You could feel the entire city of Boston collectively cry out... and then silence.

Kind of like the voices of the people of Alderaan.

And like that fictional movie massacre, an injustice of similar proportions has been wreaked upon the NBA's most storied franchise.  

I live in Toronto and cheer for a hometown team that plays against the Celtics, so in all fairness, I'm happy that an Eastern Conference team didn't get either of the top two picks but c'mon...  They missed out on Duncan, they made the playoffs with 36 wins the year Dwight Howard and Emeka Okafor were in the lottery and now they have the fifth pick in the draft this year.  

And Doc Rivers was signed to an extension.  

I'm thinking that Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics' current situation has everything to do with karma revisiting upon them the inverse of all of the success they enjoyed from the 1956-57 season through the 85-86 season and then the few gasps they had at the end of the Bird era as Larry's back gave out.  That's the first thing that came to my mind as I watched the lottery unfold.  

The second was that Atlanta slipped into the top 3 and ensured that Phoenix wouldn't be completely ridiculous next year as they begin their quest to avenge themselves against David Stern's victory against them in Game 6--  I mean, San Antonio's victory over Suns.  

Alright, so how does the draft lottery look?

14. L.A. Clippers
13. New Orleans
12. Philadelphia
11. Atlanta (from Indiana)
10. Sacramento
9. Chicago (from New York)
8. Charlotte
7. Minnesota
6. Milwaukee
5. Boston
4. Memphis
3. Atlanta
2. Seattle
1. Portland

On the whole, the lower half of the lottery is not altogether unexpected.  Philly and Indiana were the 9th and 10th seeds in the East, with Charlotte right after them; no one realistically expected them to win.  New York gives Chicago a top 10 pick, which is going to be nice for the Bulls, since they might pursue Yi Jianlian, Spencer Hawes, Tiago Splitter, Jason Smith or really any of the non-Oden center prospects.  I'll get into that in a bit.  Let's look at these teams in order.

L.A. Clippers

The Clippers narrowly missed the playoffs like some of the other teams I mentioned.  They won 40 games, despite their point guards missing significant time due to injury or age-related crappiness.  Despite that, they were still a top-10 defensive squad, so really they've got to be looking at health and definitely an improvement in their offensive efficiency.  They were 24th in the league in effective field goal percentage and even a cursory glance at their team statistics shows you that they've only got two long-range shooters on the team.  As a team, they've got their problems, especially since they?re out West.  Even healthy, it doesn't seem likely that they're going to make a major push next year but they've got a chance to add a lottery talent and that's usually a good thing.  Given the God-awful tragedy that is Shaun Livingston's left knee, I suspect that the Clippers will pursue a point guard.  Unfortunately, it seems likely that both Mike Conley and Acie Law will be gone before the Clippers make their pick, so they'll be stuck either trading the pick for more veteran help or taking a chance on guys like Rodney Stuckey or Javaris Crittenton.  I suppose they might go Euro and take a potshot at Theo Papaloukas or maybe a younger guy like Anton Ponkrashov or something, maybe Nikos Zissis or Mantas Kalnietis or someone like that but... there remains one more possibility.  The Clippers could take that pick and package it in a deal (maybe a multi-team deal) with Corey Maggette and see what could be had.  If they can clear cap space, they could theoretically chase Chauncey Billups but that doesn't seem like anything more than a waste of time, all considered.  

This upcoming season has 'treadmill' written all over it for the Clippers, unfortunately.  They have a glaring hole at the point and they're young prospect is never going to be the same even when he does get back (which is truly a shame because Livingston was a really special passer).  

If they don't use the pick in an effort to get a point guard, they need someone who's a good pressure defender man-up because they were the third-worst in the league at forcing turnovers.  They could also improve their offensive rebounding, helping their overall offensive efficiency, which, as I noted before, is definitely something they could work on.  The Clippers aren't too many moves away from making some noise but they've got to make them reasonably soon.  Brand's pushing 30 and the miles he's piling up on that frame aren't going to do him any good once he passes that marker.  

