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Reviewing The Draft By Ron Jumper The draft really shook up the NBA in more ways than a typical draft does. Normally, there are a handful of players that create a little bit of a buzz and a few picks exchange places, with an expiring contract thrown in here and there along the way. Not this year. We could talk enough about Greg Oden and Kevin Durant alone to make an intriguing draft article, but that doesn’t even begin to talk about what teams like Boston, Charlotte, and New York did. Not to mention the Atlanta Hawks draft, as there was much speculation as to what route they would take. Then it comes full circle back to the Portland Trailblazers, who were very active wheeling and dealing throughout the entire draft. As you can see, we have much to discuss. There was a lot of trade talk going into the draft about what would happen with KG, Kobe, and Amare, as well as a few other names. All of the teams involved weren’t able to work anything out by the time of the draft but that doesn’t mean the trade talk has cooled any. So how did the draft affect any future trade scenarios? Starting with KG, Minnesota took Corey Brewer with the 7th pick. By taking Brewer instead of a big man, it leaves two options open for the Timberwolves: first, they want to get a package with Jermaine O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire, or Al Jefferson in return for Garnett; second, they are trying to add pieces around Garnett to entice him to resign down the road. While I’m not big on Brewer, he is ready to contribute now as opposed to having to develop him for down the road. Could have gotten more value in my opinion, but they at least picked the right position. For McHale, that’s something to be proud of. Moving on to Kobe, the Lakers had a terrible draft. I hated the Javaris Crittenton pick. It makes no sense. As Mark Jackson explained, the Lakers run the triangle offense, which doesn’t use a point guard virtually at all. After the first pass of the triangle offense, every player plays every spot at some point or another. It is what I refer to as a “Continuity Offense.” Once in the flow of the offense, Crittenton still doesn’t fit because he can’t shoot and he turned the ball over at a high rate while playing for Georgia Tech. There second round pick was Marc Gasol, a bruiser who some had going into the first round. Not a terrible pick, but he doesn’t really fit in the triangle either. (My only logical explanation is that the Lakers really are planning to trade Kobe. That has two effects: short term and long term. The short term is there is no telling what kind and how many pieces it will take to work out a trade for Kobe. The long term is that once Kobe is gone and the Lakers rebuild, Phil Jackson is not going to remain as coach after his deal is done at the end of the 07/08 season. This is why I think they were simply just taking the best player available and hoping they will fit into whatever the plan/system is three years from now. Stay tuned for more Lakers madness to come…) The Phoenix Suns are driving me crazy. They just are wasting draft pick after draft pick for “cash considerations.” I understand that you save a lot of money by doing this, you save about $5 million by not paying the drafted player for 3 years plus whatever cash was “considered” in the deal. From a business perspective, you got to do what you got to do. However, as a fan, it is frustrating. If they seriously want KG, wouldn’t it make sense to have as many young pieces as possible to throw at Minnesota, Boston, Atlanta, or whoever is involved in the trade? While making that extra cash is great, it could be the reason they never hoist a championship trophy. The drafting of Alando Tucker puzzled me to no end as well. Do they really think he is going to fit into their system after playing for Wisconsin, the slowest paced team to ever play college basketball? Wisconsin wasn’t just slow compared to the average college team, they were a slow Big Ten team. That’s like being the fattest kid at fat camp and then wanting to make the track team. (I was frustrated last year when they didn’t make anything out of their 2 first round draft picks. I really wanted them to take Marcus Williams and/or Josh Boone. Those guys would have been tremendous for them this year. Instead, they trade one pick for cash and the other for an ’07 draft pick. Basically ending up with nothing. Imagine if they had Marcus Williams instead of Marcus Banks and his bloated salary. Imagine if they’d had Josh Boone on the roster ready to step into the rotation for Game 5 of the Spurs series when Amare and Diaw were out. Not saying they would have beat the Spurs, but those 2 would have helped.) Good Drafts Atlanta Hawks They did it! They finally drafted a point