Aftershocks of a Draft

So the NBA Draft is over, and a bunch of young players have bolstered mostly weak rosters, but unfortunately, the future of the league is an uncertain as it has ever been. It doesn't help that, with the Lockout (#LWord) looming, some of the best young players such as Harrison Barnes, Perry Jones, and Jared Sullinger decided to skip the draft and go back to school for another year. Yes, the talent crop might look weaker on paper than past years, but take a closer, scrutinised look and you'll find out how several teams upgraded themselves the right way, via drafting crucial pieces or via trade.

So here are the top 14 (lottery) picks of the 2011 NBA Draft. The order is a little different from what you would expect, because several teams pulled off trades on draft night. The most crucial one was the Sacramento Kings pulling off a three-way trade with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Bobcats. The Kings received the 10th pick from Bucks and John Salmons. Bobcats received the 7th pick from Kings and the Bucks' Corey Maggette. Bucks received Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, and 19th pick from Bobcats and Beno Udrih from Kings.

Kapeesh? It will make more sense when you look at the draft list now:

1) Cleveland Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving
2) Minnesota Timberwolves: Derrick Williams
3) Utah Jazz: Enes Kanter
4) Cleveland Cavaliers: Tristan Thompson
5) Toronto Raptors: Jonas Valanciunas
6) Washington Wizards: Jan Vesely
7) Charlotte Bobcats: Bismack Biyombo
8) Detroit Pistons: Brandon Knight
9) Charlotte Bobcats: Kemba Walker
10) Sacramento Kings: Jimmer Fredette
11) Golden State Warriors: Klay Thompson
12) Utah Jazz: Alec Burks
13) Phoenix Suns: Markieff Morris
14) Houston Rockets: Marcus Morris

The first thing I wanna mention is that, after the first 2 picks, the draft became as unexpected as it was expected to become, if you can follow my drift right there. Canadian forward Tristan Thomas took the biggest jump to be picked 4th. Two of the biggest starts in College Basketball last year - Kemba Walker and Jimmer Fredette (Say his name in the TIMMY! voice from South Park: JIMMER!! - fell to nine and ten respectively. My Knicks continued to torture fans by another questionable pick at #17 in the form of defensive guard Iman Shumpert. And the likes of Kyle Singler, Jeremy Tyler, and Josh Selby fell into the second round.



First off, let's start with the Cavs, who took little time in putting an end to their post-LeBron-depression-era by bringing in Duke's point guard Kyrie Irving. No surprises here: Irving is talented indeed, and scouts see shades of a poor man's Chris Paul in his leadership and his on-ball skills. Irving's going first also continued to usher in the hand-check-rule era of point-guard domination in the NBA. After Derrick Rose and John Wall, he was the 3rd PG in the last four years to be picked #1. Clearly, their is a major shift in focus in the league, with PGs getting more and more respect around the NBA. With the fourth pick, the Cavs kinda shocked people by picking Tristan Thompson, especially over guys like Jonas Valanciunas (who is a bit of an unknown project).

Another bit to note obviously was the international flavour in this draft. 6 of the first 7 picks were born overseas. The league continued to have an increasing number of international players picked in the draft - in my NBA-India article today, I suggested that the league should be named to the IBA - International Basketball Association!

Minnesota did what we expected them to do - pick combo-forward Derrick Williams. But now with a plethora of forwards in a similar position on their side, they will have to trade someone. My money is on Michael Beasley saying goodbye to any hopes of balling alongside Ricky Rubio.

One of my favourite picks this year is Turkish PF/C Enes Kanter, who went third to the Jazz. Kanter is freakishly talented, boasting the game of a slightly bigger Carlos Boozer. Because of his foreign origins, he was a bit of a mystery man in the league, but I'm glad the Jazz took a chance with him - I think he will prove to be a star in a league that is forgetting the importance of skilled post-players.

In Jan Vesely at 6th, the Wizards added the guy people call 'Euro Blake Griffin', mostly because of his athletic/dunking ability. The Wizards had a great day at the draft, as they also added a good defender in Chris Singleton as the 18th pick and a stable point guard in Shelvin Mack at 34. They will form an exciting young nucleus around John Wall, Andray Blatche, Nick Young, and JaVale McGee.

My favourite movers and shakers of the draft though were the Bobcats. With the 7th and 9th picks, the Bobcats immediately overhauled their roster by bringing in the person many are calling the next Ben Wallace - Bismack Biyombo, and of course, the player I feel who deserved to be a top 3 pick this year purely based on his winning mentality - Kemba Walker. With the acquisition of veteran Corey Maggette, the Bobcats can finally move on to a new, exciting direction.

At 10th, the Kings brought in the draft's surest ticket in JIMMER!! - JIMMER!! is also the best shooter of the year, and although has questions in his defensive ability, he will bring excitement back to Sacramento. It's a gamble indeed by the Kings, but if it pays off, their nucleus of JIMMER!!, Tyreke Evans, and DeMarcus Cousins could be one to watch for the future.

At 13th and 14th is the wonderful story of the Morris brothers, Markieff and Marcus - Twin big men separated just by seven minutes at birth and a little more than seven minutes at the NBA draft. Markieff went to the Suns and Marcus to the Rockets.

Apart from the names mentioned above, a few other teams made notable moves that I feel should be mentioned here:

- Portland lost Rudy Fernandez to Dallas and Andre Miller to Denver, but they got Raymond Felton in return. I like it.
- Denver made a savvy pick at 22nd by bringing in hustling big man Kenneth Faried.
- Dallas, the best team in the league, just got a little better by adding versatile backcourt player Fernandez.
- Boston got a good player at 27th in JaJuan Johnson.
- And the Spurs traded away PG George Hill to the Pacers, and got the 15th pick in return, who they turned into small forward Kawhi Leonard.

So there we are... The picks have been made, the trades finalised, and the rosters taking shape. All that's left is to hope for the NBA Basketball next season...

... And of course, the 2012 draft! With so many big names dropping out this year, 2012 will be STACKED! Anthony Davis, Harrison Barnes, Perry Jones, Jared Sullinger, Austin Rivers, Quincy Miller, James McAdoo, Michael Gilchrist, Bradley Beal... learn those names now - you will be hearing again, same time, next year!

Hoopistani Mocks the 2011 Draft

We are just 6 days away from perhaps the least anticipated NBA Draft of all time. I'm sorry if that's the worst possible way to start an article about the Draft, but it's true - this year promises to present one of the weakest draft classes in a long time. It's going to be slim pickings for the teams announcing their pick on June 23rd, and what's worse is, it's hard to get excited about the future of these youngsters in the league when there is the dark cloud of 'possible lockout' (TheLWord) hanging gloomily above it - how can we be excited for the future if we aren't sure of a future?

That said, at the end of the day, NBA teams will be adding fresh new talent to their squad and hope for them to become the stars of the future. Before writing this article, I checked out the players who are the stars of today, and I'm going to simplify the 'star' argument by choosing the 2011 All Star Teams. In the pool of 25 players in the 2 teams (Yao Ming was selected but injured, so a replacement was chosen), there are an amazing six former #1 draft picks, and 18 overall picked in the top 5! Criticize the choices of NBA owners all you want, but 18/25 picked in the top 5 shows that some of them know what they're doing (and others pick Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh).

But there's hope for the low picks too. Amongst the seven players outside the top 5, we find the last four NBA Finals MVPs: Dirk Nowitzki was a 9th pick, Kobe Bryant was a 13th pick, Paul Pierce was a 10th pick, and Tony Parker, who didn't make the all star team this year but was the 2007 Finals MVP, was picked 28th. The lowest all star in terms of draft ranking? Manu Ginobili, who was shockingly picked 57th in 1999.

What does this all teach us? You'll get an all star when you pick high, but don't knock the low picks, because there could be a champion hidden somewhere.

So without further ado, here are my predictions for the lottery teams (top 14) of the 2011 NBA Draft. I have used knowledge from three reliable sources to help me come up with my list: DraftExpress.com, SLAM Online Mock Draft, and NBA.com Mock Draft. Of course, this prediction is made considering that there will be no picks traded to other teams, in which case, different teams will have different needs to fill:

1) Cleveland Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving
2) Minnesota Timberwolves: Derrick Williams
3) Utah Jazz: Kemba Walker
4) Cleveland Cavaliers: Jonas Valanciunas
5) Toronto Raptors: Brandon Knight
6) Washington Wizards: Enes Kanter
7) Sacramento Kings: Jan Vesely
8) Detroit Pistons: Bismack Biyombo
9) Charlotte Bobcats: Jimmer Fredette
10) Milwaukee Bucks : Kawhi Leonard
11) Golden State Warriors: Marcus Morris
12) Utah Jazz: Alec Burks
13) Phoenix Suns: Chris Singleton
14) Houston Rockets: Tristan Thomas

I feel I should explain a few decisions.

