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Authored by Chris Lehane - 30th June, 2008 - 11:32 am
Watching the NBA Draft last night, once again led me to the inescapable conclusion that your average fantasy league owner could do a better job than the majority of these NBA teams. To whit:
(1) Chris Douglas-Roberts: The first-team All American who was over the course of the year was the best player on the second best college team in the country goes in the second round at 40. The reason proffered for why he fell so far – he is “unorthodox.” Apparently, a 6’7’ wing who plays defense, gets to the rim, can shoot the mid-range jumper, is a leader, takes the big shot, and has not one – but two – cool handles (“CDR” and “Buckets”) is considered unorthodox. Another way to look at this is the delta between Rose and CDR really 39 players, including Memphis team-mate the 6’7” undersized big Joey Dorsey (who was picked before Douglas-Roberts). The Rockets drafted France’s Nicolas Batum at 25, despite having purported unresolved health issues (at the same time purported unresolved health issues led Darrell Arthur into free fall), in hopes that Batum has the potential to be what CDR already is! Unless some unknown genetic test reveals that CDR is directly related to JR Rider – I don’t get it.
(2) Michael Beasley: The Heat did everything they possibly could to devalue Beasley’s worth and the trade value of their number two pick while shopping the pick. Either you believe Beasley is one of those players that comes around every four or five years and you take him to help form a South Beach Big Three, or you believe he is flawed, in which case you would look to trade the pick to put as many complimentary players around D-Wade and the Matrix as possible. Under either analysis, you would do all you could to build up his value (either to make Beasley feel good about his situation – especially if you have concerns about his emotional maturity -- or to increase the trade value). What you would almost certainly NOT do is exactly what the Heat did – undermine his value.
(3) Brook Lopez: A seven foot, athletic, mean, smart, tough, proven big man with real offensive skills falls to 10. Teams like Memphis (which apparently prefers seven foot, nice, soft, unproven foreign-grown big men who, once they develop, are then given away… and you wonder why the Grizz are perennial lottery participants) or the Knicks (who prefer over-weight, slow-footed, attitude challenged big men) or Charlotte (which traded for a later pick to select a guy who looks like the second coming of Freddie Weiss and used their number 9 pick to draft an undersized point guard to go along with their existing undersized point guard so as Larry Brown can treat the two of them to the NBA equivalent of rendition); all passed on an actual franchise player. For those on the East Coast who may have missed the Stanford-UCLA games, given the coverage, you would probably be surprised to see how Lopez fared against Love. In a League where a point guard or big is what is needed to win – to pass on a guy who at a minimum should be a 10 and 8 guy with the potential to be a true franchise center is mystifying.
(4) Danilo Gallinari: I actually like this player based on what I have seen of his Italian League play (6’9” who can shoot, move, and pass) – he actually produces in a real way in the best basketball league outside of the NBA. However, he is 19. But, of course, the Knicks have the luxury of being able to develop a player over several years; New York fans are celebrated for their patience, and Starbury is well known for helping to develop talent.
(5) Alexis Ajinca: All you really need to know about the NBA draft was captured in the Bobcats' pick of Alexis Ajinca: (a) Ajinca hasn't competed in the FRENCH league. I repeat - he has not performed in the equivalent of a mid-major college league. Freddie Weiss was competitive in the French league for God's sake, and (b) The Bobcats paid money to get this pick. Larry Brown in an ESPN interview says “he fell in love with the kid.” Brown is the same guy who was with the Pistons when Detroit swooned for Darko and passed up on Melo (who the Pistons are now trying to trade for). Question for Larry – has he actually seen Alexis play in a competitive game. The guy was apparently dominant in workouts – when playing against himself; (c) The Bobcats made this pick with Darrell Arthur available. A big who was one of the best players on a national championship and one of the top players in a power conference. But hey – they decide to take the guy who is a non-factor in the French league for the seemingly, singularly compelling reason that he has long arms. If nothing else, should the dolphin in the Charlotte aquarium swallow a ring they at least can get the French kid to help out a la Clifford Ray (and I don’t even know whether Charlotte has an aquarium); (d) This basketball equivalent of the Maginot Line is drafted by a team that needs help right away – but he appears to be five years away from playing. In the meantime, maybe he can provide reviews to the rest of the team on French New Wave cinema.
Danny Ainge, the architect of your World Championship Boston Celtics , once again not only demonstrated how to play the draft (Giddens is a pick that either really works out at 30 in terms of the value or you lose little and getting Walker for cash is like finding a ten dollar bill on the ground while walking home) – but I believe Danny purposefully made clear with the 60th, and last pick, of the draft what a ludicrous process the NBA draft truly is when he drafted the back-up center on a Turkish team where the starter, who himself was an early pick in the second round, is already locked down for five years and the back-up is locked down for five years – and combined they do not account for 10 points a game in Turkey (a place where the last time any real defense was played was at Galipoli). Danny’s pick of the Turkish stiff who backs up the starting Turkish stiff was an appropriate way to end the 2008 NBA Draft.
- Democratic strategist Chris Lehane is a Boston Celtics fan and long-time contributor to RealGM. He filed these scouting reports after witnessing the players in pre-draft workouts. |
