The NBA draft consists of 2 rounds with 30 picks in each round.
Normally every team would have one pick in the first and one in the second.
A lot of NBA teams trade draft picks for players, cash, or other draft picks, so some teams could end up with more then 2 picks (awesome), 1 pick, or even no picks which would be sad.
In 1985, the NBA established the draft lottery to determine the order of selection in the draft for the 14 teams that missed the playoffs.
14 ping pong balls are put in a lottery machine and then various combinations are given out to the 14 teams, the most to the team with the worst record, and the fewest to the team with the best record that got left out of the playoffs.
This year, Minnesota had the worst record, so they had the best chance of winning the lottery.
The Timber wolves ended up winning the lottery and securing the first overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft which is loaded with talented ballers from College and a few amazing basketball players from Europe and Asia.
Now with the one and done rule in full force, most of the best U.S prep basketball players go to their picked college for a year and then depart for the NBA even if they didn't achieve the success that they wanted to in college.
This upcoming draft features a lot of one and done college studs, some star college players who played more then one year, 2 major International prospects, and many more players who want a shot at being in the NBA.
The prospect whom most experts think the T Wolves will select number one is Karl Anthony Towns. He's a power-forward/center out of Kentucky who was part of the magical team that started 38-0 before falling in the Final 4. He has a ton of upside and is capable of turning into a big time threat on offense, and a rim protector on defense.
Mock drafts predict that Jahlil Okafor, a one and done center from Duke will go 2nd to the Lakers. Coming out of high school, Okafor was the top rated recruit in his class. He certainly lived up to his ranking by dominating opponents with his advanced arsenal of offensive moves in the post and eventually leading Duke to a national title.
Deangelo Russell will probably go number 3 to Philadelphia because they traded away Michael Carter Williams last year and they need more explosiveness in the back court. Russell certainly provides that as he was the best guard in college basketball last year. He can put up the points and the assists so he profiles as a combo guard that can either play point guard or shooting guard.
The other guard expected to go early is Emanuel Mudiay. He's a former top recruit who originally was going to play for SMU, but then backed off and went overseas to play on a Chinese team. Mudiay has all the intagibles to be a star lead guard in the NBA, but I think that he needs to get more experience since he got injured in China and didn't finish the season.
2 more big men that will go early are Willie Cauley Stein who's a beast rim protector/defender from Kentucky.
BTW-7 Kentucky basketball players entered the draft early. Isn't that crazy!
The best international prospect is Kristaps Porzingis, a 7-1 power forward from Latvia who can shoot the three and protect the rim.
He plays like Frank Kaminsky of Wisconsin (another 1st round prospect), but Kristaps is better because he's younger and has more upside.
These players will go 1-6, but I'm not sure about which teams will pick which players and I won't know until the draft actually happens.
For people looking for wings there are plenty of options in this draft.
The two best American wings are Justice Winslow of Duke and Stanley Johnson of Arizona. These two are big black boys that can defend well and lead their team in scoring.
Mario Hezonjia is a Croatian wing that is a big time scorer.
These three will all go somewhere in the first 10 picks.
The Warriors who are going for their first NBA title in 40 years tonight, pick at 30.
They don't have a glaring need so they're probably going to draft another shooter or a fowerd in case Draymond Green leaves which I don't think will happen.
Overall this draft class has a ton of talented athletes that are waiting for the chance to get to the NBA and leave their imprint on the league.
It will be an exciting night where we will witness the next generation of players entering the NBA.
http://www.nbadraft.net/2015mock_draft
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