Wednesday, June 25, 2008

2008 NBA Draft Preview

Since 1997, if I've never heard of a U.S. college player who comes out of school early and they're drafted in the lottery, they will be a bust. I'm not an expert on college basketball, but I'm more than a casual fan. Shawn Marion is the exception to that rule. Jamal Crawford is the next best player who fits that criteria and then it goes way downhill from there.

Some busts who I had never heard of before the draft: DeMarr Johnson, Rodney White, Dajuan Wagner, Kris Humphries, Cedric Simmons, Patrick O'Bryant, to name a few (more like, almost all).

I've always wanted the power to say who could or could not come out of school early. So here's a list of a couple of high prospects who I never heard of during the college basketball season:
Anthony Randolph, DeAndre Jordan, JaVale McGee.

Here are some other prospects who left early that I never heard of:
Richard Hendrix, Shawn James, Trent Plaisted.

I tend not to watch bad big conference schools or have access to some mid-major conferences.

Here are some players who I've watched and am pretty shocked to see they declared early (this group tends to have better careers than the one above:
Joe Alexander, Jerryd Bayless, Donte Green, Jamont Gordon, J.J. Hickson, Kosta Koufos, Luc Mbah a Moute, Marreese Speights.

The Knicks could pick Russell Westbrook. He's a good defensive player, but not great on the other side. That's ok, the Knicks need to learn how to play defense. They might also pick Danilo Gallinari. I've heard he's a better version of Bargnani, but that doesn't even guarantee that he'll rebound better than Eddy Curry. I've also seen Brook Lopez or Kevin Love. I think either would be a good pick and more importantly, it would show that we were serious about getting rid of Curry or Zach Randolph. I saw one mock draft that gave New York O.J. Mayo, but my life tends not to work out so well.

No comments: