A Stern Word
by Rob
It’s only been a week and I’m ready to second guess myself. We’re still about three weeks away from the NBA Draft and things are starting to get shaken up. One of the biggest factors is just starting to rear its head: the young Euros pulling out of the draft because they aren’t promised a top 10 pick. Martynas Andriuskevicius was a surprise entrant into this draft because he had already admitted that he wasn’t ready to contribute in the NBA. Well, even though I have him projected as a top 5 pick, that’s not enough for him. What more could this guy want? He is reportedly considering heading back to Europe to continue working with Arvydas Sabonis. This could wind up being a brilliant move for both him and the NBA. I’m already a supporter of the “draft and follow” philosophy that Pistons have taken with Carlos Delfino and the Spurs did with Manu Ginobili. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t want to see the league full of Skita’s (aka Nikoloz Tskitishvili). I won’t force you to go read another article from NBA Insider, but Chad Ford wrote an interesting piece about how Skita changed the Draft two years when the Nuggets drafted a player with almost no game experience. If you can’t see the full impact in the form of Darko Milicic, how about Larry Brown’s job being on the line because Delfino doesn’t want to get buried on the bench as well. Not to harp on this issue because David Stern has openly supported the expansion of the NBDL already, but this league NEEDS a minor league system of some sort. Not to worry, this rant is over.
The other fantastic rumor about the Draft (and this just might mean that someone has been listening to me) is that Hawks are going to seriously try and trade up for Dwight Howard. Remember, I said that the Clippers need to trade this pick to get better value for their need in the backcourt and the Hawks need a franchise player. GM Billy Knight has said that he wouldn’t draft Howard just because he’s from the ATL. I don’t care why he drafts him; I want the Hawks to draft young and big. The Clippers would like to get some back court help and they could either use the #6 pick to take Devin Harris (or Ben Gordon is he’s there) and whatever else they get from the Hawks.
On to the Draft…
"I still believe it’s the Big Christian. By the way, this kid is in for some serious culture shock." So let’s look at where we are then. The Magic are taking Okafor even though McGrady is making more and more noise about wanting to get out and onto a winner right away. The problem is that no one can afford to trade for him, either because of cap room or a lack of talent to send back. Chicago is going with Luol Deng because John Paxson really believes that Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler are going to develop and they already have a floor general in Kirk Hinrich. Deng is going to be the Scottie Pippen of this team. He isn’t going to do anything exceptionally well, but he does enough of everything to make him invaluable.
As I’ve stated repeatedly, the Bobcats don’t want to take a high school player, so they won’t. I had Ben Gordon here, but apparently Bernie Bickerstaff has fallen in love with Josh Childress. I wasn’t that impressed with Childress last season, but sadly, no one has seen fit to let me run an NBA franchise. Apparently Andre Igoudala has looked incredible in workouts against other potential lottery picks. Like I said, no one can predict this pick effectively until the expansion draft, but for now, I will go with the rumors of Childress. I still contend that Wizards are going big because they have a huge log jam with Hughes, Arenas, Dixon, Blake, and try not to forget about Jerry Stackhouse. They took small forwards in the last two drafts, Jeffries and Hayes, and they’ve got next to nothing in the middle unless Kwame finally puts it together (and I truly believe that he will). This leaves us with an international big. I had Andriuskevicius here but I’m gonna go with the other hot name, Andris Biedrins. I think there are other guys that are going to turn into more impressive bigs in the NBA, but this is the hot name for the moment and we know how dumb GMs can be.
And here we are at the Hawks again. If they keep this pick, we’re still looking at Shaun Livingston. If the Clippers make the aforementioned trade, I think they’re going to take Ben Gordon. Personally, I don’t think this is a great choice for them and think they would be better served trying to lure Steve Nash to LA. This team has enough scorers already and really need a guy that will distribute the ball; I don’t think that’s going to be Gordon or Harris. The other school of thought is that the Hawks will take Josh Smith because he’s athletic, has an improving outside jumper, and, oh yeah, he’s from just outside Atlanta.
There are some fantastic rumors out there about Phoenix right now. There was some talk that they were going to try and bring in Kobe, but that’s a long shot. Instead, they make focus their attention on Stevie Nash. I wish I could tell you what is going to happen with this pick, but the Suns don’t really have a weakness. The Marbury trade brought them so much talent to put along side a developing core of Marion, Stoudemire, and Johnson. The one thing they could use is a center and one that can help right away. If they trade down for a guy like Araujo or Harrison, they will be one of the top teams in the West. If they don’t get Nash though, look for them to taking a PG and Ben Gordon is still on my board.
"There are some fantastic rumors out there about Phoenix right now." Toronto is desperate for a point as well and they could use someone to take some of the load off VC. This one is quick and easy: Devin Harris.
The Sixers have developed some nice talent to fit around Iverson but they could really use an athletic small forward because the Big Dog has turned out to be incompatible with this team as well. This is a tough choice because they could go with Igoudala or Josh Smith, but I think they are aware that the window is closing so they go with the boy from Zona.
The Cavs were the big winners of the draft last year, but that’s easy to do when you have the top pick. The real test is finding a gem with this pick. They have Boozer locked in at the 4 and Lebron can play anywhere from the point to small forward. It appears that the best option right now is for them to draft Josh Smith and let Lebron and DaJuan Wagner play in the backcourt. The other option is taking Pavel Podkolzine to study under Big Z. I still think they go with the athletic high school kid. Hey, it worked once.
A lot of speculation has Golden State taking Jameer Nelson, but people need to understand that as great as Nelson was in college, he’s going to be a Bobby Jackson type in the Association. I would like to think that Chris Mullin has the foresight to start rebuilding and taking the freak Podkolzine, but he’s apparently got a thing for small, back up point guards (see the lopsided Nick Van Exel trade if you need proof).
That’s all for now, but you know that I will continue to update you on what’s happening in the draft.
Who will be second guessed this year?
Yeah, I can't believe they fell for it either.
The new face of the Hawks?