NBA Draft Tonight

Rockets #14

My guess for Houston is either Patterson, Hayward or James.

I’m hoping if Houston trades up then maybe they could land Cousins or Monroe.

Petey,

I like those too for the rockets. I’ll be happy with anyone Morey picks….unless he picks Cole Aldrich. Of course, I hated the Aaron Brooks pick too.

Word is that the Thunder are trying to move up to get Hayward.

Alright, I’m happy with Patterson.

“Why anyone would waste a pick on that guy is beyond me?”

I’m Ron Burgundy?

What the fuck is OKC doing? They better have a power forward free agent on lockdown. Should have gone Alabi there instead of Brackins.

Trips,

They traded their 18th and 21st pick for Cole Aldrich.

They have the 26th pick right now and should use it on Alabi.

I am not crazy about the Aldrich pick but pairing him with Alabi is ok. One of them should be serviceable at the 5.

Quincy Poindexter for the Thunder.

The Nets just traded for Damion. LeBron probably called the Nets and said he wasn’t going to play for them if they kept Jordan Crawford.

Dick, gotcha. Didn’t see that. I’m at a hotel bar.

But still, Aldrich does nothing for me. He’s Nick Collison with less post game and better size.

Good news for Damion going to the Nets, sticking with the Hawks could have had him out of the league in three years.

Aldrich measured in at 6’9", so I’m not really sold on him playing the 5.

Trips,

I don’t get that trade by Presti. Is Aldrich that much better than Brackins even?

EggNog, I heard the rumors of him measuring at 6’9" too but the ESPN graphic had him at 6’11.25".

First round is done, there are some good players still left on the board.

OKC traded for Tibor Pleiss from the Nets who took them with the 1st pick in the 2nd round.

Dexter Pittman to the Heat with the 2nd pick in the 2nd round. Surprising that he went that high but a good fit.

Obligatory “Texas had 3 of the top 32 picks in the draft and still sucked” post.

Especially in the second round, teams take the guy they want. I have to say, I wouldn’t have drafted Dexter.

Damn Seattle for making me root for anything Oklahoma. At least I can enjoy the Sooners’ tears. Another OU choke on the national stage, so unusual…

Contracts for Bradley and Damion are guaranteed for 3 years, right? It is awesome that Dex was the 32nd pick overall in the draft. If he can ever get in shape, he could play for pay for a long time. Turned out to be a good decision by Bradley.

Aldrich should be able to play the 5 if your 4 is Ibaka. Aldrich is big enough to body people up, Ibaka weakside shotblocking, I like it.

“He’s Nick Collison with less post game and better size.” You say that like it’s a bad thing. Zombies entered the yesterday with 21, 26, 32 and 51. Now they have Aldrich, Cook, Morris Peterson’s expiring contract, Pleiss, and a future Clippers 1st rounder. The rest of the league plays checkers, Presti plays chess.

Tiny Gallon at the beginning of the 2nd round? Holy shit. To be perfectly honest, the only guy I saw getting drafted from OU was Warren. I guess I can see it. If some NBA team thinks they can get Gallon to learn to play with his back to the basket, it’s not the worst thing to have a 4 that can legitimately shoot beyond the arc.

Mr. Stone: Choking is getting beat in your own house and watching the College World Series on ESPN. Just ask Virginia. Getting back on topic…

Was there any indication Gallon would get picked up this early?

Tiny ended up going 17th in the 2nd round to the Milwaukee Bucks. I"m sure he’ll try hard there.

Willie Warren ended up at 24th in the 2nd round to the Clippers. Not a bad pick for them.

Sooners are done in Omaha after scoring once in the top of the 12th before giving up 2 in the bottom. Nice run though.

Did Nate really just talk shit about baseball?

Maybe the Rockets could sign/bring in a couple UDFAs like the tall Duke guy Zoubek and Tommy Mason-Griffin.

