* Last night, I read a headline that said, "Clips earn right to #1 pick". Let's get one thing straight. The only thing the Clippers deserve is criticism.
* With a glut of talented big men, the Clippers will still select Blake Griffin. If I were GM, I would trade a lottery-protected first-round pick just to get Zach Randolph OFF of my roster. Randolph is extremely talented and has a rare scoring gift, but I do not want Griffin to be negatively influenced. Knowing the Clippers, they'll trade Marcus Camby.
* Seeing Sacramento and Washington fall from picks 1 and 2 to picks 4 and 5 is eerily reminiscent yet more statistically believable than what happened two years ago with Memphis, Boston and Milwaukee.
* The 3rd pick overall will now be referred to as "No Man's Land". After the top two players, there is a major drop-off. In fact, in a stronger draft, I'd rate only one other player (James Harden) with a top 5 grade.
* Whoever gets stuck with Jordan Hill will kick themselves. He's improved every year, but he still has a lot of holes in his game.
* Who else is not drinking the Jrue Holiday Kool Aid? Another case of a guy who measures well. JaVale McGee measures well ... on the Wizards bench. I guess NBA GMs don't measure the intangibles from the game tape.
* Will teams in need of both point guards and bigs draft for value and select point guards? Or will they reach for bigs?
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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3 comments:
The Draft Lottery has only been a bane for the Wizards. The only year they moved up, they got the #1 pick in a VERY weak draft, and ended up with Kwame "I cried in practice because Jordan called me a 'Flaming Faggot'" Brown.
I also think if it wasn't for David Stern's "La Cosa Nostra-esque" shenanigans, the Wiz wouldn't have landed the 1st pick that year. But, they wanted Jordan's new team to get a "leg up". What a joke.
FYI...the NBA lost me in Shaq's rookie year when they faced Barkley and the Suns. Before the game they talked about bringing backup basketball hoops in, because they didn't want to take a chance at Shaq breaking the basket. First dunk of the game...Shaq breaks the basket. Never seen the same promo for any other game he played in. And he's never affected any other basket.
While no sport out of the Big 4 is purely about the love of the sport anymore. Basketball is the LEAST about the love of the sport, and that is why it has not scratched the surface of its nearly unlimited potential since the days of Magic, Bird, Jordan, et al.
Ok...tangent over.
Looking forward to another Cluster-F_ck of a year from the Wiz. Maybe we can make a Unseld-ish move and trade Antwan Jamison for Stephan Marbury.
If James Harden is there at 5, and the Wiz pass...it wouldn't surprise me. Stupidity is nothing new to that franchise.
I think it's important to differentiate between the current Wizards brass (Grunfeld) and the past (Unseld, Jordan, etc.). This regime signed Gilbert Arenas on the cheap in his second pro contract and got Caron Butler in a sign-and-trade that saw Kwame Brown go bye-bye.
The Wizards badly need a physical game-changer in the frontcourt, and there's only one of those (Blake Griffin) in the draft. I need to take a closer look at this year's free agent class. They also need a defensive stopper ... which Dominic McGuire may be.
I disagree with you about bball being the least about the love of the sport. If you're talking just about the pros, you may have a point. There's a huge difference between at least pro football and bball, and that is guaranteed contracts. In the NBA, there are guaranteed contracts, and there are people who may dog it sometimes as a result. I can think of a certain running back for the Redskins whose attitude became detrimental to the team when a lot more of his contract became guaranteed. Another difference is the length of the season. Players are able to pace themselves more during the NBA season, than during the NFL season, in which nearly all games count unless you have a really elite team.
Just a few thoughts.
Great reeading your blog
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