NBA Draft Wrap-Up

Sorry about the previous post with no content. For some reason, I can't go back and edit it. So here are some final thoughts on yesterday's draft.

- This draft was ridiculously deep. Nick Fazekas, Glen Davis, Josh McRoberts, and Marcus Williams would have been first rounders in any other draft. Davis and Fazekas will be very nice pros, although Fazekas (poor man's Dirk) landed on the team that has the actual Dirk.

- I think Portland should have taken Durant, but I'm not going to belabor the point. I hate thateverybody had to pick either Oden or Durant and argue with certitude that their guy is absolutely the better player. I think both will win MVP awards in the NBA.

- Seattle was the big winner of the night. We already knew they were getting a franchise player in Kevin Durant. Then they traded Ray Allen, who is going to be washed up by the time Durant is ready to lead this team to a championship, for Jeff Green and Delonte West, two guys who could be major pieces of a '10-'11 title run. Nicely done.

- Isiah Thomas did a great job acquiring Zach Randolph. He has taken a lot of heat, but Isiah has bumbled his way to the best young front court in the NBA; Curry, Randolph, Lee, and Balkman off of the bench. It has taken longer than one would have hoped, but the Knicks might
have a 50 win team on their hands. This all goes out the window, if Randolph and Curry hit the buffets together and go all Oliver Miller on us.

- As a Nets fans, I am in the process of convincing myself that my team has what it takes to win the Eastern Conference, if of course, they resign Vince Carter. Despite all of his flaws, I am now convinced they have to re-sign him (more on that later). Sean Williams, Josh Boone, and a healthy Nenad Krstic should combine to take all but garbage minutes away from Jason Collins. Much like Mega Maid from "Space Balls", Collins has "gone from suck to blow". Somehow, 7 footer Jason Collins averaged 2.1 points and 3.9 boards and still managed to play 23 minutes per game. He shan't be getting that kind of burn again.
...Back to Vince Carter. He is not a franchise player. Signing him to a long-term deal for anywhere near the maximum salary is going to kill this team in 4 years. However, the next other best players are 27 year old Richard JeffersonI fully understand that. However, the Nets already have 34 year old Jason Kidd and 27 year old Richard Jefferson locked up for several years, so they might as well ride this core into the ground and try to reshuffle the rest of the deck. Besides, if they let Carter go, they are not going to stink enough to land a franchise player in the draft. Kidd, Jefferson, Krstic, and Co. would still be good enough to play 36-46 ball and keep the team in no-man's land that is the 10th to 14th picks of the draft.
Let's make one more run at the Conference title in this weak East, send Mikki Moore out to clobber the Western Conference representative's best player by their bench, and hope against hope that they didn't learn the lesson of this year's Spurs/Suns series.

- For bloggers of the world, there was a disturbing lack of potential sociopaths taken in this year's draft. By all accounts, Sean Williams is the closest thing to a no-goodnik selected in the first round and he might just be a pothead. There may not be a Stephen Jackson in the lot. This is a shame, because I am more than willing to risk an athlete firing a stray bullet into a baby's temple for some cheap material.