Kyrie Irving seems to be the lock for the first pick, and most people believe that Derrick Williams follows next. When Cavs won the draft lottery, I was sure that they would translate it into the Duke PG. The 2nd pick seems to be settled for Derrick Williams too.

This is where things get interesting, and unlike most rankings, I have picked Kemba Walker to go over the likes of Brandon Knight and Jonas Valanciunas. Scouts be damned - all I know that inspirational college winners are a good sign of winners in the pro league too. If I'm Utah, I'm bringing Kemba in and making him the permanent replacement to Deron Williams.

Since Cavs have already picked a PG in Irving, I say they skip Brandon Knight and pick Valanciunas with their 4th pick.

The other choice I feel I must explain is Jimmer Fredette to Charlotte. Jimmer's stock as been up and down the last few weeks, with teams failing to understand whether or not he could become a star in this league. He was college basketball's best scorer but there are doubts about his ability to play in the pros and defend the bigger guards. For the draft, some say he could go to the Kings, as high as 7, while others have him slipping to Utah or Phoenix at 12-13. I feel 9 is a good spot for him: The Bobcats could certainly use his scoring tenacity and he will learn a thing or two about defense down there, too.

I am also intrigued to see how the international prospects in the draft - Jonas Valančiūnas (Lithuania), Enes Kanter (Turkey), Bismack Biyombo (Congo) - perform in the lottery.

So let's cross our fingers and wait. Let's hope that some of these players become all stars and MVPs of the future, and let's hope there is a season on time come November so we can see them in action!

Cavs win 2011 draft lottery

There are some smaller market teams who, for the longest time, remain shunned from the limelight. Whether they perform well or badly or anything, they remain mostly anonymous, especially in comparison to the Los Angeles', the New Yorks, the Miamis, the Bostons, or the Chicagos.



The Cleveland Cavaliers are not one of those teams.

It is been quite a decade for the Cavs, hasn't it? And no matter what their ups and downs have been, they have somehow remained relevant, remained breaking news.

The Cavs won the draft lottery in 2003, just in time to pick a certain fresh-faced high-schooler by the name of LeBron James as the first pick of the draft. It was a no-brainer of a pick, and LeBron paid them back well during his years. He won rookie of the year and a few years later, Cleveland, who had suffered a history of sporting heartbreaks, was suddenly a major contender. Not only were they winning basketball games but they were also winning the hearts of bandwagon fans from across the world. This was a team that historically didn't make the playoffs very often, and when it did, it didn't get very far.

Suddenly, the Wine, Gold, and White colours of the Cavs were sexy. Suddenly, every second basketball fan was a Cavs fan in his/her James 23 jersey. LeBron took the Cavs to an NBA Finals appearance and twice helped them finish with the best record in the league. He changed the face of the franchise.

We all know what happened then, right? LeBron made a 'Decision', packed his bag, and joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami Heat, South Beach. The Cavs were left with nothing. Suddenly, we started to see blowout losses and a 26-game losing streak. Suddenly, I began to wonder, where had all the Cavs fans gone?

People connected with the Cavs organisation reacted sharply to LeBron's decision, from owner Dan Gilbert writing him a scathing open letter to fans burning his jersey and cursing his name. Things became so bad that the only real identity they had for 2010-11 season was that they were 'LeBron's Ex'.

But on Lottery Night for the 2011 draft, the Cavs won their chance at redemption. The lottery bounced the right way for Cleveland, and they scored two picks of the top five of the draft, including the #1 pick. What was perhaps ironic that the pick that won them the #1 spot wasn't their own to begin with, but a pick they had received in a trade from the Clippers earlier in the season. (Aaah! the Clippers luck continues - but that's another story).

