YOUR 2008 NBA DRAFT THREAD

circles otm

the only dude out of the nbadraft.net top 10 that i really think could be a transcendent nba player is rose-- totally on the chris paul tip imo. bayless could be a solid richard jefferson type, and both gordon and mayo are total wild cards-- i like mayo better because he really expanded his game at the end of the year, could see him as a caron butler type dude that is a solid scorer with potential to go for 20-8-8. gordon just seems to have like a ben gordon ceiling to me

Who could be luckier than a big man with middling skills in a letdown draft year? Robin Lopez, come on down!

hahaha

thnx jordan

I'm kind of curious about Rose because he definitely seems like he's ready to move on and get experience running an NBA team, but the track record of on-and-done or straight to the league PGs kind of terrible. I'm sure he (and Conley too) will probably change that, but right now the shining star among one-and-done guys is, uh, Stephon Marbury.

I do keep seeing Robin listed high and thinking "Are we really sure he's better than Spencer Hawes?"

whoops I mean Brook

Brook Lopez would be a good pick near the start of the 2nd round. Possibly the end of the 1st round. 7-footers don't grow on trees. Just remember that Shawn Bradley had an NBA career.

it'll be hard to pass up beasley with the no. 1 because at times he looks like a more athletic, bigger, lefty carmelo...

but for some reason it is very easy to imagine dude having an abdur-rahim-esque career.

if westbrook from ucla can run the point, he'll be something...

maybe he should stay a year and try to take over from collison...

but they're likely to lose everybody, and he'll be a lottery guy, so why would you stay? i guess it all depends on love.

derrick rose is unselfish and a physical freak (wade-esque), but i don't think he has amazing court vision. not to say he can't be a great, all-star guard and a willing passer, but i don't get the kidd/paul comparisons. i'd still spend the first pick on him tho.

meanwhile, oj mayo definitely has next level vision, but then he went and modeled his game on KOBE circa-2003 which means shooting too many stylish jumpers when he shoulda been a point guard.

I like Mayo a lot better as a non-point though. I remember reading descriptions from like the adidas camp a couple of years ago and he'd take like 25 shots and have 4 assists. It wasn't that he was necessarily playing poorly, or hurting his team, but the idea that he was a point guard never seemed that serious.

Though ideally, yeah, a 6'4" point guard with incredible scoring ability is a lot more special than a 6'4" shooting guard with incredible scoring ability.

shocker of the day: eric gordon not forgoing nba dollars to spend another year under a different coach and ncaa sanctions at indiana

thinking, is rose like exactly what bassy telfair was supposed to be but turned out not to be? like neither can really shoot all that well, but rose is just a monster at the rim as opposed to telfair who just gets bodied out

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/ncaa/specials/ncaa_tourney/2008/04/08/speights.ap/index.html

some interesting names:

- chase budinger, f, arizona (soph)
- ronald steele, g, alabama (junior)
- anthony randolph, f, lsu (fresh)
- marreese speights, f, uf (soph)
- jerryd bayless, g, arizona (fresh)
- earl clark, f, louisville (soph)
- ryan anderson, f, cal (soph)
- javale mcgee, c, nevada (soph)

yeah cuz rose is like half a foot taller and hell of strong. he can jump higher too. like young marbury with some sense.

could never quite tell what telfair was trying to do.

i like eric gordon alright, but no one should ever spend a top 10 pick on a 6-foot volume scorer 2-guard not named iverson. gordon was born ten years too late, he could've gotten paid in the late 90s, early 00s wasteland. he'll be lucky to be ben gordon in today's league. maybe he'll prove me wrong.

chase budinger lacks fire. aren't white guys supposed to try hard??

budinger's always got that pro beach volleyball option 2 in the back of his mind

i kind of assumed that telfair was doomed by nyc hoops hype from the beginning

This year does have a lot of combo-ish guards that are ranked high. I dunno, in a lot of ways they seem to have come at a good time, because teams don't seem too squeamish about playing two smallish guards together. Chicago, Dallas, Golden State do or at least have done it reasonably effectively. And I still pretty much think of Wade as a combo guard, even though he's become so effective that nobody really brings it up any more.

chase budinger lacks fire. aren't white guys supposed to try hard??

see Dunleavy, Mike

but junior is obviously terrified

budinger just coasts

So apparently there are something like 65 early entry candidates this year. Plus, uh, seniors. Chad Ford or someone was saying that NBA teams can pay for workouts now, so a lot of guys might be declaring to be able to do some workouts but then drop out of the draft.

Also surprised that Blake Griffin didn't declare, since players whose stock is so high tend to declare in the end regardless of what they say at first.

oh man im so psyched to not be following the draft compulsively this year

haha, i can imagine

daer jebus

it's very hard to be the timberwolves. could you pls make it so we get derrick rose?

thank u

HOLY SHIT WOOOOOHOOOOOO
DERRICK ROSE IS GONNA COME HOME!!

can someone explain to me why when charlotte showed up at #9 or w/e that made it automatically clear that the bulls were in the top 3?

