Questions About a Questionable Draft

Rudy Gay...


...and gayer. (Come on, that's funny.)

Back when I was all excited about sonning NBA Draft coverage this week, I was going to answer the five questions found below in a fashion that was authoritative and all fancy-pantsy and shit. But we all know what happened instead. *Sigh*...

Anyway, I will still answer the five questions, but will now also provide you, the reader, with some additional semi-coherent thoughts. Let's just say that I may or may not have made a number of angry phone calls last night.

Oh, and don't forget: Now that my mans 'an 'em MJ has his soccer blog on and poppin', he felt it was also time that he flex his basketball knowledge, which is considerable. Though he may obscure his insights underneath a persistent stream of ridiculous fantasy-trade proposals like just-picked-up-off-waivers-and-fallaciously-represented-as-top-ten Joe Smith for legitimate fantasy star Kevin Garnett, MJ follows the Association with vigor. See for yourself here and here; he answered the questions below and provided a recap. And if you feel compelled to take a crack at the questions for yourself, feel free to hit me up on your own site or in the comments section. Away we go into the madness that was a sort-of wild night...

1) What do you make of the Duke players that went in the first round? Were teams reaching by taking Shelden Williams in the top ten and J.J. Redick in the lottery at all?
I need to have an Allen Iverson moment here for a minute: what are we talking about here? Shelden Williams? We're talking about the Shelden Williams who went to Duke and looks like he's from some place that isn't generally known as "Earth," right? What am I missing? Ever since Dwyane Wade and the Miami Referees won the title, I was reading mock draft after mock draft that had Shelden Williams as a lock for the top ten if not the top five. It perplexed me.

In college, I thought that Williams was a mixed bag. His post game was strong, although so many of his baskets seemed to result from simply outworking an opponent; his jumper was decent, but his range was limited and he was inconsistent; his defense was exceptional, but he got in foul trouble too often. In the NBA, working hard can't be discounted, repetition can lead to better shooting, and greater discipline on defense can be learned. But something didn't fully add up to me with Williams; I kept and still keep envisioning a better version of Udonis Haslem--sort of undersized, good rebounder, decent jumper. I might be way off on this one, but Williams doesn't strike me as a franchise player, something I tend to think can be realistically expected to come from the fifth pick in a given draft.

Maybe Williams was the perfect fifth pick in this draft, though, because overall, the field was weak. Going in, I thought that "the board" should have been ordered as such: Brandon Roy; then Marcus Williams, Adam Morrison, and Hilton Armstrong (more on him below); then Tyrus Thomas; then LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay. Michigan's Graham Brown and J.J. Redick were not on said board in the lottery portion. Williams wasn't really, either, but I can certainly understand taking him early given his size, his defense, and the other options--Andrea Bocelli and Sanaa Lathan, actual top-ten picks (#1 and #10 respectively), weren't doing it for me.

Redick at #11 seems crazy. I very much believe that the dude will have an NBA career because there is always a place for a shooter of his caliber in basketball, and he did well against ACC defenders in college. I mean, if Craig Hodges and Billy Thomas and all them could make it in the Association, Redick will be able to. But many great shooters from big-time conferences without size who couldn't put the ball on the floor also had great college careers and went on to serve as role players in the Lig. And that's what J.J. seems destined for. My memory might be a little too hazy to accurately draw this comparison, but why is Redick going to be better than Shawn Respert, a player who's seen as an unequivocal bust, in part, because he was taken earlier than his skill set should have dictated?

Dwight Howard and Darko (for real) drawing people inside; Jameer Nelson spreading the perimeter--I get all of the supposed reasons why Redick was a good pick for the Magic. But those are rationalizations that get thrown out all the time about every move made. If these decisions couldn't be rationalized--like when we all said that Brent Barry as the difference-maker San Antonio needed, for instance--they wouldn't go through.

2) Which lottery team started off Thursday most improved relative to where it was on Wednesday?
My first instinct is to say Portland because that's who got Brandon Roy. But that's no fun.

My second instinct is to say Portland because it got 80% of a potentially exciting, winning starting nucleus (Aldridge, P.J. Tucker, James White, Roy--not a bad group). But that group didn't stay intact.

My third instinct is to say Portland because it was so active and seemed to own the rights to every single player in the draft at some point. But one should never mistake activity for accomplishment, as John Wooden used to teach us.

My fourth instinct is to say Chicago because it got a guy who [Dick Vitale] I truly believe [/Dick Vitale] will become a good player (Tyrus Thomas), a guy who might be able to improve the perimeter defense (Thabo Sefolosha), and a guy who, as Henry Abbot says, has size and doesn't make mistakes (Viktor Khryapa). But that's an obvious answer and the Bulls weren't really a lottery team anyway.