OKC had a terrible draft. They were in a real position to do damage after their trade for the 18th pick, but ended up with one of the few low-potential big men in the draft. Might I add he’s missing a tooth. The Clippers trade was utterly terrible as they will actually be good in the future now: Davis, Gordon, Aminu, Griffin, Kaman and now add Bledsoe to that. Yes, that’s some sick talent on that team. They bought Pleiss, who is a huge bust potential player at 7’1" 220 (impossible unless your body literally contains zero muscle mass).

As an OKC fan who was avidly following the draft coverage before and during the draft, I don’t know if I possibly could have been more disappointed. Seeing SA play the easy game and snag James Anderson at 20 and my steal of the draft, Ryan Richards, two spots before OKC picked in the second round at 49 just made me want to vomit.

I agree Blake. I came away feeling like OKC fucked away a great opportunity.

Not in love with Aldrich either, however Sam Presti has been nails for this organization. I’m gonna sit back and see what he does during the off season. A lot of these guys are good trade chips for the future too.

I agree with Wookiee, Presti seems to know what he is doing, even though I am not crazy about Aldrich. If he can be Chris Kaman, then they have done pretty good. Everyone seems to be impressed with Tibor Pleiss and obviously the Thunder were targeting him as the Mock Drafts had them drafting him at 26. They added the NBA 3pt contest champion for nothing (they needed outside shooting bad) and traded that free 18th pick for a future Clippers pick which has been a top 10 pick 14 times in the past 17 years. I like what the Clippers have done but they are still the Clippers.

Portland just voted on the question of the 2007 draft- Oden or Durant? They fired their GM.

dick, if he turns out to be Kaman, I’ll stop complaining forever about what the Thunder do. He already has the hideously ugly thing going for him. I don’t think the offense will ever be there though, and many Thunder fans consider that just as much of the reason they lost to the Lakers as the post defense (though I’m not certain I agree).

Taylor, ironically a lot of Thunder fans have been expressing interest in Oden. I sure think it would be a great fit, if only to hope he turns into a decent player and spite Portland twice on the same pick. Also, I’d assume if there was one guy that did NOT want to take Oden that year, it would Pritchard, but that’s just because I have a good deal of respect for him. No sources or anything. But I mean the guy got Aldridge and Roy the same year. The two BEST players in the draft that year, and two of the only three stars (Rudy Gay). He’s pretty damn good IMO and Paul Allen is nuts. Needs to go back to computers.

Heh, I forgot Rondo. All apologies to the Rondo lovers.

I agree that Pritchard didn’t have a choice on the KD/Oden deal. He is a well regarded GM and Portland was dumb for getting rid of him…unless they send up with Presti.

I don’t think Aldrich will be nearly as much as Kaman (although I didn’t like Kaman when he got drafted either), I’m baffled by that trade. Why not trade for Patterson or just wait for someone like Brackins at 21?

Kansas was a better offensive team without Cole Aldrich in the game. Think about that for a second. If you wanted a defensive guy who can be physical, why not trade down and grab Alabi? Big fucking reach by the Thunder even if you are Bobby Fisher.

Also, I think Dominique Jones is the steal of this draft. He can be a Russell Westbrook type sleeper.

I think the Spurs may have gotten a good steal, but that’s nothing new. Good ol’ RC Buford continues to quietly be one of the best GMs in the league.

Trips, I read something about Alabi having like Hepatitis B or something and spitting up blood somewhere on DraftExpress. I see him as a big coordination problem and definitely NBA bust, not that that’s really a big deal since he went so low.

Bob: Nate’s going to avoid the Sooners’ 7-34 record against Texas since 1999.

Draft Express described Bradley as a horrible outside shooter and was glowing about Gallon while dismissing Dex… so I think they were 0 fer on this draft IMO.

Not that I am going to instruct AB to jack up the threes or base my draft on Dex, but jeez… those guys are at least OK and Gallon is worthless.

Gallon is an abomination, I can’t believe he was actually drafted. What a useless fatass prick. At least Dex seems like a nice guy. And he’s tall…

Anybody who thinks Bradley is a “horrible” outside shooter did not watch a game of his before the halfway mark of the season and basically has zero idea what they’re talking about. There were games where the guy literally COULD NOT miss a shot. It was unreal.