Greg Oden of Ohio State University smiles at a news conference after being selected as the first overall pick by the Portland Trailblazers at the 2007 NBA Draft at Madison Square Garden, in New York, on Thursday night. - Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters):

THE PORTLAND Trailblazers and Seattle SuperSonics ushered in a changing of the guard in the NBA's Pacific Northwest while Milwaukee gambled on the promise of China's Yi Jianlian at the 2007 NBA Draft.

Portland welcomed aboard Ohio State centre Greg Oden with the top pick in the draft on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden and later cleared out room under the basket by dealing troubled power forward Zach Randolph to the New York Knicks.

The Sonics followed their West Coast neighbours by taking the draft's other bona-fide blue chipper, high-scoring Texas forward Kevin Durant, and opening the floor for him by moving shooting guard Ray Allen in a package to the Boston Celtics.

Cream of the crop

Seven-foot (2.13m) centre Oden and the versatile Durant were widely acclaimed as the cream of the crop of a deep draft that excluded United States players coming directly from high school after an NBA rule change.

Oden, Durant and a host of others selected after their freshmen year in college should be better prepared to contribute, once they hit the floor in the NBA.

Portland (32-50) and Seattle (31-51), at the bottom of the Northwest Division, seemed to be expecting an immediate impact by shifting personnel around in Draft night deals.

Randolph, who has had numerous brushes with the law dating back to high school, including an arrest for gun possession, was sent with guards Fred Jones and Dan Dickau to New York in exchange for forward Channing Frye and guard Steve Francis.

Seattle dealt seven-time all-star Allen and the rights to second-round pick Glen Davis of Louisiana State to Boston for the rights to fifth pick swingman Jeff Green of Georgetown, guard Delonte West and forward Wally Szczerbiak.

The Milwaukee Bucks produced one of the biggest surprises of the draft by claiming China's beguiling strong forward Yi with the sixth pick of the first round.

Yi was the first of five international players taken in the first round. Another eight foreign players were selected in the second round, including Chinese guard Sun Yue by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 40th pick, 10th choice of the second round.

In all, 13 international players were selected, the fewest since 11 were chosen in the 2001 draft.