NBA Draft Lottery 2012: Which Team Is in the Best Spot to Improve?

The 2012 NBA Draft Lottery is in the books and the New Orleans Hornets have hit the jackpot.

The team with the fourth-best odds emerged champions of the evening, securing the first overall draft choice. Head coach Monty Williams will now have the opportunity to lead the highly-touted Anthony Davis into battle on a nightly basis, providing the New Orleans faithful with a promising future.

And that's before we even get to their 10th overall draft choice.

With all of this being known, the unlikely has occurred: The winners of the draft lottery are not the team with the best chance to improve. Instead, that honor may belong to the team selecting all the way down at sixth overall: the Portland Trail Blazers.

Portland currently boasts a roster that consists of All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and, should they succeed in re-signing the youngster, versatile wingman Nicolas Batum. They will now have the opportunity to add two long-term starters with the sixth and 11th overall draft picks.

Think of this as the Blazers' opportunity to draft their point guard and center of the future; a move that is much-needed after the Greg Oden experiment officially concluded on March 15th of this calendar year.

Even with all of this information known, it's not hard to see why one might crown the Hornets with the best position to improve. With the first and 10th overall draft choices, why wouldn't they?

The answer is simple, as New Orleans does not possess a single second-round draft choice. Portland, meanwhile, is in possession of the 40th and 41st overall draft choices. Those two picks could potentially land two sleepers that go by the names of Jared Cunningham and Kevin Murphy.

While this is all speculative, the Trail Blazers have been placed into a position in which four potential rotational players could find their roster in just one year's time. No other team in this entire draft class can say that,

Or can they?

Amidst the hype generated by the Hornets and Trail Blazers is a team who will quietly put together a draft that includes the fourth, 24th, 33rd and 34th.

Dig deep and look for the steals or select two lottery picks and another pair of rotational players? This battle has been won, ladies and gentlemen, and LaMarcus Aldridge will have plenty of company in the winner's circle.