Saturday, June 30, 2007

Digtal Love's really Long Draft Guide

Dear Digital Lovers, it’s been too long. I’ve been at a basketball camp the past two days, all day. I apologize for the days in which you happily logged on and the smiles were wiped off of your face when you saw Brian’s quote. Now as will learn I love drafts NBA and the NFL. As you non-sports lovers who read this (1 to my knowledge) the NBA draft recently took place. This NBA draft is supposed to be the deepest draft in years. I will now break down the winners, losers, good players, bad players, and anything else you would like to know about it.
Winners
Portland Trail Blazers- Best Overall Draft. Set up their franchise for years to come, with this draft the Trail Blazers pretty much just reserved 3 NBA titles. Picks- C Greg Oden 1st overall, Ohio State. Some people say that Greg is going to be a Hall of Famer. He has great feet, strength, and shot blocking that is the best since Dikembe Mutumbo. The worst case scenario is that Oden is only a 5 time All-Star. SG Rudy Fernandez 24th overall, Spain. Great shooter/ athlete, would have been lottery pick if he would not have to stay in Europe for another year. Traded Suns cash for this pick. PG Petteri Koponen 30th overall, Finland. Picking a Finnish player? Sure he’s a freak athlete, but I think Taurean may have upper hand. Could move to shooting guard. PF Josh McRoberts 37th overall, Duke. A very good pick, McRoberts will be a great complementary post player for Oden, Aldridge, and Frye. Great passer, a typical soft duke player, not a great scorer. Rebounding and shot blocking get by. Will complement the team nicely. PG Taurean Green 52nd overall, Florida. Need another point guard, is the steal of the draft. Also Vic Meena said he was the best player on those Florida teams. When you get a two time National Championship winner at point guard at pick 52 you are a draft winner. When the Trail Blazers win their championships, Taurean will be know as the steady point guard who gave the ball to Oden, Roy, Aldridge, and Fernandez. PF Demetris Nichols 53rd overall, Syracuse. Nothing great, most likely a career D-League player.
Notes- Amazing trade, traded with Knicks to get two contributors (Steve Francis and Channing Frye). Gave up two role players and a bench warmer.
Chicago Bulls- Went under the radar for the most part, but great draft. Picked players proven at the college level. All of who were at least 2nd team All-Conference. PF/C Joakim Noah 9th overall, Florida. Noah was a big part of their back-to-back championships, and he is energetic, runs the floor, and can rebound. Noah will not make an immediate impact, sitting behind Ben Wallace, PJ Brown, and the #4 pick from last year Tyrus Thomas. C Aaron Gray 49th overall, Pittsburgh. Gray was a fantastic college player, all 7’2 of him. He will eventually develop into a player who has 10 and 7 every night. Eventually. SG JamesOn Curry 51st overall, Okalahoma State. JamesOn is a great shooter who also can take the big shot. JamesOn really drooped in the draft because of his size (6’3) but I really think he is going to be a contributor after a few years on the bench. Little Bonus- JamesOn is my friend on FaceBook.
Golden State Warriors- The best team in the NBA with one of the top 3 drafts? Yeah they did it. SG Marco Belinelli 18th overall, Italy. This Italian sharpshooter should get nice minutes in the NBA’s #2 offense, and should average around 15 a game. Then the Warriors made a brilliant trade in trading Jason Richardson to the Bobcats for Brandan Wright. That trade opens up the starting Shooting Guard position for Jackson Mississippi’s very own Monta Ellis. Great move Warriors. PF Brandan Wright 8th overall, North Carolina. Will thrive in system. Can run well jumps great, and has a wingspan of 7’4. Brandan should be an 8 time All-Star in Warriors system. Great draft, my #2 rated. Unloaded Richardson’s huge contract and got possibly the next Chris Bosh.

Losers
Cleveland Cavilers- Wait, how can the Cavs lose in the draft if they don’t have any picks? By not having any picks, they cannot do the only thing their franchise needs to do. Surround King James with good talent. Example Not Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall.
Atlanta Hawks- Everyone on ESPN had the Hawks having a solid draft, but they did not. PF/C Al Hortford is not a bad pick, PG Acie Law will probably be an All-Star, unless the Hawks find a way to screw up his career (which they are perfectly capable of). The reason Hortford is not a very good pick. Hawks first round picks past 4 years.
2007- Al Hortford PF/ C 3rd overall
2006- Sheldon Williams C 6th overall
2005- Marvin Williams PF 2nd overall (D Williams and CP were there)
2004- Josh Childress F 6th overall
2004- Josh Smith PF 17th overall
See a pattern?

Good Drafts
Seattle Supersonics
- Got Superstar F Kevin Durant 2nd overall and F Jeff Green 5th overall both are future All-Stars. And that Durant guy may end up in the Hall of Fame. And picked up PF Carl Landry @ pick 31.
Phoenix Suns- Got a solid player 29th overall in Alando Tucker good athlete can run. Was Big 12 player of the year. And my best value pick in the draft. Second to last SG D.J. Strawberry. Yes that is Darrell’s son but he did test out as best athlete at the NBA pre draft camp. Suns-athlete good match.
Detroit Pistons- 2 players slipped and fell to them G Rodney Stucky 15th overall and Aaron Afflalo 27th overall. Afflalo best player on two Final 4 teams.

Didn't mess anything up
I would talk about the Lakers, Timberwolves, Jazz, Clippers, 76ers, Grizzlies, and Bobcats draft. But my hands hurt. And if you read this whole post then you wasted 10 minutes of your life.

Feel free to comment Digital Lovers (Meena).

3 comments:

Brian said...

Davis-
I appreciate your analysis...but as an avid Hawks fan I must disagree. Finally, it seems the Hawks drafted some talent. Sure we've drafted forwards in the past, but Horford was the best player available in my opinion. Keep up the good work.

Xtreme said...

Brian I compare the Hawks GM to Matt Millen. We're just one good post player from the playoffs. If the Hawks win over 40 games next year I will walk to Atlanta.

Anonymous said...

i agree with your blog on the suns