New Orleans

39 wins weren?t so bad for the Hornets, all told.  52 games from West, 13 from Peja, 64 from Paul, 58 from Devin Brown, 56 from Bobby Jackson, 56 from Marc Jackson...  The Hornets had a mess of injuries to deal with all season long and that hurt them.  Just being healthy next season will make them a lot better and they've got a chance to address some team needs with the 13th pick.  They've got the same problems as the Clippers upon a peripheral statistical analysis: they were 27th in the league in eFG%, and second-last in forcing turnovers.  They were also third-worst at getting to the foul line.  In fact, their opponents took nearly 325 more FTAs on the season than they did, for an average of nearly 4 extra free throws per game (or a little over 3 ppg just from FTs).  Ironically, they were top 4 in the league in keeping the opposition OFF the foul line, so it could have been a lot worse.  

Again, health alone will improve this team a lot; having Peja out beyond the arc will really open things up inside and otherwise take pressure off of everyone else.  He may have a really weak performance record in the clutch but he's still a guy who's shot 39.9% from downtown on his career and has scored about 18 ppg on average.  That's a potent scoring presence that they're missing and that's going to be huge if he can be healthy.  Of course, "healthy" and Peja...  Well, they don't really go together very well.  

So the Hornets will probably look to their draft pick for a scorer who can shoot.  In the range that they're picking, they've got a lot of potential options.  The two names that really jump out at me are Nick Young and Brandon Rush.  Rush has been a particularly good shooter from the college 3 in both of his seasons (though his FT shooting dropped off quite a bit this year).  He seems to have made the decision to start driving more both ways and to work on his defense, so he could potentially plug in nicely to the Hornets' lineup.  Another guy who can create some offense for himself, maybe bring spark off the bench...  He'd be a nice addition.  Young's shooting touch is questionable, because he's historically more of a 33% shooter from the college three but hey, he's young and could improve.  He's got a great mid-range game and can create for himself and would work nicely with Peja back in the lineup to open up the middle of the floor for him to operate.  

The third option I thought of is a bit of a reach given where he's projected at the moment but maybe if the Hornets trade down, they might consider taking Morris Almond.  Almond's a deadly shooter, a great free throw shooter (and, more importantly, a PROLIFIC free throw shooter).  I don't know why he's ranked so low, maybe it's because his athleticism is average (not sub-par).  He's got long arms (6'10 wingspan on a legit 6'6 player) and he's built like a tank.  Not the world's greatest defender but if he's got Tyson Chandler behind him and Chris Paul's quick hands and feet on the perimeter with him, it might not be a problem (especially while he comes off the bench as a rookie, at least for a while).  Theoretically, his scoring punch is probably the best out of all three of these guys despite his lesser athleticism. And, since he wouldn't be the go-to guy on offense, he could exploit his greatest strength: his spot-up shooting and shots off of screens.  He could be a nasty sixth man for the Hornets.  

Of course, those guys are all projected at 18 or later in many mocks, so it's possible that the Hornets might try for Jeff Green or Splitter or someone and try to trade up (or down) for the parts that they really want.  

Philadelphia

Philly was hoping but it wasn't in the cards.  Everyone knew it wasn't going to be a great season but 35 wins wasn't actually a bad showing.  The Sixers seem to have something going right with Iggy and Dre, Joe Smith didn't suck...  They've got some pieces.  More to the point, they've got the 12th pick in the draft.  Dalembert may be one of the, umm, less instinctual players in the league but he still gave them 11 and 9 in 31 minutes and blocked nearly two shots a game, so I suspect the Sixers won't be chasing a center.  And with Dre around, a point guard isn't a great use of their pick either.  And with Iggy around, a wing isn't necessarily the best move.  So they're probably looking for a shooting guard or a power forward.  They desperately need more offensive firepower and they could use some more long-range shooting, too.  

You have to think what was good for the Hornets might also be good for Philly; Nick Young, Brandon Rush and Morris Almond are all viable options to round out their big guard position and give them the scoring punch and long-range offense they could use.  However, as with the Hornets, the guys they seem most likely to take are projected later and Acie Law is projected at the 12.  If, and it's a big if because he's a top 2 PG prospect in the draft, if he's still around, he'd be a nice flip piece for the Sixers.  

If they chase a power forward (and it wouldn't be a bad idea considering their rebounding situation), they're looking at Al Thornton or Jeff Green at the moment, neither of whom is really size for that spot.  They could conceivably try to play Splitter at the 4, I guess but there really aren't any palatable options that address their actual needs at the 4, so I suspect that they'll chase a scoring guard.  