guard! There is hope after all. I was cringing as their 11th pick came up, I could almost just hear the name Al Thornton or Julian Wright about to come off David Stern’s tongue. The combination of Horford and Law will help the Hawks tremendously and, go ahead and mark it down now, push the Hawks into the playoffs next season. Go ahead and give me your best Jim Mora expression. (Playoffs?!) People forget the Hawks were almost in the playoffs last year with the unbelievable amount of injuries they suffered. Gotta love the Eastern Conference… Boston Celtics While the moves they made received mixed reviews, I liked what they did. The Celtics didn’t need another young SF or PF (See: Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, and Leon Powe), so I think getting an All-Star SG like Ray Allen in return was a bargain. You also have to remember that they didn’t want Wally, getting rid of him and his contract was a relief. They liked Delonte West, but considering they have Rondo makes it easier to swallow. The additional second round, which turned into Glen Davis, was icing on the cake. For 2007/08, their roster will look something like: PG Rajon Rondo SG Ray Allen SF Paul Pierce PF Al Jefferson C Kendrick Perkins or Glen Davis That isn’t too bad when you consider they also drafted PG Gabe Pruit and have Gerald Green, Tony Allen, and Ryan Gomes coming off the bench. The biggest thing for them is the health of Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, if they can get 140 games between the two of them I see them being in the hunt for the playoffs. (Before you rip me for making these assessments that Atlanta and Boston could make the playoffs, remember that it doesn’t even take a .500 record to qualify for the postseason these days. Also, consider teams like Orlando and New Jersey could take significant steps backwards depending how free agency plays out.) Charlotte Bobcats They made the biggest steal of the night in my opinion. Getting Jason Richardson in return for the #8 pick is almost criminal. Bobcats GM Michael Jordan made the best move of his front office career, granted that beat out…well…I’m sure he has accomplished something somewhere during his tenures in the Washington and Charlotte front offices. The Bobcats now have their superstar to build the offense around in Richardson. They have the point guard of the future (Raymond Felton), a shooter (Adam Morrison), and a great shot blocker/rebounder (Emeka Okafor) to compliment J-Rich, who I believe is still a top 20 player in the league when healthy. J-Rich can shoot the three, the mid-range jumper, and he won the dunk contest for goodness’ sake! (More on this from Golden State’s point of view shortly.) They also did the smart thing by taking Jared Dudley, who is a nice insurance in case Gerald Wallace doesn’t return to the team. Detroit Pistons The Pistons didn’t need anymore help inside, as they have Rasheed Wallace, Chris Webber, Antonio McDyess, Nazr Mohammed, Jason Maxiell, and Amir Johnson (who is currently tearing up the D-League). Taking Rodney Stuckey gives you a combo guard who can shoot, defend, and create his own shot. I have been on this guy since his freshman season at Eastern Washington, where he torched the Big Sky conference (he also made me a fortune with the Spreadsheet). The Aaron Afflalo pick makes perfect sense as well. He is tough and plays great defense, as well as being a consistent shooter. Remind you of anyone? (Hint: He used to play for the Pistons in the 80’s and is now a member of the front office.) Philadelphia 76ers They added several nice pieces with their multiple draft picks. Thaddeous Young was a player I liked and couldn’t see why some scouts said his stock was dropping. Young will be a great SF for them in 2 or 3 years. Taking Jason Smith was a nice pick as well, he will play the PF position for them. Smith can shoot from the perimeter and should compliment Samuel Dalembert and Steven Hunter nicely. I wasn’t high on the Derrick Byars trade, they needed the guy they gave up for him (PG Petteri Koponen, Finland). I think it made perfect sense, as Koponen was probably going to stay in Europe one more season and that should have been fine with Philly because they have Andre Miller. I like Byars, but he doesn’t fit in Philly because they already have Iggy, Rodney Carney, and Thaddeous Young on the wing. Getting Hebert Hill is a wonderful value in the second round, as he should make the roster. Portland Trailblazers They added Greg Oden, that makes the draft a success right there. However, from that point on I think the Trailblazers got confused and thought they were playing NBA Live ’08. I just don’t see what they are going to do with a whopping 5 rookies. They already are developing Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge, Martell