June 16, 2005

EVERYBODY ELSE HAS A MOCK DRAFT SO I MIGHT AS WELL DO ONE TOO

      There isn’t a sports publication or website out there that hasn’t, in even the slightest format, made an attempt at predicting the upcoming NBA draft.  With a plethora of talent and a lack of upper echelon players the curiosities and the suppositions are plenty--there are as many lists as there are creators of those lists.  In other words everyone and their grandmother has a viewpoint on what will go down on June 28, and no two are quite alike.  In so doing, since everyone else is doing it, I might as well offer up my opinion on the draft order.  Since the draft becomes far too convoluted the further in it gets I’m only going to go down to a couple of places further than the lottery picks—ironically to the 16^th spot held by the home town Raptors.  So here are my picks for the top 16. 

1-     Milwaukee takes Andrew Bogut.  Not much of a surprise considering the dearth of front-court talent on the Bucks.  As much as they are intrigued by the potential of Marvin Williams the Bucks can’t possibly be stupid enough to pass on a high quality center.  Can they? 

2-     Atlanta takes Marvin Williams.  Sure the Hawks already have a few young and athletic forwards, and sure they are in need of a point guard, but Williams has the potential to be a superstar and none of the athletes the team already possesses has his ceiling.  Plus the Hawks figure they can pick up a point guard later in the draft. 

3-     Portland takes Gerald Green.  The Blazers are making noises that they are fed up with Green and his agent saying they are trying too hard to manipulate the high schooler’s workouts.  It doesn’t matter.  The Blazers need young talent and with a young point guard, Sebastian Telfair, already in tow Green presents the best option.  

4-     New Orleans takes Chris Paul.  The Hornets need a point guard and there are three high quality players available.  They decide that Paul’s strengths match up better with their team than the other two. 

5-     Charlotte takes Raymond Felton.  Point guard number two.  Felton provides a bit more speed and better penetration than the alternative. 

6-     Utah takes Deron Williams.  The last of the three top point guards.  The Jazz need someone to lead their team and Williams is that player. 

7-     Toronto takes Danny Granger.  For the second consecutive year the Raptors watch three point guards go before they can get their hooks into one of them.  This year they make a better alternate selection though, taking Granger who they hope will develop into a secondary scoring option.

8-     New York takes Channing Frye.  Isiah continues to mould a mediocre, and very expensive, team taking Frye as a replacement for the traded Nazr Mohammed. 

9-     Golden State takes Sean May.  The Warriors are looking for front court depth and May gives them the power presence that they lack to come off the bench. 

10-  L.A. Lakers take Fran Vazquez.  With some of their front court choices gone the Lakers choose the developing Vazquez.  Coach Jackson knows that without a star up front his team needs to have depth. 

11-  Orlando takes Joey Garaham.  With so many concerns in the back court, and with a decision needed to be made on which guard position to play Steve Francis the Magic need to add perimeter athletes. 

12-  L.A. Clippers take Johan Petro.  The Clips could take a point guard but choose not to pass on an athletic big man who just needs to add experience. 

13-  Charlotte takes Antoine Wright.  Having already solidified their point guard position and needing to add some back court depth the Magic choose the athletic Wright. 

14-  Minnesota takes Martell Webster.  It’s been seemingly a decade since the T’Wolves had a first round choice and they choose to add an athletic forward to hopefully replace Latrell Sprewell. 

15-  New Jersey takes Chris Taft.  There are a lot of questions surrounding Taft’s desire, but those questions followed Vince Carter to the Swamp and look how that turned out. 

16-  Toronto takes Jarrett Jack.  Having played with Bosh at Georgia Tech and being a pass first point guard are too much for the Raptors to pass on. 

      Naturally, there are several players that could move into the top 16 such as the young Russian center Martynas Andriuskevicious, the other Spanish league power forward Tiago Splitter, and the tweener from Syracuse Hakim Warrick—and of course trades can alter the selection process—but that’s the order (today) that I see taking place.  This is probably the 200^th mock draft selection to be published—take from it what you choose.