As usual, the NBA draft had plenty of fireworks.  The shortest of all professional drafts, at only two rounds, the NBA draft rarely lacks for excitement.  This year, the excitement started at the draft lottery, where the New Orleans Hornets “won” the first pick of the drafts, and the rights to consensus top pick, Anthony Davis.  While Davis was a lock for the top spot, the remaining 59 picks were up in the air.  The Charlotte Bobcats came next, and in a mild surprise, they neither traded the pick nor drafted Kansas big man Thomas Robinson.  Instead, the Jordan led Bobcats took another Wildcat in Michael Kidd-Gilcrhist. 

Other notable first round picks include Doc Rivers’ son Austin Rivers, being chosen with the #10 pick.  Combine Rivers, Davis and Eric Gordon, and the Hornets have a young nucleus that has to have fans smiling in the Big Easy.  The Boston Celtics made waves in the draft, but only had picks #20 & #21 in the first round.  They made a splash with the #20 pick by selecting Jared Sullinger, whose stock had fallen due to injury concerns.  That pick was followed up by choosing Syracuse big man Fab Melo at #22.  Finally, we can’t talk about the 2012 NBA draft without discussing the Houston Rockets.  The Rockets were wheeling and dealing prior to the draft, presumably to make a play for Orlando big man Dwight Howard.  However, Howard doesn’t want to play in Houston, and no trade came off.  Instead, Houston used their three first round picks to add some nice young talent to their roster.  From all accounts, the Rockets aren’t done yet though.

Now that the draft is over, you can scoop up a draft hat, draft tee, or #1 pick jersey for your favorite team by shopping all NBA draft gear. The NBA draft immediately preceeds free agency, so now that July is here, watch to see how teams finish filling out their rosters in advance of the 2012-2013 NBA season.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.