s worthy of that top overall pick. He scored 22.7 points a game this year for Oklahoma and grabbed over 14 rebounds a game. The athletic ability and size is NBA quality. Can he continue to grow on the next level and how coachable will he be for the Clippers or any other NBA team that he might land on this summer is a couple of questions that remain. If Kevin Durant and Greg Oden were in this year’s NBA draft; then it would be a struggle to come up with the order these guys would get drafted in. Now that we have saw Durant and Oden play in the NBA; the draft order would likely go Durant first, Griffin second, and Oden being the third pick.

Is there any chance that the LA Clippers will trade the top overall pick?

I think there is a strong possibility here and it’s not going to surprise me if another team works out a trade with the Clippers. The Memphis Grizzlies will be picking 2nd in the draft this year and I think they are happy at this spot. The interest starts to build up some when you look at which team got the 3rd pick in this year’s draft order. The Oklahoma City Thunder have that spot and how much would they be willing to pay to get a hometown college guy from the Oklahoma Sooners to join up with the pro team in Oklahoma? No way does the Thunder let Durant go to another NBA team and he’s a franchise player they will want to keep for many years to come. They do have two other young prospects that are doing very well and I’m sure lots of NBA teams would like to have Russell Westbrook or Jeff Green on their team. If I was the Clippers general manager and the Thunder offered me both of these guys, I would trade them the top pick for Green and Westbrook. Big guys are hard to find in the NBA and especially the ones that are as skilled as Blake Griffin. I just couldn’t see passing on two quality guards that are proven NBA players for someone that has never played a minute in the NBA. On the flip side of things, would the Thunder be willing to pay this much for the top pick? I might be willing to pull the trigger if Griffin has some outstanding workouts before the draft and he does something special during this time. I’m not sure just offering one of these guys with other players would be enough to tempt the Clippers. Guys like Nick Collison or Demond Mason don’t interest me enough to trade away the top pick, I would have to get Green and Westbrook both or no deal. It should be interesting to see if the Thunder do make an attempt and they also have the 3rd overall pick, so I’m sure that would be included in any trade that takes place with the Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Did your favorite NBA team get a pick better than expected or worse than expected from Tuesday Night’s results?

The 2009 draft class for the NBA does look like a solid one and we should see some quality guys that develop well on the next level going late in the first round or early in the 2nd round.

2009 NBA Draft Order

This year’s NBA Draft will be held on Thursday, June 25th at 7 PM EST or 4 PM PST. The location for the 2009 NBA Draft is Madison Square Garden in New York. I’m sure lots of Clipper fans like Penny Marshall and other die-hard Clip fans will be tuning in on June 25th to see what new player the Clippers add with their talented first round pick last year that was from Indiana. His name was Eric Gordon and he had a great rookie year. I think Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon would be two fine young men for any NBA team to build their program around. The fans in L.A. should be excited and they are slowly putting together a team that will be able to compete with the other Los Angeles NBA team. It might take Gordon and Griffin a few years to catch Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers but I like the potential for the Clippers team, since they did win the NBA draft lottery.

What: 2009 NBA Draft

Where: Madison Square Garden in New York

When: Thursday June 25th at 7 EST

You can see the NBA draft live on ESPN at 7 Eastern Time; 6 Central Time; 5 Mountain Time; or 4 Los Angeles Clipper Time. ESPN will cover the entire 2 rounds of the NBA draft that will show us where the future stars of tomorrow will be playing. The fun starts June 25th and this is on a Thursday, so be sure to mark your calendars now.

*The Sacramento Kings have the 4th overall selection in the NBA draft and also will pick again at number 23 in the first round. They have the top pick in the 2nd round of the draft and this will be the 31st overall pick. This means there will be one other California NBA team that is excited about the 2009 draft and look for the Kings to improve with these 3 new players they will get to add to their team on June 25th from Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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