Our return to the Blogging world will be focused on last night's NBA draft. The Unibrow was predictably the first overall selection, doomed to spend his best and most productive years toiling away with a franchise that measures success by not participating in the draft lottery. I read this morning that people view the Unibrow as making New Orleans a contender in just a few years, and I hate to do this, but I gotta break down why that absolutely won't happen.
- Small Market teams - outside of Oklahoma City, Utah and San Antonio, cannot attract supporting cast players. Period. End of Story. Nobody in their right mind is gonna pass on being a roll guy in Chicago or Miami or Los Angeles so that they can play the same role in New Orleans. And if you can't add supporting cast to surround your stars, you can't really win.
- Stars want to play in major markets because you can make more money. I know its stating the obvious but use this as your case study. Kevin Love is a much better player than Blake Griffin. Plays at both ends of the floor, can space the floor with his perimeter game. Will log more minutes on the Olympic team this summer. And... Yet... how many Kevin Love commercials have you seen?
- New owners take a long time to put together a team capable of winning a championship because they spend too much time thinking they know shit, and they don't. Cuban took years to get a ring, and he's still only got one. Oh, and couple that with the fact that new owner Tom Benson also owns the Saints, a cash cow that people genuinely care about.
Other notable draft comings and goings include
- The Bobcraps drafting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - actually getting the draft right for maybe the first time in their history. Dude works hard, and has a Kevin Love-like ceiling. Small Forward is kinda the glamour position in the NBA right now and I am not sure he's ever going to be in the Durant/LeBron/Carmello discussion, but it's still a good pick
- The Celtics drafting in back to back picks Sullinger and Fab Melo. Ceiling is high on Sullinger, Melo, less so. On an overall athleticism scale of 1-10, I am not sure that Fab Melo isn't a negative 3.
- The Lakers ended up with Robert Sacre with the 60th overall pick. Enjoy the D League dude
No big trades went down, despite some rumors floating around. Mo Williams is still a Clipper and he still blows. Lamar Odom is still completely fucking useless and a Dallas Maverick. The Lakers wanted a starter and a top 10 pick for Pau Gasol. The league collectively laughed and said no thanks.
That's your draft recap, which means that we are devoid of basketball news until someone signs/gets traded or the Olympics start. We are officially entering the sports dead zone until the Olympics start. Gonna be a long couple weeks...
That's your draft recap, which means that we are devoid of basketball news until someone signs/gets traded or the Olympics start. We are officially entering the sports dead zone until the Olympics start. Gonna be a long couple weeks...
