NBA owners and representatives from the National Basketball Players Association met last week and failed to make significant headway on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The good news is that both sides are still talking. The bad news is that they seem to be at a tough impasse on the question of a hard salary cap. The owners are still pushing for it and the players are uniformly against it.

There is some optimism among both players and owners that an agreement can be reached soon. However, there are several league sources -- among both ownership and the players -- who continue to maintain that if a deal isn't reached soon, there's a good possibility that the entire season could be lost.

If the lockout takes away the entire season, it will undoubtedly have a number of devastating ramifications. One that I'm asked about on a daily basis is: What happens to the 2012 NBA draft if there is no season? Can there still be a draft? Who would get the No. 1 pick?