One year after the draft lottery kicked them squarely in the
balls, the Trail Blazers got their retribution….and then pissed it away.
According to statistics, they should have picked seventh and instead the ping
pong balls placed them with the first pick. So they had a choice. And while the
draft has some solid first round prospects, the choice was simple. The massive
center that brought Ohio State Texas
forward that could wow with his shooting on the right night.
That Texas
forward, Kevin Durant, was the league MVP this past season.
That Ohio State
Long story short, the Trail Blazers still didn’t get their Jordan .
But they got themselves another Sam Bowie.
And oh yeah, the Celtics changed the game, probably forever.
On and around draft night, the Celtics made trades that would bring Ray Allen
and Kevin Garnett to Beantown to team with Paul Pierce. The original ‘Big
Three’ of this era culminated their first season with a NBA title, starting the
possibly dangerous trend of star players pooling together.
Pick 1: Portland Trail Blazers
Who they took: Greg Oden
Who they should have took: Kevin Durant (2nd
pick)
Why: Because he is one of the most singularly dominant
players in the league today. Durant is a star and while a lot of #1 picks
shouldn’t be number one picks, you don’t normally see a huge superstar like
Durant not go first. I can’t compare this 100% to Michael Jordan going 3rd,
but it is the closest equivalent in my opinion. Pairing Durant with LaMarcus
Aldridge and then adding a point guard at some point shortly down the line and
the Trail Blazers would have multiple NBA Titles today.
Pick 2: Seattle
Supersonics
Who they took: Kevin Durant
Who they should have took: Joakim Noah (9th pick)
Why: Noah has become one of the very best stoppers around
the rim and that is something Seattle
needed when they took Durant. He wouldn’t be the same scoring presence, but who
would. He can score and his rebound and assist numbers were at an all-time high
this past season when he was named to the All-NBA First Team and was the
Defensive Player of the Year. Noah does everything on defense with a controlled
reckless abandon that works so perfectly for him.
Pick 3: Atlanta
Hawks
Who they took: Al Horford
Who they should have took: Mike Conley (4th pick)
Why: Conley is a score first point guard and while the Hawks
were in search of size in this offseason, they could have got it in other ways
to add a player of his caliber. His scoring rises every year and he has
developed into a reliable floor leader who is devoted in a city like Memphis
so there is no doubt he would have stayed in Atlanta
too as the Hawks developed around him. Also, with his winning ways and a true
point guard, perhaps the likes of Joe Johnson and Josh Smith would still be in
town. Not only has he gotten better during the season, Conley’s career playoff
scoring average is 2.7 points higher than his regular season scoring average,
showing his ability to step up in big moments. From the moment I first saw them
both live, I never understood why anyone would consider Greg Oden the better of
this tandem.
Pick 4: Memphis
Grizzlies
Who they took: Mike Conley
Who they should have took: Marc Gasol (48th pick)
Why: I guess the Grizz got their man anyway, but Gasol now
looks way more like an equal to his brother, Pau ,
than the lesser player. It would be fun to see what it would be like had the
Memphis-Lakers trade never happened and Marc stated in LA while Pau
was with the Grizzlies. But never the less, you take him here if you are Memphis .
He has done the club right, slimming down from Pau ’s
younger, wider brother and pairing with Zach Randolph to become a force and was
actually an immediate contributor as a rookie, quite rare for the 48th
pick.
Pick 5: Boston
Celtics
Who they took: Jeff Green (traded to Sonics)
Who they should have took: Al Horford (3rd pick
and trade the pick)
Why: Injuries have plagued Horford lately; playing in just
29 games this past season and 11 two seasons ago, hence his slight drop off.
None the less, he is a strong interior presence and has good awareness. He
would be perfect to run either side of a high-low, which is what he would have
done in Seattle with Kevin Durant
(in reality) or Joakim Noah (in the redraft). I say reality because if you are Boston ,
I don’t care who you pick at this spot, you still make the trade and get Ray
Allen because that trade directly helped you win a NBA title. If we go with the
redraft, repairing Horford and Noah (Florida Gator teammates) in Seattle
would have helped the Sonics and later Thunder dominate the inside game no
matter that they played.
Pick 6: Milwaukee
Bucks
Who they took: Yi Jianlian
Who they should have took: Jeff Green (5th pick)
Why: A different kind of injury, heart issues, briefly
slowed Green but don’t take away from his immediate impact and comeback (he
scored over 10 ppg as a rookie and is coming off his best offensive year in
2013-14). Green is a Kevin Garnett like player who works hard pretty much all
of the time. Milwaukee was headed
into a horrible season and league washout Jianlian was no help. The Bucks could
have used Green immediately, likely in a starting role, to help keep them out
of the gutter at least a little bit.
Pick 7: Minnesota
Timberwolves
Who they took: Corey Brewer
Who they should have took: Arron Afflalo (27th
pick)
Why: The trade of Kevin Garnett netted the T-Wolves a whole
lot of young prospects and a 22-win season of sadness. Corey Brewer didn’t help
much more as a rookie than Afflalo theoretically would have, but Afflalo would
have been more likely to want to be part of the rebuild than the moody Brewer.
