The Official Halfcourt Trap NBA Draft Rapid Analysis.

1. Jeff Van Gundy is the best analyst in sports. His "They need good players. They stink." evaluation of Charlotte is the kind of honesty you don't get often on television.
2. Michael Jordan stopped short of becoming The New Age Elgin Baylor. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was the correct and courageous pick at number two. Jordan and his underlings wisely chose to keep the pick.
3. I'm not big on Bradley Beal, but Washington has done a nice job of reinventing their roster. It no longer looks likes the hoops version of One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest.
4. Cleveland, as bad as I hate to say anything good about a Dan Gilbert venture, is building a sound team. Dion Waiters will be a good scorer and Tyler Zeller will be a starting quality center. They also avoided giving in to the temptation to trade assets to gamble on Beal.
5. Sacramento got incredibly lucky. Thomas Robinson is the perfect personality to add to Team Sybil. A steady head will do that club a world of good. Further, there's got to be some good karma headed to the team signing his check.
6. Good luck to Trap favorite Lawrence Frank. Since he has the unenviable task of turning Andre Drummond from dog to player, he'll need it.
7. I just don't see the wisdom in taking Austin Rivers in the top 10. If he were Austin Smith, he's the 25th selection. It's Bowden-Dooley Syndrome infecting the NBA.
8. The five biggest High Upside-Highly Questionable picks in the draft were Meyers Leonard, Royce White, Evan Fournier, Jared Sullinger, and Perry Jones, III. A couple of them will be productive players. The others will be black marks on their GMs resumes.
9. The Suns must have little confidence Steve Nash is returning. Otherwise, taking Kendall Marshall makes no sense. If Nash is coming back, they needed to make a win now type selection.
10. The five best value picks in the first round were Andrew Nicholson, Jared Cunningham, Tony Wroten, Arnett Moultrie, and Festus Ezeli.
11. I don't understand the Fab Melo pick at all. He was too lazy to stay eligible in college and is years away from possibly being a real force. I'm not sure how that helps a team that still fashions itself a contender.
12. Shooting is at a premium in the NBA. That said, it's not so scarce that John Jenkins should have been a first round pick. He'll steal money for a few years, then head to Europe.
13. David Stern has a great sense of theater. His interplay with the hostile crowd made the Draft fun. He'd make a great heel wrestling manager.
14. Watching John Calipari orchestrate how Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist would get up from their tables and head to the podium showed why he's the best recruiter in the game. No detail is too small to be managed and exploited.
15. The Grizzlies now have two young options to back up Mike Conley. If Josh Selby or Tony Wroten prove up to the task, it vastly improves the team.
16. One has to wonder what the drafting of Marquis Teague means to CJ Watson. Unless Teague was drafted to be used as a trade chip, CJ may find himself a luxury tax casualty in Chicago.
17. I really like Philadelphia's draft. Maurice Harkless and Arnett Moultrie are perfect fits for the young, athletic direction the Sixers are pursuing.
18. Jeff Taylor probably cost himself serious money by returning to Vanderbilt. He'll still have a long career in the league, but he'll never recover the money lost on his first contract.
19. Golden State helped their roster consderably by adding Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli. They've gotten bigger and more athletic since the beginning of the season. They desperately needed to do just that.
20. This draft had very little starpower. However, it had great depth. Almost every second round pick has a legitimate shot to immediately make a team and get some minutes. That isn't always the case.

 

Then what does it look like?*

*I'm not enamored with the pick or the team.

 

Nene, Okafor, and Ariza are all pros who show up and work. That's three more than they had last season. That roster now looks like one that, with a decent free agent period, could compete for 8th in the East.

 

I like Ariza and Nene. Okafor, not so much.

 

After a season where they spent most of the year watching Jevale McGee commit crimes against the sport, Okafor will look like Alonzo Mourning to Wizard fans.

 

Haha, I definitely agree with that.

 

Every time Rashard Lewis picked up a paycheck he should have been charged with a separate count of theft.

 

I really liked the Wroten pick for the Grizzlies

 

I'd have rather seen the Pacers go for PJIII than Miles effin Plumlee.

 

Ariza is worthless. There is a reason he has been on 6 teams in 8 season in the league.

 

And my Bucks pick John Henson, the female version of Anthony Davis, which is great if we were in the WNBA. Another season battling for the 8th spot until Brandon Jennings leaves and we can contend for the #1 draft pick again. Awesome.