May be wrong, but I think the top three are picked by lottery balls, and then the rest are just in order of their records. So since the Bulls should have been at #9 b/c of their record, their not being there meant that they were in the top 3.

as I understand it, only picks 1-3 are directly determined via the lottery balls. There is not a single ball selection, but rather, at minimum, 3. Whoever gets the 1 ball first, gets the first pick. Then the process is done again, and whoever gets the #1 ball this time gets the #2 pick, unless it's the same team as before, in which case that run through is null, and it's done again. And so on.
The other picks go to the teams that "lost" the lottery, and are assigned according to their season record. So if a team whose record initially slots them in the 4th-14th position is known to have their card not been read for either that initial position or any below it, you know they must be in the top 3.
xpost

sorry that your jebus forsook you m@tt

http://i28.tinypic.com/30s7ehu.gif

awww mr mayor :(

damn i cannot believe this happened!~~~ BULLS

wolves jinxed themselves by sending hoiberg w/some cancer kids bear

cancer kids by definition do not have good luck - duh!

radio interview w/pax, and obv he was all "we must be diligent, not make any rash decision" blah blah typical Pax speak BUT it was telling that he said the 1 and 5 positions are the hardest to fill. I don't care what Beasley vs Rose numbers are, this team needs a quarterback and a leader above all. Beasley has attitude issues and has elicited no praise for his leadership abilities. Bulls don't need a Zach Randolph, or even a Carmelo Anthony (never will win a title as a team's #1 option)

well you can be sure which ever decision paxon makes itll be the wrong one :P

ha but seriously all this michael beasley character assassination is a bit overboard - have you seen him play? he works at it - which is the most important thing - lol no fattays

haha there is a certain amount of security in that. i've grown to hate his whole CHARACTER FIRST, TALENT SECOND philosophy, but so long as he realizes that character and leadership are 2 totally different things (the latter being wayyyyyyy more important than the former, esp when you are totally lacking the latter) I think he should stay the course, 1000 points of light...

i was thinking about who they should take between beasley and rose but everything seems to point to rose being the best pick, people are comparing him to chris paul. just keep him away from motorcycles and eddy curry's personal chef~

haha. yeah paul wasn't known to be much of a scorer or shooter when he came in, right? now he's pretty much automatic from 17 feet and in, which is all you need from a pg who also has a bunch of other tools.

this is such fucking bullshit.

the bulls..goddamn it.

i have no clue who i want them to take at 3....mayo? LOLpez? hell i was thinking do you stretch for DJ augustin cuz he's a real point guard?

i feel for you dude :(

id go oj (let foye tryn run the point) - despite getting shit on all year for not being the next lebron he could easily end up the best player in the draft - i like bayless too - robotic lopez will likely be solid but not great - tiny spaztic augustin im thinking is a career back up

yeah i was thinking augustin could be sorta like damon stoudamire or something.

but yeah if mayo is there i don't think the wolves have enough talent to pass on him.

it's just we got a whole fucking team of 2 guards!

small ones, at that

i'm such a baby but goddamn the t-wolves can never catch a fuckin' break. or make competent decisions. my biggest reason for wanting to be 1 or 2 was just that it took any judgement out of making a pick, something McFail has proven he sucks at.

yah youve got to get a new owner in there before there can be any hope

last 10 #3 overall picks:

al horford
adam morrison
deron williams
ben gordon
carmelo anthony
mike dunleavy
pau gasol
darius miles
baron davis
raef lafrentz

3 certifiable stars, some decent second tier options (possible stars in the future included), a couple of busts.

virtually the same could be said about recent #1 picks. chin up, m@tt.

serge ibaka pick very much in character

i love it when the blazers buy picks

it's like the nba draft is costco for them or something

yah i like how the blazers are building their team (aside from all the injury prone players)

it's too bad we have 500 guys under contract for '08-'09 right now.

ATTN BLAZERS MY 2009 1ST ROUND PICK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR CASH CONSIDERATIONS PLZ CALL

LOL JR GIDDENS

CELTICS BRAINTRUST HARD AT WORK

"we need a 23 y.o. guard with 'character issues' who can't shoot."

lol vital has an excellent plan to kill college basketball

i was so happy to be on the phone when he was on

i looked up and he was violently jabbing at the screen

what was he saying

we need to let high school kids back into the draft because kids coming in for just one year is unfair to the "true student athletes"

after he finished that thought he downed a few gulps of moonshine.

i love the blazers

"Must Improve: Concentration"

j0rdan you want me to send you some blazers schwag

jr giddens

"Must Improve: Professionalism"

yes also i want a oden-aldridge-pryzbilla-dorsey reality show

oh sorry dude

The Blazers have traded Darrell Arthur, whom they took with the 27th pick, and traded him to Houston for the rights to Nicolas Batum, who was taken with the 25th pick.

The Blazers also gave the Rockets a second round pick, which is believed to be the 33rd pick, which was Joey Dorsey.

wait what the fuck a PRINCE???? the bucks just drafted ROYALTY?

DAMN :(

"he's thin but he's got very good length"

"we need a 23 y.o. guard with 'character issues' who can't shoot."