Afflalo’s steady increase from 3.7 ppg as a rookie to 18.2 ppg this last season
in Orlando is a testament to having
patience and being in the right system. He was immediately a better fit in Denver
than Detroit and has shown signs of
growing every year since.
Pick 8: Charlotte
Bobcats
Who they took: Brandan Wright (traded to Warriors)
Who they should have took: Rodney Stuckey (15th
pick and keep the pick)
Why: Stuckey can score. He averaged over 20 ppg both years
in college and 32 ppg in the summer league before his rookie year. Then, he broke
his hand in the preseason and saw his shooting touch get healed over too.
Making the pick is a no brainer for the Bobcats, but keeping it all depends on
how much you believe that hand break never happens in Charlotte .
By not making the trade to Golden State Richardson .
He still averages over 13 ppg for his career and hasn’t missed too many games
since his rookie season.
Pick 9: Chicago
Bulls
Who they took: Joakim Noah
Who they should have took: Wilson Chandler (23rd
pick)
Why: Ok, so the Bulls lucked out big time. But, with no such
luck in a redraft, Wilson Chandler’s 7.3 ppg in minimal time as a rookie would
suffice. Chandler didn’t even
appear in half of the games his rookie year, but his work ethic and defensive
prowess still landed him in the starting lineup late in the season with the
Knicks. He would have played quicker (thus letting him develop quicker) in Chicago
where they were still relying way too much on the aging Ben Wallace inside.
Pick 10: Sacramento
Kings
Who they took: Spencer Hawes
Who they should have took: Ramon Sessions (56th
pick)
Why: The impact on and off the ball that Sessions has had in
the league is often overlooked. He was a late pick and by his second year in
the league he was averaging more points than his last year of college. Not to
mention, he came out as a rookie and averaged over 7 assists per game over just
17 games, where his assist total would rank fifth on the struggling Kings. He’s
moved around a lot, but is back in Milwaukee
now, averaging almost 16 ppg.
Pick 11: Atlanta
Hawks
Who they took: Acie Law
Who they should have took: Marco Belinelli (18th
pick)
Why: Because he can just shoot the basketball. He did so, in
personal record breaking fashion this past season from everywhere on the court,
while helping San Antonio to a NBA
title. Only three Hawks from 2007-08 shot better from deep than Marco, where he
would have been valuable off the bench on the guard weak team. His ability to
also get out on the break and pull up has been valuable too and had the Hawks
taken Mike Conley in the redraft, Marco would have been a fun pairing.
Pick 12: Philadelphia
76ers
Who they took: Thaddeus Young
Who they should have took: Aaron Brooks (26th
pick)
Why: Brooks is another pick that isn’t nice and shiny, but
still effective. By his third year in the league, when Philly was barely
winning 20 games, he was averaging 19.6 ppg in Houston .
Philly had holes to fill where they could have relied on Brooks and if you look
at his record, the more Brooks is relied on, the better he does.
Pick 13: New Orleans
Hornets
Who they took: Julian Wright
Who they should have took: Corey Brewer (7th
pick)
Why: Brewer can be a scorer. He can also be a jerk. New
Orleans could afford to take a chance on him and that
is why this is the best place for him. Because Minnesota
really didn’t have the option to cut their losses when his attitude took over
because they had nobody to replace anything he did with. New
Orleans was ripe with talent, could have used another
small forward and at the end of the day, didn’t need Brewer’s 5.8 ppg as a
rookie if he stayed a head case. He also did just score 51 points in a game
this past season, showing that he can put the ball in the basket decently.
Pick 14: Los Angeles
Clippers
Who they took: Al Thornton
Who they should have took: Tiaggo Splitter (28th
pick)
Why: Besides being Skip Bayless’ favorite player, Splitter
has a lot of raw talent that will likely finally be getting used more in San
Antonio as the careers of their “big three” wind down.
He didn’t come into the league until 2010 but would still have been a valuable
pick for the Clippers, even if he stayed overseas. He would have come in to a
Clippers team ripe with talent from Blake Griffin to Eric Bledsoe, from Baron
Davis to Eric Gordon, and helped make Los Angeles
the deepest team in the league. The guy can flat out shoot and score from
inside the three point line and is a career 59-percent shooter.
Pick 15: Detroit
Pistons
Who they took: Rodney Stuckey
Who they should have took: Josh McRoberts (37th
pick)
Why: Detroit had
a great season in 2007-08, but they sure could have used another body to take
some of the pressure off aging Rasheed Wallace, who handled the load inside. It
made Stuckey a questionable choice then. This for me came down to Glen Davis or
Josh McRoberts, but the two have had comparable contributions and I’m going to
be a homer by taking the Indiana born kid who played at Duke. It took him a
couple of years to get his wheels turning, but he was also in a place (Indiana )
that really didn’t need his contributions inside. In Detroit ,
he would have been able to play the physical style that has done him right in
recent years, especially in Charlotte .
There is a reason after all that he was once touted as a lottery pick, because
he had good court vision, could score well and would put you on your butt if he
wanted, even if it meant hitting the showers early.
No comments:
Post a Comment