Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Stop the Presses....It's NBA Draft Night!!

I'll preface this by saying, I could really give a rat's a$$ about the NBA, but tonight is the annual draft. Since I've all but given up on the NBA, I'll say that the Bucks are my favorite team....but that doesn't mean a whole lot. And if you weren't aware, Milwaukee somehow snagged the first overall pick in the draft lottery tonight. There still is no clear cut choice for the Bucks to select. GM Larry Harris has not made his intentions known to the public about whether he plans on making Utah center Andrew Bogut or North Carolina forward Marvin Williams the first pick of the draft.

If I had the opportunity to make the selection, I would do one of two things, either: 1)select Bogut with the #1 pick, or 2)trade the selection to move down to somewhere in the range of #3 or #5 while being able to pick up an extra first rounder either this year or in the next several years. Now that I think about it, the only reason I would consider trading down would be to pick Wake Forest PG Chris Paul, but there have been reports the last couple of days that T.J. Ford has been cleared to make his full return. With Ford back in the fold and Mo Williams also to split time at point guard, there would be no compelling reason to draft Chris Paul. Although, I'd like to take a moment and make a prediction that Paul will be the best player out of this year's draft.

So that leaves Bogut or Williams. Being a diehard UNC fan, I got a chance to see Marvin Williams play close to half of his games on national TV this year. Granted, UNC had the best starting five in the country, but Marv couldn't even crack the starting lineup, but rather came in as the sixth man and served as a role player for every game. Williams was never the go-to guy on his team, but was normally the third or fourth option when he was on the floor due to having Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Raymond Felton ahead of him. It was obvious too that he was over-matched when forced to play down low in the post-up game. He didn't appear to have a solid move to rely on with his back to the basket. He came across as more of a slasher and spot up shooter. He did have excellent percentages from behind the arc as well as at the free throw stripe.