Do GMs EVEN LOOK AT THIS STUFF?

The 2010 off-season changes things in my mind. There are a lot of teams who are taking on broken down, major bust players for their expiring contracts. Teams like the Knicks, not to get off on a tangent, but they pretty much blew the doors off of the Garden moving players around to get room for 2010. The Nets too (by the way, are they still moving to Brooklyn or what? I think that would be cool). Because of that, there might be some teams who are looking at solid picks, but avoiding a Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holliday, Demar Derozan, or even an Austin Daye because they do not want to have some project on their hands when they could surround superstar talent with Dejuan Blair, Terrence Williams, Ty Lawson, Eric Maynor, etc. It’s just a thought though, because if you take Jrue Holiday as your only pick (let’s say Raptors at 9) and he turns out to be a bust…you pretty much wasted the whole draft. If you have 2 later picks, you could pick up maybe a Ty Lawson and an Austin Daye (just seems like the Raptors like tall, skinny prospects to me) and still swing for the fences while still filling a need. Or remove Daye and put in BJ Mullins, or subtract Holiday and put Tyreke Evans. You know what I mean? Plus, with a team like the Knicks trying to land LeBron in 2010, do you think that LeBron would want a project tweener like Evans or Holiday or do you think he would rather have a combo of Dejuan Blair and Maynor who are already NBA ready? You know? It just seems like a unique year, that’s all.

Plus, look at the 6’s (above) versus the 13’s – I mean, there are legit difference makers here (of course Kobe too) that you might get plus a back up point guard who can play. You know?

Player
Dale Davis 1991
Jalen Rose 1994
Corliss Williamson 1995
Kobe Bryant 1996
Derek Anderson 1997
Corey Maggette 1999
Richard Jefferson 2001
Marcus Banks 2003
Sebastian Telfair 2004
Sean May 2005
Thabo Sefolosha 2006
Julian Wright 2007

Sam Cassell 1993 1 24 Florida State Houston Rockets
Derek Fisher 1996 1 24 Arkansas-Little Rock Los Angeles Lakers
Andrei Kirilenko 1999 1 24 CSKA (Russia) Utah Jazz
Nenad Krstic 2002 1 24 Yugoslavia New Jersey Nets
Brian Cook 2003 1 24 Illinois L.A. Lakers
Delonte West 2004 1 24 St. Joseph’s Boston Celtics
Luther Head 2005 1 24 Illinois Houston Rockets
Kyle Lowry 2006 1 24 Villanova Memphis Grizzlies
Rudy Fernandez 2007 1 24 Spain Phoenix Suns (traded to Portland)

24 isn’t even that terrible. I wouldn’t be THAT surprised if Psycho T ends up being an All-Star at some point in his career, which would probably be more all-star appearances than 7 out of the first 12 players taken this year!

I just can’t get a handle on this years draft. I can’t put my finger on the value of the players, and the guys coming in next year don’t help me much either. Those guys are going to have to deal with every GM’s pie-in-the-sky dreams of fielding a Bosh, Wade, Amare, Lebron, Kobe lineup for the 2010-2011 season as well. Can’t wait for this draft! I think it’s going to have a lot of trading going on! Like that one a couple of years ago. Heck, like the last few drafts. I mean, Mayo and Love were traded last year. What is to stop someone getting Rubio for Dejuan Blair and some expiring contract?

The way the NBA is, if you don’t think you are getting a superstar and don’t think that you have one…you should just draft trade bait anyway. So I guess you are right, unless you want to have a Bulls team like a couple of years ago that beat the defending champ Heat but didn’t have an all-star on the squad.

You would think that it’s mostly common sense except there are just too many GM’s, previous star players especially, tripping over themselves to screw up. I love Steve Kerr and Michael Jordan, and I love them even more when they crap down their pant leg when it comes to the draft. It’s like the better the player, the worse the GM. Paxson (and his brother, who drafted Lebron) and Ferry are okay. Dumars picked the only non-contributor out of the Top 10 with the 2nd pick in the best draft in NBA history! Kevin McHale is worse than all of them combined! I don’t know if he should get AWARDED, like the Isaiah Thomas award for destroying an organization (Raptors, Knicks, the CBA, an entire league!) or if he should get ARRESTED for not only intentionally working against his team’s best interests (trading his buddy Danny Ainge and his beloved Celtics whomever they desire) but trying to work an under the table deal with JOE SMITH that cost his team 4 first round draft picks! Oh, and if there is any other GM in the league would trade away OJ Mayo for Mike Miller and Kevin Love (a PF by the way, the only REAL STRENGTH of the Wolves to begin with in Al Jefferson) I would like to know who? Probably an ex-star like Jordan, well he would have if it were Tyler Hansbrough instead of Kevin Love.

Oh wait, Jerry West is amazing. There is the exception to the rule. I guess that’s why he’s the logo.

Ha! nthegoodlife – 1, unathletic, overcompensating white pf’s who peak their sophomore year of college – 0. I think that you are right, but I don’t see that much of a difference in him than I did for Carlos Boozer at the same time during his draft. He was a 2nd rounder too, which still blows my mind. Boozer and Michael Finley, two guys I am still pissed that the Bulls didn’t take when they had the chance (you know, out of the realistic end of the 1st or 2nd round picks that we drafted some schmuck instead based on potential or the word of some overseas scout)