Draft Day Drama

June 29th, 2007, Author: robd

The 2007 NBA Draft started predictably, and then went a little crazy. The two big guns, Oden and Durant went #1 and #2 as expected, but the rest didn’t exactly go according to plan. What happened to the big draft-day trades for KG and Amare? How did Yi Jianlian, the supposed under-done softy small-forward go at #6? Who saw Isiah pulling the Randolph trade? What was Michael Jordan thinking when he traded one of the most talented bigs in the draft for a number 23-wearing lame MJ imitation? And did the Bulls draft JamesOn Curry just for the comedic value in his name?

With all these questions and more, we sat down with our resident TrashTalk draft expert Jobba, to try and get some answers.

RD: Were you at all surprised by Oden going #1? And how does the Randolph trade affect Oden’s rookie year?

JB: No surprises whatsoever. ESPN stated that he had a guarantee from the Blazers with the number 1 pick. The Randolph trade probably effects Oden’s rookie year on the offensive end. Despite the more minutes Aldridge and Frye will share, a lot of the scoring load will be put on Oden’s shoulders. That in itself has its risks with the big man’s right wrist still not 100% and reported back problems. Only time will tell.

RD: I’m going to ask you the same about Durant. How does the Ray Allen trade affect his future with the Sonics?

JB: The Allen trade affects Durant in a strange way. Firstly he is now the face of the franchise with the Sonics (who will more than likely be far away from Seattle in two years time). Secondly, he may be playing in a totally different role to what anyone envisaged. With trading for pick #5 and in turn Jeff Green, the possibility of him playing the Power Forward position arose. His role will be made a lot clearer once Rashard Lewis finds his feet in free agency.

RD: Do you honestly think Durant can tough it out with the best power forwards out West? Putting him at the 4-spot surely isn’t the ideal situation for the Sonics?

JB: They may be able to get away with it if they were to play him in a role similar to Nocioni in Chicago. But out in the West it’s a little tougher, and personally I don’t think he can do it night in, night out. Like I said, taking Green opens up the possibility of him playing the 4, whether or not it happens is obviously something that cannot be gauged until the regular season.

RD: Besides the Sonics and Blazers, which other teams fared the best on draft night?

JB: San Antonio did very well picking up youth on the wing position by taking Marcus Williams with the 33rd pick, and bolstering their future front court by taking Splitter with pick 28 overall.

The other teams worth mentioning are the Hawks taking two players who on the outset fit their system perfectly, and are NBA-ready right now. The other is probably the Detroit Pistons taking Afflalo and Stuckey with their two first-rounders. That being said, any decent pick ups would have made it a good draft night for the Pistons.

RD: Yeah I’m a pretty happy Detroit fan right now, though not sure we really needed to pick three shooting guards…

Tizzle will be happy the Knicks dropped Francis. What do you make of this trade? Did the Knicks just assemble the best frontcourt in the East with Randolph and Curry?

JB: This trade goes against two things that Isiah Thomas has said he wants to do with the Knicks. The first thing is cap space. Francis’ contract ends in two seasons, compared to Randolph’s four, and in those last two, Randolph will make more than Francis. The other big element of this trade is youth. Thomas has said more than once he wants the Knicks to go young, and Frye it would seem was an integral piece of that youth policy. But instead they get older, and trade him away.

But, it does give the Knicks the best front court in the East on paper. You add David Lee coming off the bench and the possibility of Randolph Morris being a legitimate NBA player and the Knicks have the best depth at that position as well.

RD: Is Minnesota drafting Corey Brewer a clear indication of their intent to keep KG?

JB: I would say so yes, if one considers that Brandon Wright was still on the board. If the Wolves wanted a new face for the franchise which would be required if they traded Garnett, Wright would have been the perfect player. However, they obviously went with Brewer with #7 and in the second round picked up Florida teammate Chris Richard. It wouldn’t surprise me if McHale turns the Wolves into a defensive powerhouse.

RD: Any chance they still trade KG then?

