Draft day: Is Rose blooming?

They both are taking over teams that are used to being Eastern Conference playoff contenders who had miserable, underachieving seasons. Yet they both still have enough talent on their clubs that improvement appears inevitable.

Plus, they will both get to add a quality rookie. The Bulls and Heat have the top two picks in tonight's NBA draft. Barring a trade or something unexpected, it looks like University of Memphis point guard Derrick Rose will wind up in Chicago, while the Heat will get big man Michael Beasley of Kansas State or star guard O.J. Mayo of USC. All of those three will be prime candidates for the Rookie of the Year award in the 2008-09 campaign.

Here's a look at how the first round could turn out and a little information about the top candidates:

1. Chicago Bulls — Derrick Rose (Memphis)
The scouting report: Most feel that Rose will do for his NBA team, most likely the Bulls, what Deron Williams and Chris Paul have done for the Jazz and Hornets — make their teams better immediately. The 6-3 point guard makes others around him better and he led the Tigers to the national championship game in his only season as a collegian, averaging 14.9 points and 4.7 assists on a star-studded team.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves — O.J. Mayo (USC)
The scouting report: Mayo is a tremendously gifted athlete who can do a little bit of everything and at 6-5, figures to play both guard position in the NBA. One knock on him is that he's been treated like a star his whole life, he changed high schools three times and comes across as having some character issues. Still, he proved he could play big-time college basketball in his only season, averaging 20.7 points, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the Trojans.

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