While the nation focuses on the battle between Dallas and Miami, 28 other teams are focused some place else: The draft that takes place immediately following the Finals.

With less than 20 shopping days to go, the picture is beginning to sharpen, narrowing the list of possibilities for both local teams. Of course, the Knicks could have had anybody they wanted had they just included lottery protection on the draft pick in the Eddy Curry trade, but we’ve already lamented that many times. Let’s look on the bright side, shall we? Thanks to Isiah Thomas’s willingness to take on the unwieldy contracts of players named for flowers, the Knicks still have two late first-round picks. They’ll select at no. 20 thanks to this spring’s Jalen Rose trade, and at no. 29 courtesy of the 2005 deal for Malik Rose.

New Jersey also has two first-rounders, picking at no. 22 with a choice obtained from Denver in the Kenyon Martin sign-and-trade and again at no. 23 with its own pick. The Nets also own a late second-round pick, at no. 54.

Overall, then, it’s a big draft for the local teams. But it’s still too early to pinpoint which players will be picked where, and therefore to prognosticate who the Knicks and Nets might choose 20 picks in. We do have enough information, however, to discern the overarching trends, and with that in mind let’s take a closer look at this year’s major themes.

There’s no surefire superstar. The Toronto Raptors won the draft lottery, but as far as no.1 picks go, this year looks more like a Kenyon Martin year than a Tim Duncan year. The best candidate, high-schooler Greg Oden, has to go college for a year thanks to the revised rules in the league’s collective bargaining agreement. The next-best prospect, Florida center Joakim Noah, doesn’t need the money, and decided that another year of frat parties and southern sunshine would be preferable to spending a lonely February in Toronto.

As a result, several players have a chance to be the top pick, but none is a lock for stardom. Rumor has it that the Raptors favor Italian forward Andrea Bargnani, a 6-foot-11-inch shooter advertised as the Next Nowitzki. But Toronto may not keep the pick (more on that in a minute), which places several other players into the picture. There’s LSU’s Tyrus Thomas, a 6-foot-9-inch jumping jack who exploded in the NCAA tournament. There’s Gonzaga’s 6-foot-9-inch Adam Morrison, who owns a deadly jump shot and a creepy dead-caterpillar moustache. And there’s 6-foot-11-inch LaMarcus Aldridge out of Texas, probably the closest thing to a true center among the elite prospects. The choice will likely come down to which team ends up with the pick. Speaking of which …

Look for a lot of dealing. Most of the teams picking near the top want to move down, and many of the teams with multiple picks want to move up. That should create a fecund environment for draft day wheeling and dealing. The Raptors and Bulls own the top two picks, but each of them would prefer adding a single veteran star to their young nuclei over teaching another rookie the ropes – and each has the cap space to make something very big happen on that front.

Of the other teams in the top 10, only Charlotte and Portland are downtrodden enough to prefer rebuilding through the draft over potentially quicker fixes. They may not stay put either, though – each might want to trade up to no. 1, for instance.

Conversely, teams like the Nets and Knicks could look to package their picks in a bid to move up. This might be especially enticing for the Nets if Bradley 7-footer Patrick O’Bryant is still on the board 10 picks in or so.

Furthermore, several teams may try to swing bigger deals that put them higher in the lottery. For instance, if Indiana decides to blow things up this summer, the rumored deal of Jermaine O’Neal to Atlanta could land the Pacers the no. 5 pick, among other goodies. Memphis, Philadelphia, and Seattle are other clubs that might look to move up this way.

Small is in. While most drafts tend to fixate on size, this one could see 10 or more players 6-foot-4 or smaller go in the first round. The point guard crowd doesn’t have a standout, but it’s unusually deep: Connecticut’s Marcus Williams, Villanova’s Kyle Lowry, UCLA’s Jordan Farmar, Kentucky’s Rajan Rondo, Spain’s Sergio Rodriguez, and Temple’s Mardy Collins all look like first-rounders.

What puts the little guys over the top, though, is the recent rule changes and the success of teams like Phoenix in pushing the pace with smaller lineups. Two years ago, Villanova’s Randy Foye would have been a hard sell as a 6-foot-3 shooting guard. This year, he’s a top-10 pick. Same goes for Rutgers’ 6-foot-3 Quincy Douby, Michigan State’s 6-foot-3-inch Shannon Brown, and 6-foot-4 Maurice Ager, and Duke’s 6-foot-4 J.J. Redick. All are likely to go in the first round, with Redick and Foye headed for the lottery.

Collegians are back in vogue. Highschoolers are no longer an issue thanks to the recent rule change on eligibility, and the recent trend toward more international drafts is taking a brief U-turn this year. Among foreigners, only Bargnani, Rodriguez, and Ukrainian forward Oleksiy Pecherov are locks for the first round.

It’s not just the early-entry types, either – experience is making a comeback. As many as five seniors (!) could go in the lottery, after a total of four went that high the previous two years. Plus, only one projected first-rounder – Memphis’s Shawne Williams – is a “one and done” freshman. (Tyrus Thomas, though listed as a freshman, was forced to redshirt a year ago.

This may not be a draft that sets pulses racing, but what it lacks in quality at the top it makes up for in quality in the middle. For the two local clubs, that may be the best news of all. With four picks in the 20s between them, the odds of multiple quality rookies coming on to the local scene are looking good.

Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast. He can be reached at jhollinger@nysun.com.