6 days to go

My expectations for the draft itself are pretty obvious, I expect David Stern to walk up to the podium and announce the Heat were the 2012 NBA champions to a lot of boos, then he will announce the hornets are on the clock, we’ll see the brow sitting there acting like there might be a chance he isn’t the first pick, and then David Stern will roll out and announce hes the pick, then there will be a lot of hugs and finally he’ll walk to up the stage get his picture, we’ll see a lot of highlights of blocks, maybe a few dunks.

Now Charlotte on the clock, but we’ll zero speculation because they spent a lot of time talking about Davis, so the sterninator will stroll out to boos, T rob is the pick, they’ll talk about did Jordan finally get one right, talk about how T Rob dominated Ohio state in the final 4, yada yada.

Now we’ll get some speculation on the wizards cause they realized they over did it last time and we’ll hear the same crap over and over about beal then we’ll hear "and here comes commissioner stern with the pick", its beal, now they will talk about the trade, show a few highlights and move on.

Now it’s the cavs, this is where it gets good were gonna have 4 minutes of the following Barnes vs MKG, LeBron leaving Cleveland and winning a ring, replacing lebron, is whoever we pick good enough to replace lebron, and here comes the commissioner.  "With the fourth pick in the 2012 NBA draft, the Cleveland Cav..Aliers select… Harrison Burns, north car-olina" (Way to f&*% that one up stern) then we’ll get "So they went with the scorer from North Carolina" see some highlights and talk about it leaving maybe 20 seconds for kings speculation.

Now since LeBron won his ring, I have to get on with my "miserable life" cutting the grass, and do all the same boring crap I did before he won his ring…  OH WELL!

Make changes as you wish, or continue on

That was actually really funny. I however don’t think MKG falls past Cleveland. They’ve been talking about wanting to re-unite Barnes and Irving for awhile now, but I do feel like MKG is just too much energy and too good a defender to pass up at #4. They probably never envisioned him dropping to them. Just a hunch though.

I think the intention of the original thread was to ask how we all expected this draft class to fare in the Association long-term. But that answer was a great read, and I think I’d much rather discuss the actual draft telecast. Actually, I’m really excited to read Bill Simmons’ annual draft blog.

I actually see this class turning into the backbone of the league withing 5-7 seasons.  Not too many all stars, but tons of potential for long careers as starters / bench guys / role players etc from both rounds.

Yeah the second round this year is the strongest I can remember.

There is some draftatstic depth here.  Maybe not many super stars or perennial all-stars but some really good talents.  I think the Rising Stars will have a bunch of players from this year’s rookie class to choose from.  I thought the Rising Stars game this year was one of the better parts of all-star weekend along with the 3 point shoot out final and about the first quarter of the all-star game where there was just an incredible amount of talent and athleticism on the court throwing down dunk contest worthy dunks (and not even like Fred Jones has a dunk title dunks, but more like vintage all-time how we remembered Nique vs. MJ even if the dunks weren’t as good as some of them are now). 

I see some good core guys here.  Anthony Davis.  MKG.  Harrison Barnes.  Thomas Robinson.  Andre Drummond.  It is one of those drafts where a bunch of young guys play well, play in a couple of all-star games, get to be friends, and then, when their rookie contracts are up, "take their talents down to South Beach" to team up with LeBron for his 5th (sorry Shaq), 6th (sorry Magic we still love you), 7th (there will always be the 2011-2012 Bobcats), 8th (sorry Robert Horry but hey man come on down and join the 2015 Heat you can’t be worse than Shane Battier’s overdue library books –where did LeBron put them???, or Mike Miller’s 75 year old back), 9th, and 10th titles (let’s just say that LeBron closes in on this 11th championship, goes down to Boston for game 7 of the ECF, runs into Bill Russell in the hall way, and comes out the hall way a born again Mormon with 7 wives and a consulting firm — plus a fuzzy memory). 

So in a few years your Miami Heat starters will be Steve "don’t call me the new Stockton" Stoc–I mean Nash, D Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Anthony Davis. Off the bench we have Mario "Big F***ing Shot" Chalmers, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Shane Battier, Mike Miller’s chiropractor’s bills, Udonis Haslem, Thomas Robinson (insert Bill Simmons audible here:  Anytime you can roll out a team of D Wade, LeBron, Thomas Robinson, and MKG with Steve Nash throwing passes YOU DO IT), Andre Drummond as the backup center (the Zo behind Anthony Davis’s Shaq), the triumphant return of Zydrunas Ilgauskas (don’t ask.  Ok, probably because he likes to wear his Eastern European man-thong on South Beach), Norris Cole (not a notable player except for his classic flat to fade, which incidentally was the 8th pick in the 1991 NBA draft.  Oh yeah, in a few years he will be given the nickname "Moochie" — the first guy in NBA history who’s nickname was the nickname of an forgetable NBA player, so now we have "Moochie" Norris Cole who now, to confuse things further has officially changed his name to Chuck Norris Cole.  When he hits a shot on a skip pass from Chalmers it sounds like this Superf***ing Mario "Big F***ing Shot" Chalmers with the assist to Chuck "Moochie" Norris Cole for THREEEEEEEEEEEEE""), Harrison "Good News" Barnes in that vague "umm, I am not sure if he is the 14th man, the 15th man, or just a really tall usher" role currently held down by Eddy Curry (unFAST Eddy Curry?), and Friends (no really, the former cast of Friends has signed on to do a spinoff down in South Beach, and also to sit in the front row of the Heatatorium so it looks like there are some actual celebrities — wait, do Courtney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and the other Gen X’ers cast members on friends actually count as celebrities?  Darryl Morey is double checking his proprietary advanced stats models to make sure, then pick up some rings so they can sit in on the Friend’s-patented happy-go-lucky team picture).

I’ll Be There For You!

A lot of people think this is the deepest draft in years.  I disagree – it could be the 2000 draft all over again.  The best players taken by lottery teams were Kenyon Martin, Mike Miller, and Jamal Crawford, who have 1 All-Star appearance between them.  Hedo Turkoglu and Michael Redd were taken later, and had good stretches during their careers. 

Anthony Davis is fairly overhyped at this point, and hasn’t really proven anything in one season of college.  He reminds me of Marcus Camby – good defender, solid offensive guy, but not a franchise player by any means.  

Kendall Marshall is getting overlooked – he has the potential to become the next Jason Kidd.  And I don’t mean the ‘old’ slow player Kidd is now – I’m talking Kidd at 22-23 years old, pass-first, second, and shoot last, his teammates will love him.  Yet he’s projected to fall to the 14-18 range, which is why teams like the Lakers are falling all over themselves to trade up.  I’d take him over Damian Lillard, just based on the fact that Marshall is a pure point, to Lillard’s ‘shoot first’ mentality. 

Don’t get me wrong – Lillard is the real deal as well.  He will be a starter in the league, or a very good sixth man, at worst.

I seriously doubt that anyone picked in the top 5 will ever be a multiple time All-Star.