2008 NBA Draft Lottery
Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images
The 2007-2008 NBA Playoffs are in the Conference Finals right now so many forget that the NBA draft is on the horizon. The NBA Draft Lottery was held at about 7:30 on Tuesday May 20th 2008.
Of all the teams to run into luck, it is the Chicago Bulls on this night at the 2008 NBA Draft Lottery. This is the same team that went from a top team in the conference to a doormat in the weak East. And they just lost out on the Mike D'Antoni sweepstakes. But with just a 1.7% chance of winning the 2008 NBA Draft Lottery, the Chicago Bulls pulled it off.
The begin question now is Derrick Rose of Memphis or Michael Beasley of Kansas State? After the college regular season where he put up 26 points 12 rebounds a game, Michael Beasley looked like a shoe-in for almost any team. Now after the NCAA Tournament, the opinion of most NBA GM's has changed to Derrick Rose. This is partly because of his spectacular NCAA tournament, but also because elite floor leaders at PG are so rare to find. Also Chris Paul is making GM's change how they think as in the past most were size-first but Chris Paul puts a damper to that theory.
As far as who fits better with the Chicago Bulls it is probably Beasley. The Bulls have long been searching for a post presence that can score, to help open up the floor for what is mostly a jump-shooting unit.
The Rose side of the argument says that he would allow the Bulls to have a faster offense and a facilitator like Rose would improve his teammates, many of whom dropped off in 2007-2008. At the very least he's a terrific upgrade over Kirk Hinrich who looked to have slipped badly this year. That said, having an interior presence would open things up for Hinrich too.
The Miami Heat are in a great position, being able to take the other player in a heartbeat. There are mumblings about a trade if Rose is taken at #1 but it is hard to see Pat Riley passing on Michael Beasley.
Minnesota's poor lottery luck continues as being in the top 3 looked like they had a decent chance of getting one of the two best players in the draft. But dropping to three leaves them with a ton of options including trading down in the draft or trading out of it entirely (for a quality veteran player).