On the All-Rookie teams only 6 lottery picks made it. There are 14 lottery spots. Guess which team had two lottery picks and no All-Rookie team members?

First Team:

Second and "Nope" team after the jump!

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The 2007 draft was epoch changing. It ushered in a new-era of ballers who would have huge impacts upon the league. Greg Oden had been a huge news story. Kevin Durant has become a super star. Al Horford has battled injured to be a second coming of Alonzo Mourning. Yi Jianlian was a terror against stationary chairs in a closed gym. Joakim Noah was the heart of his college team, and playing in a huge market. Even the latter 1st rounders all brought something special, like Marco Belinelli, Wilson Chandler, Rudy Fernandez, Arron Afflalo -- all guys who are legit wings in this league. The second round included Carl Landry, Glen Davis (Big Baby), Josh McRoberts, Kyrylo Fesenko, Marc Gasol, Aaron Gray, and Ramon Sessions. This was, in one way, a stacked draft.

Tom Ziller took a look at it and re-graded the performance of each team, based upon what more information we have now in 2012 -- nearly five years later.

UTAH JAZZ
Morris Almond (25), Kyrylo Fesenko (38)
Grade: C

We're in the no-fault zone of the draft now, but there shouldn't be any credit given for Almond, who has never made it. Fesenko, though hilarious, hasn't done much either.

Check the link here for the full story. And of course, the full 2007 draft can be found here.

Say what you will about Golden State Warriors Head Coach suggesting before this last season that his team would make the playoffs . . . and say what you will about how he let his team from being in the thick of things in the playoff chase down to the middle of the lottery . . . but you can't deny the fact that Mark Jackson is kind of a jerk.

Well, here's how the cookie crumbles, er, how the lotto balls work.

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

The Warriors will keep their pick if they either win the lotto and jump up to one of the Top 3 picks (12.7% chance), or retain their spot (60.0% chance). Of course, they'll relinquish their pick to us if a team leapfrogs them and pushes them down to #8 or worse. As the chart shows, there's a 27.4% chance that happens.

Which is think is pretty fair. We can take Golden State's #1st round lotto pick next year if we don't get it this year. It doesn't vanish into think air if we don't get it. It's not like the amnesty rules or all those trade exemptions we get. No, those things do expire and vanish into thin air. So, in closing. Mark Jackson is a jerk, and we have assets to use even if we don't get in the lottery from this pick.

Yes, I don't often link to stuff on other blogs -- and it is something I feel like I should change. Especially when it is something that directly talks about the coveted Utah Jazz *maybe lottery pick that the Golden State Warriors owe us. We talked about Karma a few days ago. Well, today Warriors beat writer / sport reporter Tim Kawakami talks about the Warriors pick and Karma as well.

It's worth a read. Check it out here.

It is being reported online (via twitter -- in your face newpapers) that the Golden State Tankers won their coin flip; which means that the Jazz need a team to leap frog Golden State during the lottery in order to retain the pick. Either way . . . (we get their pick, or we don't get a pick via the draft lottery) we'll be okay.

Why?

Because I believe in Karma . . .

. . . Karma O'Connor

Today we have all the coin flips for NBA draft lottery ties . . .

We have all heard the expression of having a cake, and also having the desire to eat said cake. Logically you can only have one or the other. Unless of course, you have two cakes. The Utah Jazz, this season, have a chance to have two cakes: be in the playoffs, and have a lottery pick. At the same time.

Yes, Kevin O'Connor has somehow positioned the Utah Jazz to have their cake and eat it too.

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Raptors HQ is doing something similar to our "while you were sleeping" bit . . . but it's called the Power Tankings. It's clever and smart. And it makes me breathe a little bit easier about the Golden State Warriors Pick we may own. Check it out here.

via Raptors HQ assets.sbnation.com