Webster, Sergio Rodriguez, and Joel Freeland so adding Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Petteri Koponen, Josh McRoberts, and Taurean Green makes them an incredibly young team. Add in that they got Channing Frye from the Knicks in the Randolph trade and they have 11 players on the roster with 2 years or less of NBA experience on the roster. Down the road, they could be amazing. However, right now Nate McMullin has an 82 game headache coming, as he teaches these youngsters the ropes. I hated the Knicks trade. Portland could have gotten a lot more for Zach Randolph than what they did. Steve Francis has a huge contract and hasn’t done much as of late. Channing Frye is a nice player, but where is he going to get minutes with Oden and Aldridge? They should have worked out a sign and trade for either Rashard Lewis or Gerald Wallace. That would have solidified their roster, as SF is the only position they are lacking a building block for the future. San Antonio Spurs The Spurs make another great international pick. Getting Tiago Splitter, who I had going much higher, was a wonderful pick for several reasons. Besides having tremendous upside, he will stay in Europe for one more season before joining the roster, giving him time to develop. The Spurs don’t need him right now, so why not take him? They’ve struck international gold before late in the draft (Parker and Ginobili). Getting Marcus Williams at 33 was a bargain. In a typical draft, Williams would have been a lottery pick so getting him this far back is a bargain. Expect him to learn under Michael Finley and Bruce Bowen for a few years, and then contribute down the road. Bad Drafts Golden State While down the road Brandan Wright will be a good player, GM Chris Mullin has to take a look at the bigger picture. The Warriors made the playoffs last season and looked to really turn the corner. Now, losing Richardson and taking another youngster to develop takes them back a notch or two. If it was me, I would have tried to build on what we did last year. I would be thinking, “Wow, if we have that roster together for a full season we would really do some damage.” I think Mullins forgot that they finished the season 9-1 once they got healthy and used to playing with one another. Oh yeah, and they knocked out the #1 seed DALLAS MAVERICKS in the first Round!! Killing me, Mullins. Killing me. Houston Rockets Probably had the worst draft of all the NBA teams. They made no sense with anything they did. They reached to take a 5’11” PG who will soon be 4th string. I like Aaron Brooks, but where does he fit when they already have Mike James, Luther Head, and Rafer Alston? Would have been much smarter to take Josh McRoberts, Glen Davis, or Marcus Williams. Los Angeles Lakers (See Kobe Section Above) Milwaukee Bucks What were they thinking? First off, Yi doesn’t want to be in Milwaukee and his people are demanding he be traded. Secondly, they don’t need Yi. They already have Charlie Villanueva and Andrew Bogut in the frontcourt. Add in Yi and they the prissiest frontcourt in the entire league! Not a single one of them blocks shots, rebounds, or even regularly scores in the paint. They all shoot jump shots and are defensive liabilities. Hey, hopefully Michael Redd will stay healthy and score 40 every night. One can always hope… They really should have traded down and took a point guard, as they lost Earl Boykins and Mo Williams hasn’t been resigned yet. Getting an extra second round pick to take someone like Taurean Green would have made much more sense. (On a side note, I could see Yi going to L.A. since his people want him in a big market. It would make sense to do something like: Yi for Crittenton, Kwame, and an extra draft pick in 2008.) Phoenix Suns (See Amare Section Above) Seattle Supersonics The Sonics are rebuilding, so they did the right thing letting Ray Allen go. However, they just could have gotten more out of that number 5 pick than another SF. Maybe they are making it perfectly clear they don’t want Rashard Lewis back nor do they need him. None the less, Durant and Green will be fun to watch. They also took on Wally’s contract, which was something the Celtics were jumping for joy to get rid of. I don’t see what good he does, as he keeps them from having enough cap room to land a big time free agent. I like Delonte West, but where is he going to play for the Sonics? They already have Ridnour, Livingston, Watson, and Wilks on the depth chart. How does that help them? Why wouldn’t they demand like Kendrick Perkins or Tony Allen, who could actually help them? I give up on Seattle… July 2, 2007 |
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Jumpology: My Bracket Jumpology: Scouting The Heavyweights Jumpology: Reviewing The Bracket
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