Atlanta

Atlanta has a pair of lottery picks and seems in prime position to make something really great happen.  Of course, since Billy Knight is in charge you never know what might happen.  Drafting Shelden Williams was a ridiculous move and the Joe Johnson trade didn't do much for Atlanta.  It seems unfair since JJ played only 57 games but the Hawks won exactly as many games as they were on pace to win WITH JJ (30; Atlanta was 21-36 with JJ in the lineup).  Marvin Williams is still a questionable pick, especially in the face of the success of Chris Paul and Deron Williams (both of whom would have negated the need for the JJ trade) but he's improving and showing at least some of the signs that had some people believing he really should have been selected number two overall.  So all in all, even if you're a pessimist and don't like their GM, you have to look at Atlanta as having a reasonably bright future even though they missed out on the big prizes.  

With the 11th overall pick, I should HOPE Atlanta will pursue a real point guard.  They have a critical need of a real pass-first point guard.  Speedy Claxton is ALWAYS too injured to help and JJ would be better suited to scoring more because the Hawks were DEAD LAST in effective field goal percentage, 26th in the league in turnovers per game (e.g. they were the 5th-worst team in the league about turning the ball over)... they were 28th overall in offensive and were the 24th team in pace.  Add all that to their weak defense and the Hawks were a legitimately bad team.  There are two factors that could significantly change their fortunes.

1) Health

The Hawks did suffer a few rather noticeable injuries.  Marvin Williams' finger was a big one, especially because when he was in, he had clearly improved from his rookie season and was making a bit of an impact on offense.  Hopefully, Marvin will played more than 64 games and both Lue and Speedy will play enough games to give the Hawks some better depth.  JJ, too.  Also, big loss, Childress only played 55 games.  13, 6 and 2 with a steal is tough to lose when he's shooting 50% and like 80% from the line.  The Hawks have a lot of nice wing talent that they're working on developing, so it'll be interesting to see if they can improve their frontcourt... which leads me to the second factor:

2) The Draft

Even though they don't have a top 2 pick to take Oden, the Hawks have two lottery picks.  It's almost completely unlikely that Portland or Seattle will trade their picks, so setting that notion aside we can look at the following key options:

I was fervently hoping the Hawks would select Roy Hibbert with the #3.  It's a bit of a stretch but the Hawks selected Shelden Williams at the 5, so it's not like Knight isn't willing to make a fool of himself if he thinks it MIGHT work out.  Hibbert brings height, some rebounding, some shot-blocking, some scoring... he could be a significant interior presence and that would help Atlanta a lot because they're essentially a donut team, no offense to Zaza.  Unfortunately, Hibbert pulled out of the draft and is no longer available, so they'll have to look elsewhere for an interior presence.  It's disappointing but...

That said, I wouldn't be terrifically unhappy with Al Horford or Brandan Wright, either.  Both of them have some potential to be rebounders and/or shot-blockers and/or semi-significant offensive presences and they're very definitely big men.  Wright is less physical than Horford but whoo, it's not like the Hawks won't improve dramatically with either.  Actually, Yi Jianlian might be an interesting choice.  He's big, he can shoot, he's got a move or two down low, he's athletic enough that he has significant potential, he's aggressive...  He's young (even if he IS 22 instead of 20) but he's got loads of potential and Yao was 22 when he was drafted anyway.  Not that I'm comparing the two but 22 used to be the regular age at which you drafted someone, so it's not like we're losing years and years off the player's career, you know?  Anyhow, it would be an interesting experiment and the Hawks are still a ways away from any kind of serious presence, even in the East (barring something really special happening with someone on their team this year, like Josh Smith randomly turning into an explosive scorer or one of the rooks being a monster).  

With the later pick, I'd hope that Conley or Law would be the choice because my GOD DO THE HAWKS NEED A POINT GUARD!!!  It's been painfully apparent for years that they need someone to orchestrate their offense.  Joe Johnson CAN do it but he'd be far better off as a secondary facilitator making plays as a conventional shooting guard does while someone else runs things from up top.

Barring something silly like the Hawks choosing Corey Brewer or Julian Wright and Jeff Green, they should be mostly OK.  If Knight takes another wing, though, he should be rolled up in a carpet and tossed off a bridge for maliciously undermining the franchise's ability to win.  

