Terry Gilliam / AP

The race for Ohio State's Greg Oden, or Texas' Kevin Durant, will be heated in the NBA.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS (19-33)
It’s a race to see which will be worse — the Bobcats’ winning percentage (.365), or rookie Adam Morrison’s shooting percentage (.377).

Charlotte, despite injuries in its frontcourt to Sean May and Othella Harrington, improved on a 7-21 start, although losing five out of seven going into the All-Star break might help put them back in No. 1 pick contention. Charlotte has enough good, young talent that Oden, in particular, could make a huge difference here, allowing Emeka Okafor to play power forward, and getting another pair of hands to rebound Morrison’s clangs.

Outlook for Oden or Durant: Charlotte would help itself by playing Morrison more, instead of keeping him out of the starting lineup in favor of Matt Carroll.

SEATTLE SONICS (20-32)
Seattle won three out of four going into the All-Star break, including one over the Steve Nash- and Boris Diaw-less Phoenix Suns. But it has shown its losing mettle with losing streaks of six, five and five. Plus, the Sonics could collapse under the strain of, where are we playing next year? Then again, maybe it’s not that much strain — they’ll be playing in Oklahoma City, home to the Sonics’ new owner. It’s not just that the Sonics’ latest arena proposal (on Feb. 13) got rejected. It’s also that Washington House Speaker Frank Chopp gave the Sonics the Dikembe Mutombo finger-wag: "I’m sorry, but the education of our kids is simply a much higher priority." (As an aside, that arena would have been on land owned by Boeing, which also abandoned Seattle when another city — Chicago, in this case — stole from its children to lavish tax money on a corporation.)

Outlook for Oden or Durant: Even making up the seven games Seattle is ahead, er, behind Memphis is a tough task. Especially if the team does some sort of last-chance, go-out-with-a-bang rally as seen in "Slap Shot" or "Major League."

ATLANTA HAWKS (21-31)
For the Hawks, a 21-31 record is cause for celebration. In its playoff-free 2000s, Atlanta only once (in 2003) has finished with a better winning percentage than its current .403. The Hawks opened the season hot (in Atlanta terms) at 8-9, and then dropped 14 of its next 16. Atlanta has rallied to go 11-8 since then, including winning three of four on a West Coast trip going into the All-Star break. One win was over the Nash-less Suns, who are really screwing up the bottom of the NBA pile. Atlanta should be bad enough to make the lottery, but decent enough to stay out of the very bottom. But given how awful the Hawks have been for so long, it seems like an insult not to include them here.

Outlook for Oden or Durant: Not so good. But even if the Hawks got one of the first two picks, you can’t always expect them to do the sure thing.

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