NBA Draft News: Rubio, Harden, Thabeet on Washington Wizards' Radar

(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

The World Famous LayupDrill Rumor Mill
5/22/09

We are still roughly a month away from the 2009 NBA Draft, but talks surrounding the top of the lottery is at a fever pitch right now.

Chad Ford of ESPN reports this morning there are talks about the OKC Thunder, who select third overall, swapping picks with the Washington Wizards, who go fifth.

If the Thunder go this route, the thought process would be they could land either James Harden or Jordan Hill at the fifth spot, and don’t need to pay either what the third spot in the draft commands.

For the Wizards, this would allow them to get in the Rubio/Thabeet sweepstakes, and depending on what Memphis did a pick ahead of them, Washington would have a nice consolation prize. Stay tuned…

In Ricky Rubio news, The Oklahoman reports today that the the Thunder have not heard anything from Rubio’s camp stating he would not be interested in playing with them, and are going forward with scheduling workouts.

In case you missed it yesterday, I posted on how DraftExpress.com broke the story about insiders of Rubio’s camp stating he was not interested in playing for the Grizzlies or Thunder.

Nuggets fans are still elated off of that outstanding performance their team put on in Staples last night, but there were a few scary moments. Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony was seen hobbling at times late in the game, to which broadcaster Mike Breen of ESPN believed was due to cramps.

Anthony told the AP that he did in fact twist his ankle, but should be fine for Game 3. Another Nugget who played through pain was J.R. Smith, who according to the Denver Post, was not at 100 percent due to his strained right calf.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports this morning that new Bulls GM Gar Forman has made it his priority to re-sign Ben Gordon this off-season. Gordon was instrumental in Chicago’s success throughout the year, and had an excellent first round against the Celtics.

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