So I'll go with my fifth instinct and say the New Orleans Hornets of Oklahoma City because Hilton Armstrong was one of my favorite players in this draft. During his four years in Storrs, he improved significantly, demonstrating that he can be coached up. And this past season, he emerged as an excellent defender with a decent jump shot, decent passing skills from the high post, and a few reliable post moves. Plus, he catches the ball well enough and can finish at the rim, unlike bust-in-the-making Josh Boone. The Hornets were competitive all of last season, and Armstrong seems well equipped to come in, contribute to positive morale, and smartly thrive by helping to make Chris Paul look good. I don't see why Armstrong can't duplicate the production that Andrew Bogut gave Milwaukee last season, and Bogut was the top pick. Armstrong, to me, is the second- (or third-, depending on Adam Morrison) leading contender for rookie of the year.

3) Draft-time rumors were swirling above the heads of some prominent NBA stars, including KG and Jermaine O'Neal. Did any of the rumored moves make sense? Is there a move we haven't heard about that would make sense?
What would have made the most sense would have been if Minnesota had kept Brandon Roy and paired him with Garnett. You don't think Roy would have been with the program from Day One? He would have been a happy second-leading leader in that clubhouse. And I love Kevin Garnett. I wrote a fucking encomium about him last year. That would have made me so happy.

Regardless, the draft-time rumor that made the most sense to me and still does is anything involving Allen Iverson. I have a lot of friends from the Illadelph who have grown up watching and admiring AI for his fearlessness. I am not one to disagree with that. Iverson has been a singular presence in the league for a decade, and he is likely the greatest small scorer of all time. He's a wonder to behold. But the entire 76er organization has this eerie feeling of moribundness that it can't seem to shake, the prevailing dynamics of the team will remain inert until the alpha figure who needs the ball has departed. Maybe the Knicks could get him so that he could line up alongside Marbury, Francis, Crawford, and Rose. The spectacle of that lineup would easily be worth an 0-82 campaign.

4) Who was the best player in this draft?
Brandon R.O.Y. Duh.

5) Describe Isiah Thomas's Wednesday night and Thursday.
Torturous. Is that sufficient? From what I could tell--and admittedly, it was hard to piece together anything resembling reality amidst the blood-curdling shrieks of horror that emanated throughout New York--the Knicks used two first-round draft picks to select a 6'5" PF and a combo guard with a decent-at-best jumpshot. The former probably has a great attitude and is probably a wonderful guy, but it's not good when ESPN lists "offensive skill" in the Must Improve category. Put it this way: in golf, it's important that a player be able to walk, but that is usually trumped by a need to strike the ball well. Thus, you wouldn't be so excited about drafting a guy who needed to improve his ability to make contact, right? Maybe Renaldo Balkman (whose name sounds like it couldn't decide if it were going to be Brazilian, Jewish, or Balkan) will develop into a Bruce Bowen-like niche player; we're told that Balkman is an excellent defender with a great motor. So that means that he's either a super sleeper that the Knicks are lucky to have or that Isiah drafted a white defensive tackle who overachieved while at some place like Penn State.

Mardy Collins is another guy with a weird name and a redundant game. Which overpaid baby will be sitting so that Mardy can get some burn?

And did I mention that Marcus Williams was still on the board? You now KNOW that he will emerge as a superstar once the Nets move to Brooklyn. Sometimes, I hate my life.

Other draft notes:
- Who was happier about Redick going #11--Redick or Vitale?

- Before the Knicks picked at #29, Mark Jones interviewed some Knicks fan in the crowd who killed Isiah. Immediately after that, Jones kicked it back over to the panelists, and Jay Bilas called the boisterous Knicks fan "Eminem." And thus, the most embarrassing moment in human history was recorded.

- Again, about Marcus Williams: maybe he was a little too aggressive in seeking out access to the internets and maybe he needs to be in better shape, but have you people seen this kid play? His vision is incredible, he hits his free throws, and he is fearless in crunch time. Great get for the Nets.

- On the other hand, taking Josh Boone was ridiculous. This dude peaked as a sophomore. He has horrible hands, he NEVER finishes, he can't shoot free throws, and he probably had the worst braids in the draft.

- I really like that Houston got Sugar Shane Battier. Not only will he play defense and help make TMac and Yao look good, but he immediately becomes Jeff Van Gundy's favorite player. And whatever makes Jeff happy makes me happy.

- When Cedric Simmons got picked, among his strengths listed by Bilas was "second-jump ability." What the fuck is that? I know what he was trying to say--that Simmons gets off the floor for his second jump quickly while fighting for rebounds and such, but...what the fuck? Can't Bilas pretend that he knows English? I'd like to be nice and blame ESPN since they probably told him to use that phrase while going over the pre-draft talking points that were to be repeated constantly, but still, that kind of talk does a disservice to Duke University. And that school has an otherwise sterling reputati--never mind.

- As my dad rightly wondered at dinner tonight, "Where in Boston is Sebastian Telfair going to live?" Newton? Needham? This is not good.

- Rajon Rondo is overrated. Jay Bilas got that one right.

- Watching James White get drafted in the second round reminded me that the NCAA should give out an award named for Felipe Lopez every year immediately after the draft. The award would go to the college player who had lost the most by matriculating in the first place.