‘With the First Pick in the 2012 NBA Draft…’

“With the first pick in the 2012 NBA Draft….the Minnesota Timberwolves select Anthony Davis of the University of Kentucky.”

Nothing is set in stone (obviously), but we all could hear those words emanating from the mouth of NBA Commissioner David Stern sometime next June.

If there’s no NBA season this year, what becomes of the NBA Draft? How will the order be determined? Who gets the No. 1 overall pick?

Those are the questions crossing more and more people’s minds after the league cancelled all games through the end of November.

If the NHL lockout of 2004-05 is any indication, the NBA could base its ping-pong ball setup on the previous three seasons results.

For the 2005 NHL Draft, the league settled on a lottery system in which all teams had a weighted chance at the first pick, which was expected to be Sidney Crosby. The lottery was tilted so teams with fewer playoff appearances over the last three seasons and fewer No. 1 overall picks over the last four seasons had a better chance of landing higher picks.

Our crack staff here at ZAGSBLOG crunched the numbers and below is the list of how a potential NBA Draft order would look based solely on regular season results over the last three complete NBA seasons. Some sort of tiebreaker would have to be put into place for the teams with the same records.

For fun, we matched the players on the DraftExpress.com 2012 Mock Draft board with the respective teams based on their three-year results.

So who can we expect to see go where?

Davis, the 6-foot-10 freshman at Kentucky, is projected by DraftExpress.com to go as the No. 1 overall pick in 2012.

Adrian Wojnarowki of Yahoo! Sports tweeted Sunday that he spoke to an NBA scout who called Davis the “most talented, most complete” frosh big man he’s seen in a decade.

Based solely on the DraftExpress.com order, UConn’s Andre Drummond would then go No. 2 to the Sacramento Kings, North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes No. 3 to the Washington Wizards, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger No. 4 to the New Jersey Nets and Baylor’s Perry Jones No. 5 to the L.A. Clippers.

The Knicks? They traded their pick to Houston in the Tracy McGrady deal, but would get Florida center Patric Young at No. 9.

**PROJECTED 2012 NBA DRAFT ORDER BASED ON PREVIOUS THREE YEARS’ RESULTS** 

1. Minnesota Timberwolves – 56-190 (Anthony Davis, Kentucky)

2. Sacramento Kings – 66-180 (Andre Drummond, UConn)

3. Washington Wizards – 68-178 (Harrison Barnes, North Carolina)

4. New Jersey Nets – 70-176 (Jared Sullinger, Ohio State)

5. Los Angeles Clippers – 80-166 (Perry Jones, Baylor)

6. Golden State Warriors – 91-155 (Thomas Robinson, Kansas)

7. Toronto Raptors – 95-151 (Quincy Miller, Baylor)

8. Detroit Pistons – 96-150 (Michael GIlchrist, Kentucky)

9. Houston Rockets via New York Knicks – 103-143 (Patric Young, Florida)

10. Indiana Pacers – 105-141 (Austin Rivers, Duke)

11. Philadelphia 76ers – 109-137 (John Henson, North Carolina)

12. Memphis Grizzlies – 110-136 (Terrence Jones, Kentucky)

13. Charlotte Bobcats – 113-133 (Jeremy Lamb, UConn)

14. Milwaukee Bucks – 115-131 (Tyler Zeller, North Carolina)

15. Oklahoma City Thunder – 128-118 (Mason Plumlee, Duke)

16. New Orleans Hornets – 132-114 (Festus Ezeli, Vanderbilt)

17. Houston Rockets – 138-108 (LeBryan Nash, Oklahoma State)

18(t). Utah Jazz – 140-106 (Marquis Teague, Kentucky or Jeff Taylor, Vanderbilt)

18(t). Phoenix Suns – 140-106 (Teague or Taylor)

20(t). Chicago Bulls – 144-102 (Evan Fournier, Poiters, International or Mouph Yarou, Villanova)

2o(t). Atlanta Hawks – 144-102 (Fournier or Yarou)

22. Cleveland Cavaliers – 146-100 (Tomas Satoransky, Sevilla, International)

23. Miami Heat – 148-98 (C.J. Leslie, N.C. State)

24. Portland Trail Blazers – 152-94 (Khris Middleton, Texas A&M)

25. Denver Nuggets – 157-89 (Darius Johnson-Odom, Marquette)

26. Dallas Mavericks – 162-84 (Kendall Marshall, North Carolina)

27. San Antonio Spurs – 165-81 (John Jenkins, Vanderbilt)

28. Boston Celtics – 168-78 (Leon Radosevic, Milano, International)

29. Orlando Magic – 170-76 (Augusto Cesar Lima, Granada, International)

30. L.A. Lakers – 179-67 (Nemanja Nedovic, KK Crvena Zvezda, International)