-- circles, Friday, 27 June 2008 02:37 (46 minutes ago) Link

didn't the guy shoot over 51% from the field last year?

watching future hangers-on of the first pick celebrate on the local news is kind of disheartening.

HENDRIX WITH AN X!

celtics got bill walker in some 2nd round trade action awesome!

chi kev, he shot well from the field, but he's a guard who shot below 60% on fts the last two years. even when he was a freshman at ku and his 3s were falling, he always had a weird-looking shot. mostly i'm just amazed that the celtics would take him when bill walker and cdr were still available.

guyz i really love the move by the t'wolves. jefferson + love makes lots of sense to me, esp. if they can ever manage to milk something out of mccants/brewe/telfair et al. mayo and gay on the other hand..........

http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0806/nbadraft.fashion/images/rlopez.jpg

y/n should ILH commission a special edition of ilxors on parade featuring the pics of players w/ stern

there should not be an "n" option on the above question.

LOL JR GIDDENS

CELTICS BRAINTRUST HARD AT WORK

-- circles, Friday, 27 June 2008 02:35 (11 hours ago) Link

this actually does make sense:

But what stuck out most to Rivers was the way Giddens shut down opponents.

"He has a chance to fight for minutes right away because of his defense," Rivers said.

but then again you never like to see this as a deficiency for a guard:

There are some deficiencies in his game, including free throw shooting and ballhandling...

celtics strategy seemed to be to take a chance talented dudes w/a strike or two against them - giddens: character issues - walker: injuries (leon powe II?) - some turkish guy: some turkish guy

really not loving the jefferson/love front court - small and unathletic! (skilled tho) - both those guys beg to be paired w/a big defensive dude. ah kevin mchale!

draft movie http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810009665/video

i don't know about this love thing..

if hubie comes on today i'd love to hear about miller, cuz on the radio this AM fred hoiberg was really pitching that miller could be a major impact.

millers good but hes not a long term solution for a rebuilding team - could def get something for him in a trade tho

Well, I'm awake, coffeed up, and have perused the Sports section. Blazers came into the draft with five picks and traded every player they drafted. That was fun.

"Except the Bucks just got Richard Jefferson. Why do that if you are going to pick Alexander?"

I still don't understand this.

bucks got a good deal for jefferson and they mustve thought alexander was the best guy left by some significant margin - its not like theyre close to competing for a title - theyve got time to sort things out make trades etc

same thing w/the small minny frontcourt really

also <3 blazers trade happy ways - especially impressive since they always seem to come out on top

why DeAndre Jordan, Mario Chalmers, Bill Walker drop so far for.

Reasons of state, Mr. Two, distributed on a need-to-know basis only.

chris douglas-roberts is the shocking one for me. wtf!

im not sure why he was this years i think this guys gonna be better than the experts think poster child. every time i watched him i was all lol u think that shits gonna fly in the pros. seems to have a one dimensional game predicated on weirdo off balance shots.

he's gotta

http://www.graffiti.org/index/WildStyle2004.jpg

(also wasn't he the leading scorer in the NCAA tournament...i mean...that's gotta count for something)

TIMBERWOLVES DON'T TRY TO GET FUCKING CUTE AND DO ONE OF YOUR CLASSIC STUPID DRAFT DAY TRADE BULLSHIT.

ROSE. BEASLEY. MAYO. = THREE PLAYERS, THREE PICKS.

TAKE WHATEVER FUCKING DUDE FALLS TO YOU AND DON'T TRY YOU USE YOUR FUCKING BRAIN MCHALE.

REAL TALK.

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 26 June 2008 17:00 (4 days ago) Link

HAHAHA

I've been too submerged in the draft the past few days to follow the react here. Wolves are my secondary team and I really like Kevin Love -- though I think he and jefferson together is a problem defensively and I still think the Wolves could use a real point guard.

I almost broke the Love-Mayo trade -- spent 10 minutes on the phone with two sources, posted it, and then found out ESPN had reported it five minutes earlier.

Anyone wants to read 3,500 words on the Grizzlies draft, you can find that here.

yeah i'm not as mad about love the more i read up on him.

you can't blame t-wolves fans for getting angry when mchale is in love with a big white boy though...it's like being a child of an alcoholic you never trust them to change their ways.

how is this miller guy we got? some of the KFAN dudes are pretty excited about him...

Miller is a really nice role player -- great shooter (really, one of the best pure shooters on the planet as long as it isn't the playoffs), can handle and pass, rebounds well, good size.

Can't defend and can be turnover prone, but certainly a high-quality player. He totally wilts under the pressure, but he's not gonna have to worry about the post-season in Minny anytime soon.

Was very well liked in Memphis. One of the few guys you'd see hanging out around town, even in the off-season. Also just gave $200,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital a few months ago.

Get ready for a stream of post-game quotes all preceded by, "The bottom line is..." -- that's his go-to cliche.

And isn't Miller from S. Dakota too? Minneapolis is as close to home as he's going to get.

yeah miller is from sodak...he's actually super excited about being a t-wolf (haha! that's rare)...said he grew up on the team and actually always wanted to be on the team