2012 NBA Lottery Results: Teams That Made the Biggest Leap in the 1st Round

After Wednesday night’s NBA draft lottery, the draft order is now finalized (barring future trades). Suffice it to say, the New Orleans Hornets, the team that jumped from No. 4 to the top spot, easily made the biggest leap of the night.

Conspiracies abound about the previously league-owned Hornets winning the lottery.

Speculation insists that this was retribution for losing a once-in-a-generation point guard in Chris Paul. The staff of Grantland.com put together this piece prior to draft night, ranking the Hornets winning the lottery at a 93 out of 100 on the “Conspiracy Scale,” insinuating that new owner Tom Benson may have been promised the first overall pick in exchange for giving in and buying the team (something he had been hesitant to do for some time).

Although it’s anybody’s guess what happens behind closed doors during the NBA lottery (David Stern could easily solve this by simply allowing the public to view the precious ping pong balls), the Hornets now hold the first overall pick.

Unless something insane happens, like a veto, expect the Hornets to move forward with a new franchise player, Anthony Davis.

Despite New Orleans, Benson and conspiracy theories stealing the show, another team managed to fly under the radar.

Because of the Gerald Wallace trade, which sent the forward nicknamed “Crash” to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for a top-three protected first-round pick, the Portland Trail Blazers may end up making out like thieves this year.

The Nets’ selection didn’t fall in the top three spots, so the Trail Blazers will get to keep the pick at No. 6 overall. In addition to that fortunate event, Portland also holds the No. 11 pick in this year’s first round.

Portland was not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination last season. LaMarcus Aldridge ran with the opportunity to be the franchise guy after injuries derailed the careers of both Brandon Roy and Greg Oden.

J.J. Hickson had a solid year for the team as well, and the Trail Blazers were eying the playoffs as a seven or eight seed.

Despite being in the running with the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets for the final playoff spot, the Trail Blazers decided to trade Wallace to the Nets in exchange for what has become the sixth overall pick. They also traded veteran center Marcus Camby to the Houston Rockets for two underachieving youngsters, Hasheem Thabeet and Jonny Flynn.

In the process, the Trail Blazers tanked to end the season, having a terrible month of April, losing their final seven games.

Now Portland holds pick No. 6 and pick No. 11 in this year’s draft with a pretty decent team in place already.

They’ll probably be on the market for a point guard after a disappointing season from Raymond Felton. It's possible that they could target North Carolina’s Kendall Marshall at No. 11.

If so, they could target a playmaker with the sixth overall selection, possibly Marshall’s running mate at UNC, Harrison Barnes.

With all of the negativity that has surrounded the Trail Blazers franchise of late (it doesn’t help having to watch Kevin Durant in the conference finals), Portland could finally be poised to turn things around for next season.

Hopefully, for their fans' sake, they’ll make sure to draft wisely in 2012.