NBA Draft Picks

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The NBA Draft is an annual event that all 30 teams can select players to join the lease. Most of the time the players being drafted are from colleges and universities around the nation, but from time to time extremely talented players bypass the college level and skip straight to the NBA. In 2006 the NBA Draft included high school players gaining eligibility for draft selection one year after their graduating class has finished high school, but only if they also are at least 19 years of age as of the end of the calendar year of the draft. However, all basketball players are automatically eligible upon the end of their college eligibility. This age limit for draftees is part of the new collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players union.

All players who wish to be drafted, and are not automatically eligible, have to declare their eligibility no later than 60 days before the draft. After this date, all of the draftees may attend NBA pre-draft camps and individual team workouts to show off their skills and obtain feedback from the camps teams put on.

When a player is selected in the first round of the draft, the team that selected him is required to sign him to at least a three-year contract. Teams own the rights to players selected in the second round for three years, but the teams are not required to sign them.

Talk over where players will rank in the NBA Draftis posted on many of the web's NBA Draft Forums. These forums have no official impact on the results of the draft, but experts do give their picks and analysis for how a player with match up with a team that will possibly draft them.

Many times you can find an NBA Mock Draft, which is fairly reliable, and they have a very professional opinion on how the draft would go down if it was to happen today. Most NBA Mock Drafts are done by profesisonal NBA analysts, but there are some unofficial mock drafts put together by ametuers. The NBA Pre-Draft camp is watched closely by the media and basketball fan public. You can find many websites updated same day notes on how players are performing at the NBA camps as well as player and staff interviews.

The official NBA Draft Picks are not always as simple as each team picking a player. With trades and other deals worked out by teams it is possible for some teams to have no first round draft picks, or teams to have multiple first round traft picks. In 2007, thanks to several trades, the Philadelphia 76ers had three first round draft picks. (And they need them after releasing Allen Iverson.)

The NBA Draft Lottery recently took place. Ping-pong balls and odds based on record determined the exact order that lottery teams -- teams that failed to qualify for the NBA Playoffs -- will pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Of course, many teams have traded their picks, so some selections go elsewhere.

To keep up with the latest NBA Draft Picks to help guide you in making profitable sports betting picks, be sure to check out the premium sports picks from Basketball Handicapper, Nick Jones.