« Handgun Heaven | Main | Change I Could Be Persuaded to Believe In » Boo-Hoo27 Jun 2008 01:11 pm Gotta say I'm a little baffled by Knicks fans booing the Danillo Gallinari pick. Maybe he'll work out well as an NBA player and maybe he won't -- about the same thing you could say about anyone picked sixth in an average draft year. This is about where all the "draft experts" expecting him to go and John Hollinger's Euroleague translation formula says he'll be . . . the sixth-best player in the draft: Wizards get JaVale McGee, meanwhile, but I would have rather seen Kosta Koufos. Comments (22)
Speaking of the draft, leave it to Kevin McHale and Chris Wallace to make a trade that leaves both teams worse off. Kevin Love would have been a nice fit in Memphis, his passing ability would be a great complement to Rudy Gay and Mike Miller. Plus, they'd have the Gay-Love combination, and you can't go wrong there. O.J. Mayo would have been a nice fit in Minnesota. They don't have a PG, and he could play there. He'd bring defense and toughness and a little star power. Instead, McHale trades him for Love. That leaves them with Love and Jefferson as the 4 and 5. Both are natural 4s and neither one can guard a chair. Yes, Love will make some pretty interior passes to Jefferson and they're both pretty to watch in the post, but teams with decent frontlines are going to tear them up. And yet, the Wolves probably won the trade, because Memphis threw in Mike Miller, who's a near-all-star-level guy. Put him in the East and he might make an All-Star team once in a while. He's one of the 2 or 3 best pure shooters in the league, he can pass, he can handle the ball, he's more athletic than people think. So now Memphis has O.J. who's definitely a better prospect than Love. But they needed a 4 way more than they needed another guard. What the hell do they do with Conley and/or Crittendon? The trade just makes no sense for either team. Contrast that with the Bucks/Nets trade, which looks like it will help both teams. The Bucks are now a contender for the bottom 3 playoff spots, and the Nets are better equipped to rebuild and make a run for LeBron. Or the T.J. Ford/Jermaine O'Neal trade, also a winner for both teams. The Pacers get a decent PG so they can ditch Tinsley, they get rid of JO and still get something back, and the Raptors get a seriously stacked front line that probably makes them a contender for the conference championship. And finally, why the hell did my Warriors draft Anthony Randolph, when he might as well be Brandon Wright's twin brother? Now they have two long, tall, skinny, athletic forwards who are great prospects and will never get off the bench. I'm sure they'll both be good players after they've left the Warriors. There better be a trade in the works, or Mullin better convince Nellie to give at least one of these guys some playing time. 
You're baffled? Did you see the grade that the fans gave the pick? A big, fat F. Of course they're going to. They don't know the guy. Now, they're probably wrong, but we certainly shouldn't be baffled. Fans are dumb. We all remember Philly booing McNabb.
the Rockets must be happy, too. for the second year in a row, they picked the Spurs' pocket, drafting the player San Antonio coveted, then trading him for two big men in Green and Dorsey. Bring on another Utah series.
As a Celts fan, I'm very happy the draft has very likely brought an end to the Tony Allen Era. And I'm somewhat confident KG will scare Gittens straight, and Paul Pierce will use his magic knee-healing powers to get Walker right. On point, I'm agree Knicks fans are jumping the gun. On the other hand, you're dealing with quite the case of post-traumatic stress-disorder.
Portland fans are very happy with the moves made by the Blazers. Getting Bayless was unexpected but an upgrade at PG as they shipped Jack out. Not sure if or how Diogu fits in. Still looking to see if the Blazers can get a 3 - too many quesitons about Outlaw and Webster.
Tiparillo,
I think the Memphis-MN trade looks pretty good for Memphis. That's largely a function of my distaste for Love, who I think will have real trouble in the NBA.
Outlaw and Webster are good enough, given the guys they're surrounded with. You don't need a stud at every position. If Bayless turns out to be the answer at PG, the Blazers will be scary-good in another year.
Stacy - I think Blake will remain the starter and Bayless will be called the back-up PG. But it will be hard to tell who has what role when he is on the floor with Roy. He is more of a combo, but when paired with Rudy Fernandez, Bayless will look and play more like a one. too many steves - I was hoping they would at least get an experienced 3 - someone that is a known commodity. Outlaw and Webster may be good enough - but are wildly inconsistent. But overall I like the roster.
Why not boo Danillo? New York has a horrible team filled with players with horrible attitudes, and now they're throwing a Euro-project into that mix? Was any other team looking to take him in the top 10 if not the Knicks? Frankly, New York needed to use the pick as tradebait to cut out one of their many lockerroom cancers. Mike
Stacy, Bayliss is probably a backup to Blake now, but if he develops in a couple years he'll be the starter and may the crunch time guy real soon. With Roy such a playmaker from the 2 the PG needs to be able to defend the other teams point and hit open shots, Bayliss could develop into the ideal PG for the Blazers. I don't think starting SF is that importnant, Blazers will porbably run a lot of 3 guard lineups with Roy and Rudy on the court together.
Yeah that is weird. If it were Celtic fans doing the booing that would make sense but Knicks fans??? They're from NY, so what gives? It's almost like they're not the educated, urban sophisticates we all took them to be.
