Delivered at 5:23 AM EST
The draft is just hours away and several hat-swaps are already in place and ready to happen and other hat-swaps won't happen until the early hours of Wednesday morning when ESPN has shut down for the night and RealGM's Draft Night coverage rages on and others will wait on the free agency period and be packaged as part of sign-and-trade deals.
The 2005 Trade Deadline saw a record number of trades completed and the 2005 Draft will follow form.
There is no shortage of contingent trades on the table and simply depend on who is and who is not still available when the GM?s are finally put on the clock.
And this is one of the most bewildering and exciting drafts that we have ever witnessed.
I spoke with four agents over the course of Monday and all but one spoke with reservation and a great sense of bewilderment.
One agent said to me, "This draft is the most confusing thing I've ever seen."
- One place to look for with no bewilderment is Milwaukee, as they will draft Andrew Bogut, and everyone has known that for weeks now. They also received promising news on Monday when T.J. Ford was medically cleared to resume full practice.
- Atlanta is reluctantly ready to select Marvin Williams and retain him. Wisely, they will overload at the small forward position for the time being and will look to trade the excess in due time.
- A source close to the negotiations told me on Monday that the Utah/Portland deal is as good as done, which has been widely reported, but more pertinently, that the final agreement has not been made whatsoever. Portland is reportedly adamant about keeping things open for another team to come in at the 11th hour with a deal that they?d prefer.
It is not a negotiation tactic to squeeze more out of Utah because the deal which would send Giricek, Snyder and the 6th pick for the 3rd and Patterson will not change.
The Blazers are just holding out hope that a dream-like deal will appear if their phones are still accepting calls and despite media reports that have Deron Williams on the next plane to Salt Lake City, they want other GM?s to know that his plane can still go to a number of cities, including Atlanta and Los Angeles.
- The Hornets will be staying put and will draft Chris Paul with the 4th pick.
- The Bobcats are one team that have pulled back from trade talks where they?d move up and are looking to move down and that is because the value of the 13th spot has increased so significantly over the last week.
They think that there is so much value to be had in this area of the draft, an source informed me late on Monday that the Bobcats are discussing a deal with Toronto for the 7th and 16th picks.
Toronto?s guy is Danny Granger and they know Utah will not select him, regardless of who they?re drafting for, so the 16th pick is being considered as an insurance policy on getting him, similar to when the Raptors baited the Warriors into the Vince Carter-Antawn Jamison trade. If they don?t do the trade and Granger is drafted by the Bobcats at five, then they will be forced to select either Gerald Green or Martell Webster, both of whom interest the Hornets and could be used later this summer if they should strike a Jamaal Magloire deal.
These draft picks have just become too valuable for team?s with multiple selections to relinquish them so freely and that is because Andrew Bynum, Channing Frye and Hakim Warrick are now virtual locks to be drafted before the second turn of the night comes around for teams like the Bobcats and Raptors and these are three players they expected to be behind them. The result of this is of course a significant displacement of several players that they have considered at number five, most notably, Raymond Felton.
A league executive told me yesterday that the Bobcats are prepared to trade down from 13 if Raymond Felton is off the board.
The likely trade partner will be Denver, who hold the 20th and 22nd picks and if he is available, the Bobcats will take a chance on Andray Blatche with one of those picks.
- This brings us to the Lakers who are an elephant in the china shop, also known as the lottery. Since the Lakers are rarely within striking distance of a competent player in the draft, let alone a potential All-Star, their confusion over what to do is apparent, as there are several attractive paths.
The first one is sweetening the deal for the Blazers. Deron Williams is of great interest to Phil Jackson and would make Kobe Bryant?s job that much easier.
- The Clippers will be staying put and won?t be following up on that soft promise to Yaroslav Korolev. Like Charlotte, the rise of Bynum, Frye and Warrick have put them in a position to draft a swingman much more NBA ready, and will be taking home Green, Webster or Antoine Wright.
- Memphis has been very active and are trying to deal both Jason Williams and Bonzi Wells, but one source told me on Monday that he expects one of these two players to be moved during a Stromile Swift sign-and-trade later this summer.
There have been no shortage of reports this offseason suggesting that these two Memphis players would be dealt and it now appears that they will continue until late July at the earliest.
- Chris Taft remains one of the most intriguing stories of the draft. Nearly everyone I spoke to on Monday about the Pittsburgh forward believes he?s destined to fall to the 2nd round, which is contrary to a statement made to me last week, which had him going to Houston at 24, but Sacramento's 23rd pick looks tailor made for Taft.
Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM and may be reached at Christopher.Reina@RealGM.com.