Each day up until the NBA Draft on Thursday, June 25, I will be taking control of an NBA franchise and selecting its next star (it seems in this classes case, its next seventh man).The first look at the 2009 NBA Draft class shows its very guard-heavy and—outside of Blake Griffin—lacks front-court depth. A lot of teams tend to lust after potential. That's where many teams go wrong.
Think of the NBA's amateur talent bucket as the kiddie pool and the NFL Draft as the deep end. The majority of the time NBA teams aren't going to get a dominant player with the 21st pick. In fact, second-round picks rarely make NBA rosters. With the NFL's plethora of collegiate talent to choose from, players chosen after the third round meets success much more than a second-round selection in the NBA.
It gets tiresome watching team-after-team select bust-after-bust. If you have the time, check out the 2000 NBA Draft and try not to laugh.
That's why teams choosing outside of the top-five need to find a player that does multiple things well right now. Too many times have teams selected the annual 6-foot-10 European player that does everything o.k. (ex. Darko Milicic, No. 2 overall, 2003; Nikioli Tskitishvili, No. 5, 2002) while averaging six points and three rebounds overseas.
10. Milwaukee Bucks — DeJuan Blair, PF, Pittsburgh
This may seem like a bit of a reach, but with the tenth selection the Bucks aren't finding themselves Kevin Garnett. Targeting a player that brings multiple assets should be first priority.
Blair brings toughness, rebounding and defense to a soft roster. With Charlie Villanueva already out the door in Milwaukee, the Bucks must replace their hole at the four. Villanueva brought absolutely NO defense or rebounding to the Bucks, so I'm taking Blair and looking at the addition as an upgrade.
His height (6-foot-6) scares most teams, but Blair's arm length is a ridiculous 7-foot-2 which allows Blair to play more at 6-foot-9. I don't seem to remember Blair's height coming into play much while he was unlawfully abusing 7-foot-3 UConn center Hasheem Thabeet in the Big East last year.
Next up: the Toronto Raptors at the No. 9 spot (June 17).
1 comment:
Blair is definitely intriguing. Highly productive college player but I'm not sure how he will ever warrant a top 10 pick. I think the best case scenario is that he is like David Lee for the Knicks, where he rebounds very well and scores some but a liability on defense and no real post skills. And when your best case scenario at the 10 pick is a guy who will get you 12 and 10 and average defense, I'm not sure he's really worth it. Hope I'm wrong, he was a joy to watch at Pitt.
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