NBA Draft: Blazers beat odds, win No. 1 pick

SECAUCUS, N.J. — The Portland Trail Blazers beat the odds and won the right to settle the Greg Oden-Kevin Durant debate.

With just a 5.3 percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick, the Blazers won the NBA's draft lottery Tuesday night, earning the right to draft a potential franchise player from what's considered to be an excellent class.

Represented by Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy, the Blazers got a head start on landing next year's top rookie. They will almost certainly choose between Oden, the Ohio State center, or Durant, Texas' high-scoring forward.

"They're going to help us right away," Roy said. "They can come into the NBA right away and play. I'm just excited about sitting back and knowing our general manager has the choice of drafting either Kevin Durant or Greg Oden. Either one, you can't go wrong. So I'm excited we have the opportunity to choose between the two."

The 7-foot Oden is the likely top pick, because dominant centers are harder to find.

Regardless of who goes No. 1, both players are likely headed to the Northwest, as Seattle also moved up into the second spot. Atlanta got the third pick — and needed it. Falling out of the top three would have meant sending the pick to Phoenix.

The lottery determined the top three spots, with the rest of the teams going in reverse order of a team's finish.

Memphis and Boston, which had the worst records in the league and the best chance of landing in the top two, slipped to fourth and fifth, respectively.

Milwaukee will go sixth, followed by Minnesota, Charlotte and Chicago, which had the rights to New York's pick through the Eddy Curry trade.

Sacramento goes 10th, followed by the Hawks, Philadelphia, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Clippers.

With Oden and Durant highlighting a draft that includes the core of Florida's consecutive NCAA championship teams, the June 28 draft in New York is expected to be one of the NBA's best in years.

"Tonight we're looking at what's probably going to be the deepest draft in a couple of decades," commissioner David Stern said earlier Tuesday.

Portland had a great draft night in 2006, landing Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge through trades. They won't need a deal this time thanks to some lottery luck.