2012 NBA Lottery Results: Teams in Best Position to Speed Up Rebuilding Process
The NBA lottery has come and gone, and it has pushed some teams into the fast lane on the rebuilding road.
These are teams that all missed out on the postseason this year, but have a solid nucleus and will find a nice piece or two from this draft. This will not leave them in the lottery for long.
Here are the tree teams that are venturing into the easy and fun part of rebuilding.
New Orleans Hornets
The bounce of the ping pong balls changed the fortunes of the New Orleans Hornets. They went from sitting at No. 4, and looking at drafting a solid starter, to sitting at No. 1 and taking a franchise player in Anthony Davis.
The difference in those two positions is hard to overstate. This is not all the Hornets have going for them either. They also have the No. 10 selection in this draft.
All of a sudden, the Hornets have a nice core of young talent, no bad contracts dragging them down, and cap space to burn. They are in a nice position.
Portland Trail Blazers
The Blazers were one of the true disappointments of this past season. They had a talented team and they completely fell apart at the seams.
Despite this, they still have a nice core of players. They just had too many players that gave up on the season (I'm talking to you, Raymond Felton).
With a shift in chemistry and effort this team will be right back in the thick of the playoff race. They still have LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews. They also have Nicolas Batum, who is a restricted free agent.
They can either re-sign him, or use his money to add a nice free agent, or even sign a free agent and use the Bird rights on Batum to bring him back on top of that.
And on top of all of this, they have No. 6 and No. 11 picks in the upcoming draft. This puts them in a great position to upgrade their point guard position and add a competent other piece to the puzzle. I fully expect Portland to be in the postseason next season.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers got bumped from No. 3 in the draft to No. 4 due to the bounce of the ping pong balls, but that will not be a big blow to their rebuilding efforts.
This is a young team that is starting to stockpile talent. Kyrie Irving is coming off his Rookie of the Year effort ready to lead Cleveland from the point.
They have a promising young center in Tristan Thompson and they are going to have a boatload of salary cap space.
They will also be in a position to add a nice piece at No. 4 in this draft. This team could have a nice starting five next year. They will still be quite young and probably a year away from a postseason run, but the potential will be there, and they will be given the chance to grow as a team.
Check out the full draft order on the NBA's official website.
