None of the worst three teams will pick better than fourth.

And the Northwest Division is just about to become a whole lot better.

The top spot went to the Portland Trailblazers, who will most likely pick up Ohio State center Greg Oden to go along with a great backcourt tandem of Jarrett Jack and Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and the exceptional but troubled Zach Randolph at the four. That pick up should easily allow them to make it into the playoffs, but don’t look for them to win a championship in the next couple of years. The players are all too young and will need a few years to improve. If the Blazers can keep this group together, though, good things will happen.

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Lots of team representatives are converging on the NBA Draft Lottery tonight with whatever lucky things that they can find.

A lot of luck tonight could mean picking up Greg Oden to man the center position. I don’t think any team in the league, except perhaps Houston, wouldn’t trade their center for Oden.

Along with hearing who might pick up whom if they ended up with a high pick, we also get to hear all of the people talking about what could make the draft lottery better. Read the rest of this entry »

We already know that Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t like it. His team isn’t likely good enough yet for a chance at winning it all. I don’t think beating Utah, Dallas, and either Phoenix or San Antonio is in the cards. And even if they did, they still have to get past whoever comes out of the East. That’s a tall order, especially since they’re likely to be playing every single one of those teams on the road.

They’re too good, however, to get a chance at one of the premier players coming into the league (although a chance at a sleeper obviously exists).

Having a weighted system for the first three picks and a system of drafting in reverse order of the record obviously brings some parity to the league. That’s good, but some of the teams manage to stay bad for a decade, in spite of having top 10 picks year after year.

Do we really want to see Oden go to the Grizzlies or the Celtics? Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, the picks seem perfect, and most sports writers have tended to agree.

Ronnie Brewer is a large shooting guard, a good defender, and a great scorer, though not necessarily the lights out shooter that the Utah Jazz were hoping to pick up in J.J. Redick.  Most sports writers had Brewer higher on the draft board than Redick, so time will only tell whether Orlando made a mistake in picking up the Duke star rather than going after Brewer.

Dee Brown is the old teammate of Deron Williams, the Jazz’s starting point guard, when they made a run in the NCAA Tournament that ended in a loss to North Carolina in the final game.  If nothing else, it gives Deron Williams a reason to stay with the Jazz for quite some time.  At the most, the lightning quick but undersized shooting guard will be able to spell Williams at the point and make some waves as a backup at the shooting guard position.

Paul Millsap, though undersized for the power forward position, led the NCAA in rebounding for 3 consecutive years.  In most statistical categories, being good in college does not necessarily translate to being good in the pros, but rebounding is one of those categories where good rebounders tend to remain good rebounders.  With Jerry Sloan as the coach, he is certain to continue to get good playing time if he continues to rebound.

Second round picks don’t normally have a great shot of making the NBA team that drafts them for any real length of time, if they make it at all, but look for Brown and Millsap to join Brewer for many successful years for the Jazz and in the NBA.

I also had to mention one other scenario that GM’s don’t normally get credit for.

A good second round pick.

The GMs who picked up Gilbert Arenas, Michael Redd, Manu Ginobili and other All-Stars or near All-Stars should have gotten much better marks for their drafts, but because the drafts were graded the day after, rather than 3 years later, they didn’t get the proper grade that they deserved.