Mike: It's entirely possible--nay, probable--that no one wanted to take Stephon Marbury or anyone else you have in mind just to get the #6 pick. The #6 isn't all that valuable, especially not in this draft. No one was even particularly interested in trading for the #2 and Riley was shopping that like mad. Maybe if they'd included Lee (which IMO they should have done to ship off some problem or other), but then the Knicks fans really would have rioted, because they think Lee is better than he actually is. I dunno. Is Gallinari going to be any good? Probably not. But it's not like anyone else still available would have made much of a difference either, so I can't get worked up about it.
Not sure how good New York fans think Lee is, but he's an excellent player. So I guess I'm not sure if I agree with Antid Oto on that one. I do know that I disagree with him about the #6 pick in this draft not being very valuable. This was a pretty deep draft. I guess that's impossible to know until about 3 years down the road, but that's what they kept saying.
According to DraftExpress McGee may be the worst defender they have ever scouted.
Cute!
Knicks fans are idiots and would boo anyone. You'd think NYC fans would go crazy over getting the best young Italian player in the world - but apparently all the guidos have been priced out of the city. I still think the kid will be a a big star, and might even make an All Star team or two. I'm not the Great D'antonio's biggest fan, but you got to believe he's gonna know how to use this guy. Kid can straight up score and play offense. Knicks fans will be cheering this guy. Rose kid is overrated and picking him over Beasley was idiotic. Beasly is guarenteed 20/10 player in a year. Dude is liKE Elton Brand, but a a much more aggressive and more talented scorer. Rose is NOT Jason Kidd. People who say that are just blowing smoke up the kid's ass. He'll be lucky to be Rajon Rondo at this point. The way people think Rose is gonna suddenly become a good shooter like Chris Paul or Deron Williams is crazy talk, just speculation and wishful thinking. Plus Rose ain't a special passer. Mayo is just as good as Rose as a passer. People just like Rose's athleticism, which is off the charts. Mayo is better than Rose and always has been but it just wnt fro. bad to worse for OJ. minnesota is the fucking sticks. Not a place to become a star! Mayo would have hated it there. But Memphis is worse - at least he would have got to play with Big Al Jefferson. But Memphis is the backwater dump of the NBA. Players go there to die. The Grizz suck so bad and are managed so poorly they make the Awful Clipshow look like the Lakeshow. If Mayo gets that team to the playoffs this year (no chance) he's a genius. McHale did good getting Love and Mike Miller for OJ Mayo, who would have left the moment he could for a better city to play in. Love and Big AL and Miller and Foye are gonna be fantastic together on the offensive end. Not sure who they could guard. Portland is gonna be a beast. Brandon Roy and Greg Oden should be All Stars this year. Roy is a great, Paul Pierce type player who is a a winner. Bayless and Roy is a potential unstoppable backcourt, to match the Oden/Aldridge unstoppable frontcourt. And they got two tough matchups at the 3. That team is stacked with young talent. So were the Bulls though. Clippers to. You don't win with young talent. But Roy plays like a 10 year vet, and Oden is gonna be a defensive force on Day One. Gonna be fun to watch.
Roy ain't no All Star. Who is he gonna replace? Oden in his first year? Nah. Rose is a better point guard than Mayo easy. Mayo is a superior scorer, and better defender. But if you want a a point guard to run your offense, Rose is your guy. Giddeon the guy the Celtics got is gonna be better than Brandon Rush no doubt. Celtics got a steal with Bill Sky Walker too. That guy has huge upside. Ainge done did good with some garbage picks - essentially 2 second rounders. Plus a Euro to check on in a few years. Still gotta resign Posey. Any team that wants to win now and doesnt offer James Posey thei mid level exception is run by fools.
Steve Nash is a turnover machine and is on the downside of his career. Roy should replace Nash, or Iverson.
Brandon Roy is better than Steve Nash? Heresy. Kosta Koufos just got his first tattoo. It reads, "Bust." This was a terrible, terrible draft. Beasley is undersized, Rose can't shoot, and Mayo is practically the head of the Mafia. Kevin Love and Al Jefferson are gonna make nicey nice together, though. On Offense it'll be pretty. On defense, it's gonna be ugly.
The Wizards should have taken Kosta? Maybe. But surely the Wizards could have not sold the rights to draft Bill "Sky" Walker for a few shillings? That guy has big time upside. When a team sells big time upside for a few shillings, you know they ain't trying very hard to win.
Comments closed July 11, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
Conversely, Knicks fans (or any other team's fans for that matter) would be hugely excited if they had drafted a known quantity (to those of us who watch college ball, anyway) like Brandon Rush, despite the fact that he would've been a big reach at #6.
And by the way, I watched Koufos play very mediocre ball at OSU all season. I wouldn't fret that one. He seems like the anti-traditional big man: refined skills, moves, and touch with the ball but poor athleticism/rebounding/quickness/jumping ability. It seems to me you'd rather have a big man in the Dwight Howard mold who already has the raw physical, less-teachable gifts and then develops the true basketball skills as he goes along.
Posted by Brent | June 27, 2008 1:38 PM