NBA Draft in Review

I'm sure that you are aware that amazing happens on a daily basis in the NBA, but it happened today at Madison Square Garden with the NBA Draft. It included players from Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and even... Guadeloupe? (I don't even know what continent that's on.) But it all started at number 1 when the Los Angeles Clippers made the obvious selection of Blake Griffin. It seemed obvious that he would be picked here, but I haven't really seen what all the hype is about with Griffin. He has trouble playing defenders face up and his mid-range game isn't where it should be. However, he has a great rebounding game and can play well in the low post both offensively and defensively. He should be a great NBA player, but I don't see him being the best in this draft.


After the Clippers made their selection, the Memphis Grizzlies were on the clock. It was here that I thought they should draft the best player available; in this case, Ricky Rubio. The Spanish point guard has been playing professionally since he was 14. He is still only 18 years old and has already played in the Olympics. He is battle tested and has all the tools necessary to succeed at the highest level. In fact, in my opinion he was the best player in the draft. However, with one of the most incompetent GM's in the league at the helm in Chris Wallace, the Grizzlies selected Hasheem Thabeet, the 7 foot 6 center out of UCONN. After watching him play for the past few years it is apparent that he is not an NBA talent. Although his defensive game is very strong and he can rebound well, he has almost no offensive ability. He struggled to score against such powerhouses as Hartford (9 points), La Salle (9 points), Delaware State (10 points), and DePaul (11 points). If he can't score against these teams than how s he going to be putting up double digits against players of Dwight Howard's caliber. With the second pick you should not be picking a project who will never be able to compete with the best at his position.


The third pick went to the Oklahoma City Thunder who chose James Harden. I'm not in love with this pick, but I can at least see why they went with him over Rubio. Firstly, Rubio would never and I repeat never go to play in Oklahoma. Of all the NBA cities, this has got to be one of the two or three worst. (Ironically, it is on the same level or even slightly better than Minneapolis.) Also, the Thunder already think they have their point guard of the future in Russell Westbrook. Now they have a solid two who can score and help complement Durant by getting to the rim.

At number four the Sacramento Kings needed a point guard. And they selected Tyreke Evans over Ricky Rubio. Nothing more needs to be said.

Finally at number five somebody was smart enough to take the player who was clearly at least the second best player in the draft. However, that same team was also dumb enough to antagonize Rubio by following up his selection with another pure point guard at number 6, Johnny Flynn from Syracuse. Now instead of having maybe Curry at the 2 with Rubio at the one, all they are left with from these two top ten picks is an undersized point guard who hasn't grown since 8th grade. While it seemed obvious that one of these two would have to be traded the newly hired GM of the T'Wolves, David Kahn, continues to insist that they will play in the same backcourt. To put it bluntly, Kahn is wrong. They are incompatible players and one of them must go.

At number 7 the Golden State Warriors crushed my hopes and dreams as well as those of the 87 other Knick fans by drafting my dream player Stephen Curry. He can shoot from the perimeter and showed an ability to run the point at Davidson. He has good court vision and can handle himself in the clutch. But, the freaking Golden State Warriors took him. They don't even need him. They already have Monta Ellis running the point, but they show no sympathy to my needs and steal Curry away from us. Now his career is going to be run into the ground by freaking Don Nelson. It's a travesty.

The Knicks chose Jordan Hill at number 8. While he's no Stephen Curry, he seems like a nice guy who didn't really deserve to be booed at MSG. I really shouldn't be complaining because I threw my remote at the TV so hard after the Warriors took Curry that I tore my right labrum. Also, this draft pick almost rules out the Knicks resigning David Lee since Hill is a talented rookie power forward who will be stealing Lee's position. Now we're stuck with Krypto-Nate for another godforsaken season. I hate my life.

