HUGE day in the NBA today. If you are lucky, every 3 or 4 years the top pick in the draft is a player who can single handedly remake his team’s fortunes and change the landscape of the NBA. That’s if you are lucky. This year, we have the momentous blessing of 2 such players. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant will go 1 and 2 (probably in that order) in this year’s NBA draft and the lottery which will determine which lucky franchise gets one of those guys takes place tonight. Hopefully I will scrape up the time to do a recap and some analysis of who should go where later this week, but for now, here is how I would order the teams if I were in charge. Or maybe this is how I would rank the lottery teams from teams I would most like to have the top pick down to the least.
1. Portland….of course. With the top pick, they have to grab Oden. Both Oden and Durant fit a need and Durant may be the better player, but you don’t get size, strength, skill and ability in the combination you find them in Oden very often. Could end up being the closest thing to Shaq we’ve seen since the Diesel was breaking backboards instead of scales.
2. Philly – They should have folded up the tent when they traded AI and started playing for ping-pong balls and tanking as much as possible, right? Well, they didn’t. The new AI led them to some astonishingly good play in the later part of the season and Iggy and Dre Miller deserve some love. No tanking, good guys on the team, interesting collection of players, finally unloaded Iverson so they can build a winner, I’d like to see them get rewarded for that.
3. Wolves – I want them to get a high enough pick that they feel comfortable shopping KG. No one in this draft outside the top 2 could really help KG and I don’t want him to get help, I want him out. Minny had their turn and they botched it royally. Now they should have to go it without him and let KG remind everyone that he’s one of the best players in the league again for some other team.
4. Bulls – Love to see them stick it to NY with a nice high pick and they could be instrumental in huge trades and more shake up around the NBA, so them getting another good asset would be fun.
5. Hornets – I just like them. I love Paul, I love the move to get Chandler. I love that instead of just collecting cap space, they actually tried to collect players. Afterall, no one ever won a game with cap space. Give them a good pick and year of health and they are a formidable team.
6. Phoenix – Any team who plays like that should be rewarded. It doesn’t win in the playoffs, but it sure is pleasing on the eye. Working against them is the disgraceful handling of the draft last year, but I still like them.
7. Sonics – So many needs, so many bad centers. I want to make sure they are high enough that they are able to draft another huge stiff in the making like maybe Grey or Hibbert.
8. Bobcats – they are just neutral. I just don’t care enough about them to wish them well or ill.
9. Memphis – Kind of like the Bobcats, I just don’t care that much. That said, I think this team is interesting because I thought holding on to Gasol in a lost year was the right move and adding someone decent could make them a playoff team again.
10. Sacramento – they are a mess. They don’t deserve anyone good
11. Clippers – they don’t deserve a higher pick after ridiculously benching Sam I Am this season in one of the worst coaching moves of the year.
12. Hawks – The ultimate mess (or is that the Sonics). We need to keep them out of the top of the draft to avoid them taking Brewer or Green or some other long, athletic small forward. That said, wouldn’t they be much more entertaining (and probably even better) if they just played Josh Smith at the 5 and went Warrior style with JJ, Williams, Smith, Childress and someone like Jeff Green?
13. Boston – Ainge and Doc are idiots. Just morons. I don’t know how else to say it. I would hate to see them get bailed out.
14. Bucks – They cheated their fans with their tanking. They ruined fantasy seasons the same way. They shouldn’t even get a first round pick this year.
Ok, that’s all for now. There is just over a 5% chance that the Blazers could go into next year with Oden, Aldridge, Rashard Lewis, The Natural and J Jack starting and leading them back to the playoffs. It could happen.
1. Portland….of course. With the top pick, they have to grab Oden. Both Oden and Durant fit a need and Durant may be the better player, but you don’t get size, strength, skill and ability in the combination you find them in Oden very often. Could end up being the closest thing to Shaq we’ve seen since the Diesel was breaking backboards instead of scales.
2. Philly – They should have folded up the tent when they traded AI and started playing for ping-pong balls and tanking as much as possible, right? Well, they didn’t. The new AI led them to some astonishingly good play in the later part of the season and Iggy and Dre Miller deserve some love. No tanking, good guys on the team, interesting collection of players, finally unloaded Iverson so they can build a winner, I’d like to see them get rewarded for that.
3. Wolves – I want them to get a high enough pick that they feel comfortable shopping KG. No one in this draft outside the top 2 could really help KG and I don’t want him to get help, I want him out. Minny had their turn and they botched it royally. Now they should have to go it without him and let KG remind everyone that he’s one of the best players in the league again for some other team.
4. Bulls – Love to see them stick it to NY with a nice high pick and they could be instrumental in huge trades and more shake up around the NBA, so them getting another good asset would be fun.
5. Hornets – I just like them. I love Paul, I love the move to get Chandler. I love that instead of just collecting cap space, they actually tried to collect players. Afterall, no one ever won a game with cap space. Give them a good pick and year of health and they are a formidable team.
6. Phoenix – Any team who plays like that should be rewarded. It doesn’t win in the playoffs, but it sure is pleasing on the eye. Working against them is the disgraceful handling of the draft last year, but I still like them.
7. Sonics – So many needs, so many bad centers. I want to make sure they are high enough that they are able to draft another huge stiff in the making like maybe Grey or Hibbert.
8. Bobcats – they are just neutral. I just don’t care enough about them to wish them well or ill.
9. Memphis – Kind of like the Bobcats, I just don’t care that much. That said, I think this team is interesting because I thought holding on to Gasol in a lost year was the right move and adding someone decent could make them a playoff team again.
10. Sacramento – they are a mess. They don’t deserve anyone good
11. Clippers – they don’t deserve a higher pick after ridiculously benching Sam I Am this season in one of the worst coaching moves of the year.
12. Hawks – The ultimate mess (or is that the Sonics). We need to keep them out of the top of the draft to avoid them taking Brewer or Green or some other long, athletic small forward. That said, wouldn’t they be much more entertaining (and probably even better) if they just played Josh Smith at the 5 and went Warrior style with JJ, Williams, Smith, Childress and someone like Jeff Green?
13. Boston – Ainge and Doc are idiots. Just morons. I don’t know how else to say it. I would hate to see them get bailed out.
14. Bucks – They cheated their fans with their tanking. They ruined fantasy seasons the same way. They shouldn’t even get a first round pick this year.
Ok, that’s all for now. There is just over a 5% chance that the Blazers could go into next year with Oden, Aldridge, Rashard Lewis, The Natural and J Jack starting and leading them back to the playoffs. It could happen.
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