JB: It’s possible, however all the teams that were mentioned in trades have done actions which would go against taking someone like KG. Atlanta took two NBA ready players with picks #3 and #11, the Golden State and Bobcats trade nullified the third party talks with both those teams, and the trade the Celtics pulled likewise suggest Danny Ainge has taken them out of KG trade talks. There could be other teams interested, but for now it looks as if Garnett will stay.

RD: Bulls went for Noah at #9 whom ESPN described as “Anderson Varejao meets Andrei Kirilenko”. I’m just praying he’s 99% Kirilenko and 1% Varejao or else the Bulls are in trouble. What do you make of this trade? Are the Bulls angry at the Bucks for taking Jianlian at #6?

JB: I don’t know if the Bulls would necessarily be “angry” at the Bucks for taking Yi, but I’m sure they will push the Bucks at trying to take Michael Sweetney in the off-season as some form of revenge.

At the end of the day, the Bulls got a free lottery pick. As long as they picked a guy who was expected to go around that top-10 area, its going to be a good pick. I though Spencer Hawes met a much more pressing need for the Bulls than what Joakim did. But Joakim brings bad hair (the Kirilenko and Varejao comparisons seems pretty accurate in that regard) and energy off the bench.

On Noah though, he does win my award for “Guy who best resembles Willy Wonka” after the suit he wore on draft night.

RD: I like the kid’s dress sense, in that he has none.

Here’s your chance to look like Nostradamus. Which guy in this draft not named Durant, Oden, Horford or Conley will end up an all-time great? I’m talking the Amare at #9 or Kobe Bryant at #14 kind of pick.

JB: Well the first two that come to mind are Brandon Wright and Yi Jianlian given a few years. But for the real outside selection I’ll go with Spencer Hawes. Firstly, his low-post offensive abilities are unlike anyone I’ve seen coming out of college (especially in a freshman) for a long time. He’s very young, but also a 7-foot centre in an era where the dominant center seems to be a dying breed. He has every chance to be one of those classic dominant centers in the future.

RD: I don’t want to get your hopes up, but you do realise that your Bobcats could quite easily make the playoffs this year. Nice being in the East hey?

JB: Hahaha. I’m looking forward to next season, despite never being a big fan of Jason Richardson – at least until now. But we got good depth in certain area’s, and cap space to help us with the weakness, mainly in the front court. The most exciting thing for the Bobcats was grabbing Jared Dudley with pick 22, love the way that guy goes about his basketball.

But if there was ever a conference in the history of American pro-basketball in which a side with no focal point/ franchise player can make it into the playoffs, it would be the modern day Eastern Conference. I’d even go so far that 2008 will be the year all my pro-sports teams win everything. The Bobcats with the NBA Championships, the New Orleans Saints with the NFL Superbowl and the Richmond Tigers with the AFL premiership. A man can dream right?

RD: Haha I was with you until you said the Tigers bit. I’d say my Blues have a bigger chance of winning the flag before your boys do… and that is saying something!

One last question before you go. Who gets their Championship ring first: Oden or Durant?

JB: Oden. Aside from the fact that Centres and Point Guards are becoming the two key pieces in the championship team jigsaw puzzle, the Blazers are further ahead in getting the right players to make a serious run at the championship than Seattle have. The Sonics can’t boast having upcoming NBA sophomore’s like Brandon Roy or LeMarcus Aldridge. Or having players with the potential of Sergio Rodriguez, Joel Freeland (whose in the Euroleague’s right now) Rudy Fernandez, Petteri Koponen, Josh McRoberts, Channing Frye or Taureen Green. And thats not with the potential players they could get from deals involving Jamaal Magloire or Joel Pryzbilla. The Sonics have got a few big pieces, and one of the three centres they have (Robert Swift, Saer Sene, Johan Petro) could become championship worthy centres. And now with addition of Jeff Green they’ve definitely started heading down the right path; it’s just that the Blazers are further down that path.

RD: That wraps it up for our draft day discussion. Thanks for joining us Jobba, and we’ll see you round on the forums.

Check out the TrashTalk forums at http://forums.kickz101.com for plenty more NBA Draft discussion!