How will the NBA Draft playout

[blgstocks]

Ok With the #1 pick Toronto will either take Thomas and sit him on the bench and try to develop him behind Arauyo, Bosh, Villanueva, and Woods.

But most likely, they will trade to #4 to the TrailBlazers who are in a desperate need for a big man, and have man many young small guys already.

Trailblazers who need a big man or a scorer, preferably both, will take Morrison (a scorer) or Thomas, Aldridge, or Gay. I think they go with Morrison, because of the hometown edge.

Chicago with the #2 pick will either take Thomas, Gay, or Aldridge with #2. They need a big man, but they already have two very tall skinny guys, so I think they will take Thomas who plays better in an uptempo high flying game that Chicago is trying to deploy.

Charolette needs help everywhere, so they will probably take the best availible player in Aldridge or Gay. My geuss is they take the bigger more defensive minded Aldridge at #3.

Toronto desperately needs a PG that can get the ball to their wide array of talented bigs. Hell, Mike James is avg 6 assists! That guy is the definition of scrub. Toronto must take Marcus Williams, who I think is the best PG by a mile in this draft. you can read why in the ncaa forum. Toronto takes Marcus Williams at #4.

Well I can only hope that my Twolves will get Williams, but I doubt he will drop that far even though every mock draft has him dropping at least that far. Maybe they take Foye or trade down to a more pure pg for his teamate Lowery, either way if they can grab a PG that can dish TWolves are going to kill with this draft. This is because with two early 2nd round picks at 36 and 37 Twolves can add alot of toughness and somebody to carry the load on the block for KG with Bigs like Paul Davis, Leon Powe, Killingsworth, and Craig Smith, all projected to drop that far according to NBA Draft.net. Each one of these guys is a very solid big man pickup and Twolves get to pick two in a row, hope two of them are still around.

For as much time as I took to write this up I would hope you guys would all include your projections and whatyou would like to see your team pick up in the draft or any moves you think would really help. I love reading threads like these around December and seeing who was correct, really interesting, so please contribute.
Thanks Guys

 

[DR STRANGELOVE]

going to be interesting to see what the raptors do with the #1 pick

 

[IE]

re:salary caps/free agents that they are looking at...im wondering if paxson will trade down?...if not ...going to be between thomas and aldridge with strong work-outs and leans with thomas...think bargnani will be out of the equation with #2 unless the trade down is reality.

The Bulls also have their own first-round pick, which is No. 16, besides the knicks lottey gift, so options are there.

 

[IE]

Under the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement, this is the first year high school players won't be eligible for the draft.

 

[IE]

Raptors send coach and senior adviser to Italy to scout Bargnani

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer


TORONTO (AP) -- A day after winning the top pick in the draft lottery, the Toronto Raptors dispatched coach Sam Mitchell and senior adviser Wayne Embry to Italy to scout forward Andrea Bargnani.

General manager Bryan Colangelo and team owner Larry Tanenbaum have already scouted Bargnani, a 7-footer who plays for Benetton Treviso.


"I'm not certain we would be sending Sam and Wayne to Italy if we had the No. 5 pick," Colangelo said Wednesday.

The Raptors (27-55) jumped four spots in the pingpong ball lottery to snag the first pick in the June 28 draft to be held in New York.

Colangelo also mentioned Texas center LaMarcus Aldridge, Gonzaga forward Adam Morrison, Washington guard Brandon Roy, Connecticut forward Rudy Gay and LSU forward Tryus Thomas as candidates for the No. 1 pick.

He said the draft lacks a franchise player like LeBron James or Tim Duncan.

But he's clearly high on Bargnani and is even considering hiring Benetton GM Maurizio Gherardini as Toronto's new assistant GM.

Bargnani averaged 11.2 points and 5.2 rebounds in his first 22 games in Italian league play. The 20-year-old often gets compared to Dirk Nowitzki because of his versatility and smooth jumper.

And though the Raptors already have power forwards Chris Bosh and Charlie Villanueva, Colangelo says he'll take the top player no matter the position.

"We're not good enough to draft around positions right now," Colangelo said.

He said is open to trading the pick. One team has already expressed interest, he said.

Toronto's most pressing need is an interior presence. The Raptors have about $10 million in cap space.

Colangelo was hired in February to replace the fired Rob Babcock. He was voted the NBA's 2005 executive of the year for retooling the Phoenix Suns, who won a league-high 62 games. He left Phoenix after not getting a contract extension.

 

[leftywright]

First off, I hope my lowly Hawks don't take Morrison at #5, although I'm not a big fan of Marcus Williams either, the Hawks need a point guard, and shift Johnson to the two.

I can't take a lesser Stromile Swift in Thomas. If I'm the Raptors I take my chances that Aldridge adds weight. As Bosh, Aldridge, Villanueva, Peterson and James is too solid to not give a chance. I would rather risk a guy gaining weight, instead of gaining talent, otherwise a jumpshot for Thomas. But, I would ultimately drop to 6 or 7 for a 1st round pick next year. Perhaps with Houston who has old Mutombo and Juwan Howard backing up Yao, so they can get Aldridge.

Apparently the Bulls love Thomas and he's athleticisim and defense-minded attitude.

Back with more later.

 

[SpursDynasty]

Spurs have no first round picks... so I wish I could say who they would take.

But I do have a take what the SPurs should do:

Smallball vs Two Bigs

"We have to figure out what we want to do, as far as bigs are concerned," Popovich said. "Do we want (power forwards) or do we want (centers)? How small do we want to play, or how big do we want to play? Do we want to try to be big, even if somebody else is small?"

Many fans felt that the whole thing is just a Popovich stubborn coaching mistake, matching up against the opponent when we should be forcing them to match up with us.

I feel it is a mistake only in that Pop had to play the centers at least some minutes, if only to buy resting time for the key guys, and he didn't do that. But the ugly truth is no, there was no way we would have forced Dallas to match up with us. Not with the likes of Rasho and Nazr. Not consistently for seven games.

But the fundamental premise of smallball isn't a mistake. It is a reflection of things to come for this league. Stern and the NBA LOVE smallball and they will do whatever is necessary to make it successful.

The No-handcheck rules plus the no-charge semicircle have already dramatically raised the firepower from dribble penetration. Any rule changes henceforth will only go in the same direction.

Phoenix has just made two straight WCFs using smallball. Dallas has the advantage of having a 7 footer SF that can get you 10 rebounds, so they too can play something similar to smallball. The Kings gave us the most trouble when they played Artest at PF and Bonzi at SF.

I think the trend is clear. But if the Spurs do this, it means the end of the Two-Bigs defense. Nazr, Rasho, heck even Oberto will all have to go. That would be a fundamental change in the way this team operates.

And even if we do go this direction, we still need to find those SFs that can slash and rebound the basketball. Without a guy like that, the Spurs version of smallball is fundamentally flawed.

Finding the perfect small ball SF is the Spurs Priority this summer and future.

 

[DIRTY Diapers]

I like Marcus Williams from Uconn... Rodney Carney is an athlete from out of this world and is from Indy, would love for someone to pick him up just for the dunk contest...