Winner: Karma, and fair play.
Sorry Milwaukees, Boston, and Memphis... tanking games got you jack sh*t. Better luck next year!
Winner: NY Knicks fans.
Because we don't have to spend the next 10 years listening to the media reminding us how much of an idiot Isiah is, or what an awful trade the Curry trade was (yeah, because they really told us so at the time, right?)... as a Knicks fan, I'm quite okay with Curry for Sweetney, Tim Thomas, Tyrus Thomas, and the #9 pick (Hibbert or Noah or whoever).
Loser: The 76ers.
How did they not get a top-3 pick? David Stern owed them! #14? Yeah, enjoy your three picks this year... if you are lucky, you'll be .500 next season. And I'm doubting that right now....
Big Winner: Atlanta Hawks.
They get to keep their pick because it's in the top-3. And they get the Indiana pick (#11), which means they get two top picks in the deepest drafts in years.
Still a Loser: Atlanta Hawks.
F*ck yeah! How does it feel to get third place in a two-winner contest? Yeah, like kissing your sister or whatever the expression is. So you get no prize, just a few nice picks which your GM will no doubt bungle. Which two swingmen will it be? In all honesty, Billy Knight better pick Mike Conley Jr., and he better hope that he is the real deal at point.
Biggest Loser, even more than the Celtics: Phoenix Suns.
Yeah, the Boston media will be out tomorrow on ESPN telling what a blow to the franchise this is, blah, blah, blah... the Suns just got screwed. And in a way, so did the rest of the league. Because without the 4th pick, the Suns have no leavage to trade up for Kevin Durant. Nor do they have enough, most likely, to trade for Kevin Garnett now. So they can shop Shawn Marion, in the hopes of avoiding paying the luxury tax (cheap owner!), but can they really make a move to make their team better next season? Remains to be seen. My guess: yes, but not for Kevin Garnett or Kevin Durant... they might have to settle for a move for a Pau Gasol type.
Winner: Brandon Roy
If the battle of the next decade will be Roy vs. Chris Paul, guess who has better weapons? Roy now has Oden to team with Zach Randolph and LaMarcus Aldridge. And Jarrett Jack and Sergio Rodriguez are still on the Trail Blazers, making them the most talented, complete, young team in the league. Chicago, take note. That's the team of the future. Reason # 204 you should have gone for a title this year.
Winner: The Wherever Sonics
Whether Seattle or Oklahoma City, the Sonics now have the best gunning team out there. As we wrote earlier, we want them to get Durant to team with his prototype, Ray Allen. Well, it happened. The Sonics can keep Rashard Lewis (and they should, because he's a good bargaining chip if nothing else), and along with Luke Ridnour (and Mike Wilks, our favorite young guard), the Sonics are running and gunning like the Warriors on crack. No, they don't have any defense (yet), or rebounding, or a real frontcourt (beyound Chris Wilcox). But you know what they could use to make them a legit 50-win team now? A Marcus Camby/Ben Wallace-type. It may require trading Ridnour, but they can afford it.
Semi-Loser: Chicago
Not really. They may act like they are losers, but they still netted the #9 pick as essentially a throw-in to the Curry deal, and are still likely to land a great talent who can improve the team, particularly a front court post presence. Of course, the question is will they improve the team in time to make a run for the title next season? Perhaps with the failure to land a top-2 pick, the Grizzlies might be less interested in moving Gasol.
Loser: Larry Brown
Bwahahahaha. Sorry Leisure Suit Larry! Not gonna want that Grizzlies job now, huh? Bobcats look a little less appealing? Stick with the Sixers? After pimping himself out to almost every team in the lotto, the two teams he didn't interview with - the Sonics and the Blazers - landed the top-2 picks. Maybe next year, coach.
Loser: Kevin Garnett
Sending Randy Foye and some of that Lourdes water, praying for a miracle... now you are back in the 7th spot. Last year Kevin McHale used the sixth pick on future rookie of the year Brandon Roy, but then traded it for the 7th pick and money. Randy Foye is good, but Roy is the premier guard for now. Unless Foye makes the jump, or Kevin McHale realizes that the best option at the 7-spot is to play for the safer player, you are screwed again. Kevin McHale... not the one with the most upside, okay? No, seriously... pick the safe guy. See, you already have a stud former MVP in Garnett... you don't need anymore possible all-stars, what you need is a decent role player. A Ginobili to Garnett's Duncan. Get it? Of course you don't. Which is why KG is a loser....