Sacramento

Bit of uncertainty with this team on account of them firing Musselman.  33 wins were terrifically disappointing.  It's true that Miller and Kenny Thomas weren't the picture of health but Kevin Martin was there, Shraeef did OK, Corliss Williamson too, etc, etc.  I think they suffered significantly for not having Adelman's creative offensive mind on the bench for them and their lack of offensive punch made it difficult to overcome their weak defense.  They need to improve their offensive ability, particularly their offensive rebounding (3rd-worst in the league).  Age, crappy defense and a lack of a properly executed offensive system is hurting them.  Well, maybe it's more than the system isn't being buoyed by the caliber of scorers to which they've grown accustomed.  The Kings need to shore up their defense (inside D would REALLY help) and add a consistent offensive perimeter weapon besides Bibby and Martin.  Artest is unreliable and baggage, he needs to be shed, even for 30 cents on the dollar.  

Sacramento should really be looking at moving Miller as well, and finding some kind of interior offense besides Corliss Williamson and slashers.  If they want to trade Bibby, now's the time, assuming they can get their hands on Conley or Law.  Bibby's a big contract but he's also a criminally under respected player.  

Draft-wise, I suspect the Kings would be best off taking the best player available and then trying to do their work through off-season trades.

Chicago (from New York)

Well, not quite the pick the Bulls might have hoped for but it's still a good place to be; top ten pick in a deep draft.  They should be looking to see what post scorers are available.  Realistically, anything they do will be awesome but they should be pursuing some kind of post presence.  They've got to re-sign Nocioni and decide if they care about Sweetney anymore while figuring out what to do about that interior offense problem.  That's about the size of it with them, this is a gravy pick that makes the Curry trade continue to look like a solid move.  

Charlotte

The Bobcats won only 33 games but Okafor was injured again and Hermann only played about half the season... and then didn't come into his own right away.  Also, Adam Morrison was complete garbage for the majority of the year and had only a few "Hey, I don't totally suck" flashes to prompt his supporters to come to his defense.  The Bobcats can use whatever they get, though theoretically the best move would be forcing Felton and everyone else on the squad to dump the ball into Okafor at the beginning of every possession and let him determine the direction of their offense...  everyone else just needs to move without the ball and hit their open shots, that's how you use a big man.  

They could use an athletic wing scorer and with the 8th pick, they've got a shot at Brewer or Wright, who could potentially be useful.  Raymond Felton needs to shoot less and I sincerely hope that Sam Vincent realizes that.  And that a Felton/Knight backcourt is BAD.  And that Morrison needs to come off the bench in much-reduced minutes unless the coach radically redefines his role.  

So yeah, I'm looking at Julian Wright or Corey Brewer as the top choices for the Bobcats at the 8.  

Minnesota

Kevin Garnett's pain is a palpable thing.  There's talk of extending McHale, he didn't get even close to the pick, his team is still poorly constructed and he has no future in Minnesota.  

Minnesota pretty much needs everything but undersized scoring guards, since they have plenty of those.  Mark Blount had a nice year but it's not enough.  The Wolves, barring some kind of massive and intelligent roster shakeup (the likes of which Kevin McHale has shown neither the inclination nor the ability to produce), are going to be in the lottery again next year and it'll be a shame as we continue to watch the wasting of one of the greatest talents in the history of the game.  

Historically, McHale hasn't drafted badly, his main problems have been the idiocy of the Joe Smith scandal and lack of action, as well as constructing the roster in a fairly ridiculous way by adding players that overlap and don't add to the team.  He's been bad about trawling the free agent pool (though that one year he added Sprewell and Cassell was very good)...  anyway, rant about McHale and his complete and bewildering lack of basketball acumen aside, the Wolves can do whatever they want and it won't matter at this point.  Hopefully, they trade Garnett because it's clear that the team isn't going to go anywhere and Garnett deserves a shot to win after having more than a decade of his life wasted by Kevin McHale.  

Bitter, much?  

I'm a big Garnett fan, if it wasn't blatantly obvious before now.  

Anything they can get with the 7th pick will be fine, as long as it isn't another combo guard.  If you look at the DX draft board, the guys Minnesota is likely to be looking at are Brewer, Conley, Julian Wright, Spencer Hawes and Yi Jianlian, with an outside shot at Mike Conley.  Also, Acie Law will likely still be around, since he's projected around the 11th pick.  If it were me in McHale's place, I'd think long and hard about selling off Troy Hudson and some of my other older combo guards and taking a shot at Conley or Acie Law.  That failing, it couldn't hurt to explore Jianlian or Hawes because Garnett needs a lot of help in the frontcourt; Minny was one of the six WORST teams in the league on offense and one of the 9 worst teams defensively.  They had troubles on offense because they were inefficient, turned the ball over a lot and couldn't rebound.  They also didn't draw a lot of fouls.  That says to me that they need a real center who won't stray far from the paint and who can rebound a lot on both ends, that they need a point guard and that they need their perimeter guys to slash more instead of shooting so many long shots.  I'm leery of the existing players being able to do that, especially with Randy Whittman as their main guiding force from the bench.  

