NBA draft - Beasley and Rose vying to be top pick
Too early to think about NBA odds? Not with the NBA draft taking place Thursday night. It will be awhile before online sports betting fans are making any selections, but it's never to early to think about next season. Today, our online sportbook Betting Edge will examine some of the draft's top candidates.
Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley are the favorites to go first overall. No one seems sure who the Bulls will take with the top-pick. Rose, a point guard, is a Chicago native and would bring some impressive speed to the lineup. Beasley is a talented big man who can change a game by himself, and the Heat would get a nice consolation prize if he fell to No. 2 overall. Some action might happen since a trade at both of these spots is a possibility, though it seems increasingly likely both Chicago and Miami will retain their picks.
There's a cluster of players in the next tier that are relatively close in talent and production. Seven-footer Robin Lopez has been getting a lot of love recently. The Stanford product is a true center with a nice scoring touch. Any team looking for size—Minnesota at No. 3 and Memphis at No. 5 are good bets—would love to get him on the floor.
Kevin Love is another possibility for teams looking to beef up their interior. Love can defend and pass, and he has a solid scoring touch too. He'll likely reward a team that reaches for him a little early. Being a top-five pick isn't out of the question for the 6'10” forward. After Beasley and Lopez, Love is a nice gamble for a big man.
O.J. Mayo would give a team a nice combo-guard option. Mayo was solid in his only year at USC, and another season in college probably would have turned him into a first-overall pick. Some forecasters have Mayo going late in the top-10, but odds are a team will get excited by his potential and snap him up sooner. Another guard many teams are coveting is Russell Westbrook. The former UCLA Bruin has quickly shot up draft boards, going from a mid-round pick to potentially the top-five. Westbrook brings great defense to the table and he could grow into a true point guard.
Another guard might sneak his way into the top-five and almost assuredly will be a top-10 pick when Eric Gordon is selected. Gordon played just one season at Indiana but impressed with his scoring ability. He's not without his flaws, but any team looking for a pure scorer at guard should gladly scoop him up. Gordon will have to compete with Jerryd Bayless for draft position. Bayless is also a big-time scorer, and many have him going fourth to the Sonics, where he and Kevin Durant would form a great tandem. Bayless can defend, too.
Lots can happen on draft day, and there will be no shortage of twists and surprises. Thursday should provide some nice insight into where teams are heading in the future; essentially, sports bettors can use the NBA draft to help shape their basketball picks in the coming months.
Craig Parsons is an avid sports fan, but his true love has always been basketball. Too short to realize his dream of playing in the NBA, he did the next best thing? Sports betting and covering basketball for a living. Thoughts or questions?
