One of My Favorite Days: The NBA Draft

(Note: Sippy Momo will be back with a post about catching last night's game at Fenway a little later on. Beneath this article is a link to a website featuring photos of David Wright, Cliff Floyd, and Paul Lo Duca out on the town. Can't-miss.)

As much as I dislike the NBA, I really love the NBA draft.

Maybe it's the warm part in my heart where I know 60 kids, most of whom grew up poor, are instead millionares.

A lot of it has to with the idea of 60 players joining new teams and redefining themselves.

Either way, I love it.

I couldn't be more excited to join the many Knicks fans from sellthegarden.com in their march to MSG. Jimmy Dolan and Isiah in combination with just how lovable these New Warriors are have turned me away from the Knicks, the team I once loved.

Do I like the Knicks? No.

Do I love them, of course.

They are one of the 3 members of my family that I will always love.

The Mets are my dad. I love the team and the sport, plus I think they are just a great thing.

The Giants are my brother. I don't neccesarily understand the game, I never played it (despite a fucking cannon), but Sunday's are still at the top.

Then there is the Knicks. They are my tough grandmother Sylvia. She always kind of irked me. She was a tough lady to deal with. But at the end of the day she was always family. I always loved her, even if she gave me a hard time.

But back to the draft.

I'm not going to give you my predictions of how everyone is going to end up. There's really no point. You are drowned with that everywhere on the internet. I'm just going to buy or sell (pretty much every big prospect in the draft) the shit out of some of the players in the draft and talk about which teams will fuck up.

Starting at the top.

Buying (People I love in this draft):

1. Shannon Brown, Rodney Carney, Rudy Gay.

For all you basketball fans out there, you can probably see a trend. These guys are all freakish athletes.

Brown is my favorite player in the draft. He is 2 inches too small to be the protottype. Otherwise he is 6'3, 200lbs of insane muscle. He is the best athlete in the draft and has a very solid and perfectly formed stroke. He can defend and he can score and he can get to the rim.

In a game being redfined by the D Wade, Brown can really excel. Michigan St. has been my team for the last couple of years and Brown was their guy. There wasn't a lot of hype because he played with Mo Ager and Paul Davis, two of the top 25 players in the country. But this guy can be special. His game definitely translates to the pros.

Carney, a big guy on my NBA pal the Coach's list is similar to Brown. He's about 6'7 and can jump out of the gym. He is among the faster players in the draft and can really shoot. People don't talk about this guy a lot because he went to Memphis, aka Thug U, where every player can jump out of the gym. Doesn't matter. As long as this guy isn't a moron, which I'm not sure of, he will be fine on the next level.

Then there is Rudy Gay. At the last minute this guy is moving up on teams' draft boards from 7-10 to potentially going No. 1. The reason is simple, he is the best player in the draft. At 6'9, 222lbs, this guy has the perfect NBA body. He has long arms, natural talent and is apparently a good guy.


The one knock on him was that he didn't dominate in college. That he didn't try. Did Paul Pierce dominate in college? No...Does ANYONE try in the NBA? Not one bit, sans MD.

Fuck that. He was playing on a team with 4 potential 1st rounders and maybe 6 guys that will be drafted. Scottie Pippen never dominated a basketball game. That's who Gay can become. The ultimate 3 guy. He can score, rebound and defend. He can jump through the rough, but isn't an athlete. He is a basketball player. This is the guy I would definitley take #1.

GUYS I AM SELLING.

This should probably be called, "Meet the potential top 6 picks."

I was at the gym the other day playing 1 on 1 when of course, Andrea Bargnani rolled in. He was there for a shootaround, so of course I watched. The guy is a legit 7'1 with range out to 30 feet. He has a quick first step and is a good kid. Sounds like Dirk... right? It also sounds like Maciej Lampe and Nikoloz Tskitashvilli.

I just wasn't sold. The guy looked awkward around the rim and just looked like there was something missing. Combine that with the fact that Chad Ford loves him and I am down on the guy.

Then there is Adam Morrison. Mark my word, this guy will SUCK in the NBA. He just isn't that good. He dominated a small D 1 conference.


He didn't show much in the tourney and if not for games against Mich St. (who had no one good over 6'4) this guy would have been knocked for choking in big games. He is too slow, too white, and not a perfect enough shooter to excel. He won't score on NBA small forwards and he'll get worked defensively. SELL HIM.

How bout Lamarcus Aldridge? Did anyone else see this guy struggle with Mark Zoller, Steve Danley, and the rest of those pesky beasts from Penn?


For that matter, has anyone seen this guy really have a good game? I have ZERO idea why people like this kid so much. Yeah he's big. My buddy the Hulk's a big guy, but he works at a restaurant.

Seriously though, what is this guy's move? Sure he has long arms, but is he a shot blocker? I just don't know why this guy is a consensus top 3. I've never seen anything out of him.

Finally, Tyrus Thomas. Of the consensus top 4, he is my go-to. I don't see Shawn Marion in his game because he doesn't have Marion's range. I do see the rest of Marion's game and then some.

This guy will average 9 rebounds as a rookie and block shots. He will have an immediate impact on games cause of his long arms and his athleticism. Behind Gay, he is my #2 prospect on the board.

THE REST

What will the Knicks do? Doesn't really matter. Isiah's dream philopshy of undersized and overpaid me-first players combined with multiple picks in the 20's every year hasn't exactly worked out.

Who knows in this hectic draft who will be there when the Knicks pick. My hope is that Mo Ager from Michigan State is around and maybe Kyle Lowry.

This team needs likable players who have won. They need guys who can defend. Despite having guys that love to shoot, the Knicks aren't going to outscore anyone. Why not grab some athletes who can defend? This is, after all, the NBA. If James Posey can make an impact, so can you.

Not sure about the Dukies. JJ Redick will play forever in this league because he is the best shooter we have ever seen. Better than Kerr. Better than Danny D Legler. Better than Craig Hodges. I see no reason why Shelden Williams can't become Boozer 2.0. He is long and can score and rebound.

Other than that, there are a few players I am very excited to see in the league. Mo Saer Sene, the 7'1 freak who is supposed to be Dikembe. A rich man's Dasagana Diop, which as we saw over the last couple of weeks, can make a huge impact in the league.

Randy Foye and Allan Ray.


I wish Ray was 6'4 instead of 6'2. I think he is a better player that Foye, minus the body. I can see him being this year's Luther Head and making an impact off the bench.

Guillermo Diaz will be funny. The Knicks are going to potentially draft him just because Pat Riley loves him. Man do I love this management. This team may go 0-82 this year. Perfect right, get Greg Odenin next year's amazing draft... Negative, that pick will also go to Chicago.

Then of course, my Euros... Olexse Pecherov, Joel Freeland, Thabo Sefolosha and the kid from Israel. I don't know anything about these guys that Chad Ford doesn't know, but since purchasing my Brother Hedu jersey back in '02, things have never been the same for me. I love these guys.

Enjoy tonight. Let us pray that the Warriors stay away from a small forward and that the Knicks catch a couple of gems @ 20 and 29.

VCD,

SM