So what to do about it?  I think Yi is probably Minny's best bet if they don't draft a point guard (and I doubt they will, given the population at the guard spot).  Theoretically, he likes to face up and drive but he's athletic and likes to hit the glass some.  And he's tall, so he'll help, even if he is skinny.  In the modern league, power is often overstated.  There are many teams playing smaller lineups or lineups with thinner guys... or just players who don't know how to use their bodies.  So if you're 6'10, 6'11 and only 240, that's OK.  Athleticism, wingspan and desire will do a lot that power can't (see Kwame Brown, who is a terrible defensive rebounder despite being 7'0, 270 pounds and very athletic).  

Yi Jianlian is a high-risk, high-reward player but the Wolves need to take desperate measures because Garnett is GONE after this year, for sure, unless the team takes measurable strides to pull themselves from the depths of mediocrity.  

Milwaukee

The Bucks had such a bad year because of injuries, by and large.  Depending on who's healthy and how they handle the Mo Williams situation, they could be fairly competitive out East even without the lottery pick they're adding.  They probably will and definitely should take the best player available and do just fine for their troubles, especially with Redd, Charlie V and maybe even Bobby Simmons healthy.  Patterson and Bell are gone but that shouldn't be a big deal with everyone else back.  

Realistically, they should be looking to Mo Williams as the indicator for their draft; if they think he'll leave in free agency, then they take Conley or Law, whomever impresses them more in workouts (I'd take Conley).  If he doesn't, they can take a chance on a wing player, since they had some much trouble from the 3 this year.  

Boston

Boston, like Memphis after them, got totally destroyed.  These were the teams with the best chance to win and they both got the worst pick they could have ended up with).  They needed this in the worst way and, in typical modern-era Boston fashion, they got jobbed.  It happened with Duncan, it happened when they made the playoffs with 36 wins the year Okafor and Howard were in the lottery...  Boston hasn't been able to catch a break since Len Bias died.  He died, Bird's back gave out, Lewis died, then the above happened...  It's been a really nasty fall-out for the most storied franchise in the league.  

So now what do they do?  Their mediocre coach has been extended, their youth-movement GM hasn't been adding veteran presence and hasn't got anyone besides Pierce who he can really move for something significant... what are the Celtics going to do?  They'll take a flier on whomever the top 4 guys don't pick, most likely.  If Ainge is really crafty, he might parlay the pick into a lower pick and a player, since he seems fond of draft-night trades.  The Celtics need to basically radically restructure their team and build around Jefferson, so we'll see if that happens.  I can't fathom what kind of miserable failure this lottery was for Celtics management.  All that tanking, to no avail.  

Theoretically, Boston should be looking to find Pierce's replacement or trying to teach Green what he'll need to know in order to become that replacement.  Perimeter shooters would be nice but they could use some mid-range scorers, too.  Really, the guys who I talked about earlier (Nick Young, Brandan Wright, Morris Almond) all seem appropriate here.  Boston had the second-worst offense in the league and that needs to change.  Their defense was on the wrong side of middle-of-the-pack but if they had a better offense, they could overcome that.  And if they had some vets, maybe they might improve their defense, too...  Boston's got a lot of work to do and a lot of its starts with a wrecking ball.  

Assuming Boston is unable to work out a trade involving their pick, they should be looking at a frontcourt partner for Jefferson, someone who can rebound hard but likes to work from around 15 to 18 feet.  Joakim Noah might not be a bad choice; Boston has some offensive firepower if Doc Rivers ever decides to use it properly and Noah seems to be a good rebounder and hustle player with potential to be much more.  He would fit nicely into Ainge's youth movement and he has the experience from consecutive title runs that should help inject a bit of the winning mentality into what remains of a once-great franchise.