What is perhaps also intriguing is that, eight years ago, the last time that the Cavs won the first pick, the talent level was mesmerisingly good - as a matter of fact, 2003 is considered to be one of the best draft classes ever, featuring: All NBA-ers LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh; All Stars Chris Kaman, David West, Josh Howard, Mo Williams, other great role players like Kirk Hinrich, TJ Ford, Mickaël Piétrus, Nick Collison, Boris Diaw, Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, Luke Walton, Steve Blake, Zaza Pachulia, Matt Bonner, James Jones, Kyle Korver, and a certain bust named Darko Milicic.

The 2011 Class, unfortunately, is considered to be one of the worst. In an article by Marc J. Spears for Yahoo! Sports, one Western Conference GM called the pool of available player "horrendous". If the Cavs really did win big, the general consensus is that they won big at the worst time possible.

Of course, no one can fully predict how well or how badly the current draft class will do as pros. The Cavs are expected to make Duke's point guard Kyrie Irving into the first pick, a player in the mould of Chris Paul who is expected to finally give a new identity to LeBron's Ex-es. Other big names in the draft include power forward Derrick Williams, NCAA tournament winning PG Kemba Walker, Lithuanian Center Jonas Valanciunas, and PG Brandon Knight.

Here is the order at which the lottery teams will be making their picks come draft day, June 23.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers (via LA Clippers)
2. Minnesota Timberwolves
3. Utah Jazz (via New Jersey Nets)
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Toronto Raptors
6. Washington Wizards
7. Sacramento Kings
8. Detroit Pistons
9. Charlotte Bobcats
10. Milwaukee Bucks
11. Golden State Warriors
12. Utah Jazz
13. Phoenix Suns
14. Houston Rockets

The other 16 playoff teams will pick in the opposite order of their end-of-season record.

Kemba Walker & some UConn brilliance

Now, I will be the first to admit that I don't know right from left when it comes to NCAA basketball in the States. Since barely any games or promotion is done in India, it is only out of curiousity that I know anything at all about it. It is important for me, for instance, to know where the world's best basketball player in the NBA came from, or what kind of challenges and competition they had in their younger years.

But otherwise, there is very little other interest. Yes, I know, as those who swear about college ball will say, that the games are perhaps more exciting sometimes. Most teams are closely matched, the atmosphere in the games are excellent, and the players seem to try harder. But I'm not completely sold on it. I hate the idea of 35-second shot clocks, shorter three-point lines, and lots and lots and lots of really bad offense.

Still, every once in a while, a story comes out that even the least interest ones can't help but follow. The story this year, I believe, has been of University of Connecticut (UConn) point guard Kemba Walker. A solid but generally unspectacular player in his first season, he improved in year two, and by the time he was a Junior, he became one of the best players in the country, making the biggest plays all year and leading his team to a National Championship title. His clutch play, and leadership has already become stuff of legend. And his buzzer-beaters have taken YouTube by storm!

Walker is a slashing quick guard, known for this ball-handling ability and accurate jump-shot. At 6 foot, he may be a tad bit undersized, but in today's NBA, a league that favours the confident, fast small men, he could blend in easily.

UConn capped off a fairytale run in the NCAA tournament by leading the Huskies past Kentucky in the Final Four, and then beating Butler 53-41 in an ugly, high-on-defense-low-on-offense game in the Final to win the National Championship on April 4th. It was the UConn Huskies' third championship in the last 11 years. Jeremy Lamp also played a crucial role in the second half of the Championship game. Walker was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

His only shortcoming was being snubbed for the Naismith Men's College Player of the Year award, which went to another small guard, Jimmer Fredette of BYU. "The Jimmer", who has also had an outstanding season, may have shown his brilliance when it came to individual scoring, but in my opinion, this award should've been Walker's all along.

Now, to judge how successful college players will be in the NBA, I rely almost exclusive on my favourite scouting website, DraftExpress. At this point, Walker, if he goes pro, as been ranked as the 6th overall pick in the 2011 draft. From afar, it seems to be a year without any guaranteed future pro superstars, but I'll be rooting for Kemba to fight amongst the likes of Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes, Derrick Williams, Perry Jones, and Brandon Knight.

And for my interest in college ball? Let's hope someone can figure out to show more of the NCAA tournament games in India next year. Maybe, just maybe, I'll start to warm up to it.