At 9 the Raptors chose DeMar DeRozan. My favorite part of this pick is the rare player who encapsulates four capital letters with no hyphens between his first and last name. It's easy to have three if you just give your kid a prefix on their first name. (e.g. JaMarcus Russell, DeMarcus Ware, or LaMarcus Aldridge) However, it takes real guts to add the first name prefix when you already have it on the last name. The only other player that I can think of who achieves this rare quadfecta is Le'Ron McLain of the Baltimore Ravens. Another awesome part of the name is that with the prefixes removed it makes literally zero sense. However, I wish the Toronto Raptors the best of luck with their shooting guard of the future Mar Rozan.

Finally, the Milwaukee Bucks closed out the top ten by taking Brandon Jennings. I liked how he was announced as coming from Compton, CA/Italy. It's my understanding that they are essentially the same place. This pick seemed way too early for Jennings considering he averaged under 6 points per game in the Italian League. His offensive woes make Hasheem Thabeet look like Wilt Chamberlain reincarnated.

A few other highlights of the draft included Tyler Hansbrough's selection at number 13 by the Indiana Pacers. Chad Ford described the pick like this in his draft recap for espn.com, "Don't you think Hansbrough's going to be popular in Indiana? As we've seen during his college years, he's a tough, physical, blue-collar guy who Larry Bird compared to Dave Cowens." In other words, the Pacers needed a likable white guy and Hansbrough was the best available.

At first glance, I loved Jrue Holliday. His name just seemed legendary. However, when I was talking about him to a friend during the draft, he corrected me and said it was pronounced, "Ja-rue." That ruins it. Now his parents just made a spelling error for the ages rather than inventing a new way to spell "Drew." Also, it annoys the crap out of me because quite frankly, that is not the way that Jrue is pronounced. I hate to break it to Shawn and Toya, but they have misspelled their own son's name.

It really makes no sense to me why teams continue drafting players like Victor Claver, Omri Casspi, Rodrigue Beaubois, and Christian Eyenga in the first round. I can't remember one of these picks for "down-the-road" ever panning out into a good NBA player. If they aren't good enough now to play in the NBA, then why are you picking them over proven players like DaJuan Blair and Toney Douglas. If you have the urge to pick the foreign flavor-of-the month, then just keep repeating to yourself the names of Saer Sene and Darko Milicic.

Speaking of Toney Douglas, I love this pick for the Knicks. He is a scorer who can nail shots consistently from the perimeter. He seems like a great combo guard for Mike D'Antoni's run and gun offense. He is exactly the type of player who should be getting picked in the first round. He proved himself at FSU, but still has the potential to develop into a solid starter in the league.

DeJuan Blair at number 37 to the Spurs must be a joke. This is a player who absolutely dominated Thabeet in college to the level that Calhoun thought about putting a second defender on him. It's ridiculous that a player who has the talent to offensively destroy the second pick in the draft slips to the second round. One thing I find strange about Blair's slide through the draft is that teams believed he was an injury risk because he has no ACL's. Wouldn't that improve his durability since he can't tear them or tweak them anymore? The only reason that Blair was not a top 20 pick was the fear and stupidity of some of the GM's in the middle of this draft. You're telling me that Victor Claver will be a better NBA player than Blair? I don't think so. Also, this is another example of the Spurs outsmarting every other team in the NBA. After Parker and Ginobli, it is weird how this continues to happen.

I loved the Suns' pick of Taylor Griffin. Honestly, if I was in his shoes I would rather not be drafted at all than go at number 48. At least then in fights with his brother he could just claim that basketball wasn't his "thing". However, now and for all of time, his younger brother will have bragging rights over him because he knows that he is exactly 47 picks better than his big brother.

The last pick that I truly cared about in this draft was the pick of Lester Hudson by the Celtics. This shooting guard out of Tennessee-Martin seems really athletic and is easily the best player from this small school. I would rather draft Hudson than someone like A.J. Price who was a second or third banana on a team that didn't reach the Final Four. One incredible thing about Hudson is that he was the first D1 player to record a quadruple-double. Anyone with the athleticism to pull that off deserves to be selected in the NBA Draft.

That's all for today's issue of "Sports: The Most Important Thing Ever."