Memphis

Ouch.  But then, how many times has the team with the best chance won the lottery?  Twice?  Three times?  It doesn't happen often, even though it's a 1-in-4 chance.  Needless to say, Memphis (like Boston) was very, very bad.  In fact, playing their games at all was futile on most nights because they were so badly outmatched and outplayed.  Memphis was the worst defensive team in the league this past season, giving up 5.9 more points per 100 possessions than the league average.  They had a surprisingly efficient shooting clip (top 10 in eFG%) but they were among the worst in offensive rebounding and protecting the ball.  They were dead last in defensive eFG% allowed, and pretty bad as defensive rebounders as well.

So we're talking about rebounding and defense.  That smells like Al Horford to me.  Brandan Wright is a thought but Horford's got the potential to be the interior scorer Gasol doesn't want to be, to improve their defensive rebounding and to help them improve their offensive efficiency with second-chance points from the offensive glass.  Furthermore, he'll take pressure off of Gay and Gasol merely by existing as a threat in the paint, so that should make their lives a little easier.  Like Noah and Brewer, his winning mentality should be a big lift in the locker-room.  

Atlanta

Psyche!  Already talked about them!  Horford, Yi, Wright or even Noah with the #3 and then Conley or Law with the #11 if they can get either.  

Seattle

Durant or Oden, whichever Portland doesn't pick.  Hopefully Durant, because I really don't want to have to hate Portland management for the next decade.

Portland

You can't REALLY go wrong either way with this kind of talent in the top two picks and with every player you want available but I suggest that Portland is best off grabbing Oden.  They were among the four worst defensive squads in the league last year (their miserable offense aside) and while not a bad rebounding team, Oden's interior presence and shot-blocking will help them improve noticeably over their mark as the 25th team in defensive eFG%.  Durant will not, he's not a significant defender, though he might eventually become a good one.  Oden is a good defender NOW and prospects of his type and with his work ethic are RARE.  Theoretically, with him hitting the offensive glass as well (Oden grabbed 3.5 orpg in 28.9 mpg at Ohio State and shouldn't find many barriers do grabbing 2.5 or 3 offensive boards per in the NBA), the Blazers should see at least a small increase in offensive efficiency along with a measurable decrease in opponents' efficiency.  Plus, they'll have something to build around conceptually: they can test the break, see what happens in the secondary and if all else fails, give the ball to Oden and see what happens from there.  Oden should also be able to make Martell Webster relevant again.  

Webster was taken 6th in the '05 draft because he's got one of the smoothest jumpers in all of history but he's not super-athletic and doesn't have great handles.  He's 6'7, 230 pounds and has a 6'11 wingspan: he's actually a pretty decent physical specimen, reminds me a lot of Glen Rice.  He's got decent end-to-end speed but he's "only" got a 30" vertical, which isn't spectacular and his lateral quickness isn't amazing, as I mentioned.  However, he HAS shot about 36% from downtown in both seasons in the NBA so far, so if the Blazers are centering their offense around Oden, they can send Webster running around the kinds of screens Nate M set up for Ray-Ray and Shard in Seattle a few years ago and have him feeding off the big guy.  They can also look to post him up a little, because beefy wing players have had success doing that in the past (see Glen Rice, Glenn Robinson, Larry Johnson and then other guys like Jamal Mashburn [not so beefy] and more athletic guys like 'Nique and Bernard King).  They're closer shots and new ways to get touches, which shooters always like.  

So that, as well as defense, is something that Oden can give Portland that Durant cannot; a way to maximize Martell Webster's abilities.  

Tying It All Together

Right, so I've ranted and raved through all of my key points regarding the lotto teams now.  This is a pretty deep draft and there aren't too many bad decisions to be made in terms of who to pick as long as the teams steer clear of the biggies: don't replicate what you already have in four other players, fill your needs while considering talent and think about the value of your pick; if you can trade it and get two players that fit what you're looking for, do it.  

These are simple concepts.  Not necessarily simple to implement but a lot of the time, GMs throw basic sensibility to the wind and do stupid things that make no sense whatsoever.  I can't count the number of times I've said "my god, as long as they don't [x], they'll be fine," only to watch the GM do precisely what I had hoped they would avoid doing.  

This draft should be interesting, if only to see where everyone ends up.  As usual, draft-day trades will make for some exciting maneuvering and could radically change what a team is doing with the draft.  For example, if a team trades up, all of a sudden they've got a chance at a much better player (in theory, of course), which means they might want to look at the best player available instead of filling a need because they can suddenly move a player who's looking expendable.  Needless to say, it'll be a great time to be a fan of the NBA!

Unless you like Boston or Memphis, in which case, I sympathize with you deeply.