This year’s NBA
Draft to everyone’s surprise will probably be more known for what didn’t happen
than what did. In a year full of trade
speculation and rumors, there wasn’t a trade until the 17th pick and
no major assets were moved. Here are
some of what I thought were the notable happenings from the draft:
·
The Unibrow
Not much more can be said about what Anthony Davis
gives the Hornets, he is the type of player whom you can build your franchise
around and once he develops his presence almost guarantees that you will be a
contender every year. You combine that
with the emerging star Eric Gordon, arguably the best young shooting guard in
the game, along with the talented but controversial Austin Rivers the Hornets
could be a playoff team, or possibly even title contender sooner than most
people believe.
·
Bobcats decision
After all the weeks of talk about how the Bobcats
didn’t want to keep the 2nd pick and that it if they did keep it
that Thomas Robinson would be the choice, the Bobcats went ahead and kept the
pick selecting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Unless
you were getting a proven commodity in return for the pick, like the rumored
James Harden, then I believe that Charlotte made the correct choice. Kidd-Gilchrist makes them better in just his competitiveness
alone. He will work harder than anyone in
this class to improve his game and make sure that he becomes a star player in
this league. To me worst case scenario
for him is to become Gerald Wallace.
·
Dwight stays
The other much discussed trade rumor of draft was
that Dwight Howard was going to be traded to the Rockets as they were
attempting to package picks together to acquire him for next season. The Rockets at least were supposed to end up
trading into the top 10 so they could take a high risk guy like Andre
Drummond. Neither of these things
happened as Dwight stayed in Orlando and Houston kept their 3 picks from
12-18. I do like what the Rockets did
though with their picks in taking multiple high-ceiling guys In Jeremy Lamb and
Royce White and following that with the safe pick of Terrance Jones, who
figures to turn into a rotation perimeter defender and spot up shooter. In Orlando’s case, while I loved their
selection of Andrew Nicholson, who Taylor will personally be writing about, I
am not sure about why the trade didn’t go down.
If the trade didn’t happen because Dwight wasn’t going to stay in
Houston under any circumstances then there is nothing that the Magic could do
about that. However if the trade
happened because their new GM thought he could get Dwight to stay in Orlando
then I believe it was a major risk.
Consider you could have had multiple first round picks in a deep draft
along with a few other good players as well then unless you are extremely
confident you can keep Dwight I would make that trade.
·
Boston’s steal
To me the Celtics I think probably got the steal of
the draft in taking Jared Sullinger with the 21st pick. While there are significant health risks in
taking Sullinger I believe that for a win now team like the Celtics this is a
risk well worth taking. Sullinger for
the past 2 seasons has arguably been the best player in all of college
basketball and to me that means something. He is a competitive person who
stayed in school, and watched his draft stock plummet because of it so he could
compete for a National Championship. A
competitive player like that who will be playing for a title contending team
and is a proven low post scorer who you can give it to on the low block and can
produce points. He should be able to
contribute right away as a rotation guy playing behind Brandon Bass and
KG. To me this gives the Celtics another
weapon at their disposal and considering how far he fell I would assume that
this would make him work even harder and develop into a stronger player and
obtaining a piece like that can really tilt the balance in a playoff series
which the Celtics figure to be involved in next year.
I think that while this year’s draft wasn’t full of
the big moves that always make drafts exciting I believe that the underlying
stories actually make this draft more interesting than many others. The big decisions that these teams make, or
in some cases didn’t make, can determine their future as they attempt to build
their roster.
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