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Anthony Davis headed back to where he helped UK win a title

spt-120530-draftlottery

Mike Miller

The last time Anthony Davis played in New Orleans, he won Most Outstanding Player after leading Kentucky to its eighth national title.

So maybe he won’t mind going back.

The New Orleans Hornets won the NBA draft lottery Wednesday night, claiming the No. 1 overall pick in 2012. They’ll almost certainly draft Davis, the national player of the year and the consensus top player available. It’ll help ease the rough transition from the Chris Paul era into one that’ll feature the most promising defenders to enter the NBA since Greg Oden. (Not that Davis is Oden. Fingers crossed. Now I feel badly for even associating Davis with Oden, the man with the worst knees in NBA history.)

Davis joins a roster without much pop – Paul solved so many of their problems – but with a strong scoring guard in Eric Gordon and hustle guys in Chris Kaman, Carl Landry and Trevor Ariza.

Hmmm. Good luck, Anthony.

After New Orleans, the order goes like this:

2. Charlotte Bobcats
3. Washington Wizards
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Sacramento Kings
6. Portland Trail Blazers (via Nets)
7. Golden State Warriors
8. Toronto Raptors
9. Detroit Pistons
10. New Orleans Hornets (via Minnesota)
11. Portland Trail Blazers
12. Milwaukee Bucks
13. Phoenix Suns
14. Houston Rockets

Apparently the Bobcats will be snagging Barnes (though at No. 2 or by trading down, I don’t know), which means the Wiz could give John Wall some instant help by taking either Bradley Beal or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Either would be better than what Washington has now.

Part of me is hoping Sacramento takes Andre Drummond and pairs him with DeMarcus Cousins to form a new version of the twin towers. Just one that would frustrate Kings fans to no end. That’d be amusing.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.