No surprises in Newark, NJ, where Anthony Davis was selected with the #1 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets. Davis is one of three freshmen chosen with the first three picks of the draft. (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Bradley Beal) Until now, this has never happened in league history. With so many talented freshmen being taken quickly, the Hornets drafted a hot hand with the tenth overall pick. A draft pick who happens to know Doc Rivers on a personal level is none other than Doc’s son and former Duke star Austin Rivers. With the additions of both Davis and Rivers, New Orleans appears to be taking a step in the right direction.
Aside from the top ten coupled with Kentucky and North Carolina players being drafted, the Houston Rockets were busy with multiple trades into the top 20. With the 12th, 16th and 18th selections, they acquired the likes of Guard Jeremy Lamb, Forward Royce White and Forward Terrence Jones. The Boston Celtics also made BIG splashes by retaining Power Forward Jarred Sullinger and Center Fab Melo with consecutive picks (2st and 22nd).
With the first round coming to a close, the Oklahoma City Thunder spotted a top ten talent floating around the late 20′s. They would eventually draft the “controversial” Power Forward Perry Jones lll, out of Baylor University. With “Red flags” surrounding his knee injury, he couldn’t have asked for a better landing spot than the youngest, and what is supposed to be the next up and coming team in the NBA. Rounding off the first round, the Golden State Warriors selected Center Festus Ezeli. Here is a list of the noteble first round winner (not a typo) and noteble losers.
Winners: New Orleans Hornets; took care of business by drafting the right players and filling their position needs. Drafting players such as Anthony Davis and Austin Rivers are unquestionably smart picks on behalf of Dell Demps and the entire organization. Not to mention that you will be able to see son versus father in the form of Hornets against Celtics.
Losers: New York Knicks and Los Angles Lakers. With the 48th pick, the Knicks selected Strong Forward Kostas Papanikolaou. Who? Also, with the 60th pick, the Lakers chose Center Robert Sacre. Most expected a little more from the Lakers who are in a re-tooling state-of-mind. Maybe both of these teams are looking toward the free agency portion of the summer, but in regards to the draft, they couldn’t have done any worse.
This article was written in collaboration with Bbuchanan
3 comments
Nate Postma
June 29, 2012 at 11:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Papanikalau. Who? Pretty Good!
Mike
June 29, 2012 at 4:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Interesting draft. A few questionable international picks. My Nuggets took a French guy I’ve never hear of. It’ll be fun to watch the Hornet/celtics games now!
Julian
June 30, 2012 at 12:31 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What’s the news on the world champion the Miami Heat? They need a big man who can play the post and run the floor.