The Draft
So I did a draft blog a couple of years ago, Ill dig it up later, but the draft is not only a big day for the NBA bringing in the new kids but a highlight with the trades and shuffling of picks. With the Lebron saga looming in the wings, the dramaticness of the draft is somewhat diminished, but already there have been rumblings of a Bulls-Wizards trade and we havent even started the draft yet. This draft is somewhat wide open after the number one pick with a potential for Kentucky to have a first ever 5 first rounders in the 2010 draft and ALOT of teams are looking to change up their rosters. The Wizards won the first pick over the we are tanking the whole damn season Nets, and it looks like they are going with John Wall as the consensus number one pick this year. The names that have been thrown out as “Could be a question mark or could be an All-Star” players, Demarcus Cousins (A rebounding machine),Derrick Favors (Another rookie of the year in his respective conference), , and of course John Wall, the Point guard extraordinaire.
The Wizards are on the clock:
The take nearly all the 5 minutes to announce the obvious pick of John Wall, a point guard of speed and vision, no big surprise but it will be interesting seeing what the Wizards do from here, maybe they move Gilbert Arenas and give John Wall the keys to the car. Stern greets Wall at the podium for his photo op, and Stern cracks his first unintentional comedy moment telling Wall “Thats a surprise isnt it?”. Genius he may be, but socially akward, Stern is at the top of the list, I dont think a worst person could be meeting teenage athletes in a public arena, its just awful.
The Sixers are on the clock:
Everyone assumes they will pick Evan Turner, but they have many many more needs then one player, so again, will be interesting to see where they go from here. Turner goes number 2, national player of the year at Ohio State as a Junior, he is a nice 2 or 3 guard, that could maybe play well with Iguodala, averaged 20 points per game. Seems Stern has dropped the comedy act, thankfully, and congrulates Turner. Man that kid has a weird voice, sounds like an air bubble or helium snuck in their and got stuck. Collins the newly christened coach of the Sixers, likes Turners defensive ability at the guard position, its always a good sign when your prospective picks best trait is his defensive ability. They are another team that could drastically revamp their team this offseason.
The Nets are on the clock:
Mother Russia is on the phone from his yacht and jet skis sipping some cognac with this decision, I think he will go big, and not play it safe. The Nets go with Derrick Favors another freshman from Georgia Tech, strange note is that he is only 18 years old even though he has been at college one year already. Alot of room for improvement.
Unfortunately the wife has deleted the mysky recording of the NBA draft accidentally, so generally speaking this post is a fail. BUT, of note otherwise from the draft retrospectively was this:
KAHN!!!!!!!!!!!! picks at number 4 and goes for Wesley Johnson, wow after the dust settled Kahn had 5 point gaurds and 4 small forwards, I have never seen a GM devote 64% of the available roster spots to two positions on the court. Its just madness, but we have to come to expect this from Kahn, as Simmons and everyone else on the interweb has decided he is clinically insane. No one knows what the Twolves will look like by season start, they could have some talent, but they will either sport the worst record in the league or sit just outside of the lottery for 2010-11. Alot of trades and cut players down the line will let us know just what the Wolves will be, but atleast we get some entertainment out of it in the meantime. Bring Rubio so atleast we can see him in the league, PLEASE!
At number 5 the Kings and Geoff “I live for the draft but trade away my players too late” Petrie pick Demarcus Cousins, which at the number 5 slot is a steal and the risk far underweighs the reward. Cousins and Evans could become a fearsome twosome, lets hope he doesnt take Bynum time to develope. I would love to see a Kings resurgence as its pained me to see them suffer, I jumped off the bandwagon after being a hometown fan since 1997 once I pulled the “If Petrie trades Bibby or Jackson Im out” ultimatum. I think the Kevin Martin trade really hurt the Kings as scoring has always been there thing and Martin was a reasonably priced scoring machine, and a starting lineup of Martin, Evans, Cousins, Dalembert(ugh that leaves a bad taste in my mouth), and Omri Casspi would have been really effective and very entertaining. So we will see what Petrie slots in for Martin and if the Kings get some veterans to go with the youth movement. If your a Kings fan, be encouraged, as long as the Maloofs dont move the Kings to Vegas. I wish they would just sell out and buy the Hornets and take them to Vegas, would be a much better idea for the NBA, rather then leaving a very devoted fan base in the dark, ala Seattle.
So yeah, not the draft expose that I wanted to write but a little top half summary of what happened. Enjoy.
