3rd Annual NBA Draft Recap

Trade-Mania! -- Both of the big trades of the night surround the teams with the top 2 picks (Portland, Seattle) and their efforts to clean house and free up cap space for a couple of years down the road, as both franchises start over fresh.

Portland Odens
Knicks get:Zach Randolph (4 yrs, 60 mill !), Dan Dickau (1 yr, 2.8 mill), Fred Jones (1 yr, 3.3 mill)
Portland gets:Channing Frye (1 yr, 2.5 mill and player option), Steve Francis (2 yr, 33 mill)
The Knicks continue to take on more payroll in exchange for questionable players. Randolph has been through a lot, including punching a teammate, legal problems, microfracture knee surgery, and arguing with the coach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Randolph Randolph is talented, and if Randolph actually plays consistently well, it’s a monster front line in combination with Eddy Curry. I really like the trade from the Portland perspective – 2 years of Steve Francis is going to be sad, but at least they got Zach Randolph off their hands. I’m not sure what else they could have gotten for Zach Randolph, since everyone knew they were trying to unload him. It’s tough in today’s internet age to keep stuff like that under wraps I suppose. Anyway, Channing Frye is a really good prospect who I assume can just start immediately at SF. Now the Blazers are set with an excellent but young starting 5, because they just plug LaMarcus Aldridge into Randolph’s starting spot. Look at this sweet lineup:
PF Aldridge
SF Frye
C Oden
SG B. Roy
PG J. Jack…plus they now can focus on team chemistry, by shipping Randolph out! They don’t have any bench as of this moment, but there’s no reason the Trailblazers can’t at least fight and contend for a playoff spot this season. Plus, as awful as it is going to be to pay Steve Francis, it’s only 2 seasons, as opposed to any of the other possible awful contracts that Portland could have gotten in return. Of course, they could have traded for someone who may actually play, but I think Portland was more focused on the quickest way to get a $15 million cap number off their books.

Seattle Super-Durants
Seattle gets: Delonte West (2 yrs remaining, $4.5 mill total), Wally-World (2 yrs, $25 mill total), and the #5 pick (Jeff Green)
Boston gets: Ray Allen (3 yrs remaining, $51 mill total)
In a lot of ways, this is good for both teams though much better for Seattle from a long-term perspective. GM Danny Ainge is under pressure to start delivering some wins, so he decided to roll the dice and deal West and the #5 pick. Granted, I’m not sure that Ray Allen is the answer for their team because this means they have a starting lineup of:
PF Jefferson
SF P. Pierce
C ???? Ratliff
SG R. Allen
PG Rondo
6th man – G. Green ?
Maybe they are going small though they still have Theo Ratliff, but Ratliff hasn’t been healthy in years. I’m just really biased against Rondo, who I don’t think is the answer at PG. Regardless of my hatred for Rondo, Boston did get a lot more interesting for next season at least! As for Seattle, I really do like the trade. They end up creating even more cap space this year (saving $2 million) so they should have like $17 million this summer to go after Rashard Lewis and whomever else they want. Plus, I’m assuming that this allows Seattle to still trade Luke Ridnour or Earl Watson. AND, this frees them one year earlier from a cap perspective (by not having Ray Allen)!

Early Draft Winner: Detroit Pistons
Drafted two sweet guards (Stuckey from E. Washington – a pure scorer ; and Afflalo from UCLA) which were much needed to add some depth since the Pistons didn’t really have much after Billups and Rip Hamilton (they already unloaded Delfino, and only had L. Hunter back there). I’ve always liked Afflalo a lot better than Jordan Farmar (who came out last year from UCLA). Granted, Afflalo is a SG, but coming off the bench he can knock down some open jumpers.

The Bad
Jay Bilas, on 7-foot center Spencer Hawes – “He’s not athletic and he doesn’t rebound well or block shots and this tends to raise some red flags.”

The Ugly
-Joakim Noah’s bowtie and 1970s sports jacket… maybe there’s an unwritten rule to wear the ugliest outfits possible. I don’t get it. Joakim Noah is a goofy guy, who just sat with Stuart Scott and waved to all of his buddies in the crowd the whole time.
-Houston’s pick of PG Aaron Brooks from Oregon – the quest continues to restore the faith of the nation in the name “Aaron Brooks.” The good news: you have T-Mac and Yao to pass to! The bad news: don’t know where the minutes are coming from, because the Rockets seem to be stockpiling PGs (Mike James, Rafer Alston, V-Span (Greek World Championship Hero), Luther Head? ).