Loser: Larry Bird
Eff it - all together a terrible night for the Celtics, past and future. That's right, Bird joins Ainge and McHale in draft hell. He traded the 11th pick to the Hawks for Al Harrington, who he traded, along with Stephen Jackson, to the Warriors for two of the worst contracts in the league (Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy). The team sucks, and Harrington and Jackson were stars on the most exciting playoff team in years, the Warriors. Wow.
Winner: Detroit
With all the pre-lottery attention on the Suns, and what moves they were going to make with their picks... well, the Pistons' two picks (#15 and 27) are way better than the Suns' two picks (#24 and 29), and close to comparable to Philly's three picks (#12, 21, 30). Will Detroit make any moves this offseason? Depends on whether Chris Webber re-signs....
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30 is a practically a second round pick, and second round picks have little value. In fact, that second round pick for Philly is almost certainly heading to the development league. Bank on it, they don't have enough roster spots.
What I said, my argumentative friend, is that "they are close to comparable". 12 and 21 are closer to 15 and 27 than, say, 3 is to 2. And they are nowhere near as close to 3 and 11 (both better than 12).
So you might think you are sitting on a gold mine, but you are pretty much in the same situation as Detroit come draft time....
27 is basically a 2nd round pick as well, and the difference between 15 and 21 is probably closer than the difference between 12 and 15.
The Sixers also have the flexibility to move up, possibly move up twice, if the guy they're looking at isn't going to be there. Will King do this? That's another question.
trading Richard Jefferson and the 17th pick to move up and get someone like Yi Jianlian or Roy Hibbert, any takers?
Roy Hibbert is staying put at Georgetown, according to the Washington Post. Trading up for Yi would have to be a draft day deal, because Yi might go as high as #3 (Yahoo's mock draft today projected the Hawks taking Yi at three), or as low as... I don't know, 10, 11?
Secondly, Yi is a SF. A 7-foot Chinese SF, but a SF none the less. He's a perimeter player. He's not a low post presence, has very few moves, and is a subpar rebounder and defender for his size. He's a Bargnani, but with a little less range (Yi is good up to 20 feet, but has yet to develop a reliable 3PT shot). This is all according to the reports on NBADraft.com, Draft Express.com, Slam, and other sources... T. from the Free Darko board, for example, laughed when I first suggested Yi as the likely third pick, back in the beginning of the season, and wrote that Yi is not that good.
Of course, I see you've done your Yi post already, so you know his strengths and weaknesses, too!
My point is that I think Jefferson is a better choice at SF for the Nets than Yi. Packaging Jefferson to move up in the draft is a good idea, but only if they are in rebuild mode; otherwise, there isn't a "help now" player that is going to do better than a healthy Jefferson in the draft, and with Kidd aging, the Nets have to go for it now.
I like the Big Three plus Kristic and Nachbar, and Moore and Williams. The Nets actually have a great core, so what they need is a decent post presence to compliment the shooting touch of Nenad.
The move I would go for (if possible) would be trading Richard Jefferson plus the pick to move up (which is hard, because RJ has a really long contract, among the longest in the NBA), signing Gerald Wallace to replace him (added defense), and picking up a PF like Brandon Wright (but that would probably require a top-5 pick). If the Nets can't get in the top-5, then a top-10 pick might net Joe Kim Noah. Not a scoring presence, but enough of a finisher for Kidd (remember what he did with K-Mart), and a solid defense and rebound type.
If Detroit re-signs Amir Johnson (which it's believed they will), Detroit really only has one spot for a "guaranteed" contract on their roster (unless of course everyone opts out and leaves, Flip Murray, Billups, McDyess). Dumars has done best with his late 1st round picks and 2nd round picks (Mehmet Okur, Tayshaun, Maxiell, Amir Johnson), so as much as I'd like to tell him to try and trade into the top 10, I'd like him to keep the 2 late 1st round picks. He could also package 1 of them in a deal (hopefully) with Hamilton (if he has any value) and move up. Of course, that is wishful thinking because as much as I like Detroit, I despise Rip Hamilton.
12, 21, 30 and 38 aren't comparable to 15, 27 and 57.
What Dumars does with those picks might be, comparable to what King does, or better, but on raw numbers, the Sixers are #2 to the Hawks as far as depth of picks go.