TrueHoop reader William sent me a Word file with a massive draft diary he wrote. Great line from it: "I finally figured it out [Joakim] Noah looks like the spawn of Diana Ross and Matlock."
Simmering controversy of today: will Milwaukee be forced into selling off Yi Jianlian to the highest bidder? CNBC's Darren Rovell has some great insight: "If you put all the Chinese people in Milwaukee in the Bradley Center, you'd still have 3,000 seats left."
Look at who the agents are representing the players in the mid to late second round of the draft. Some of those players, I have heard, have almost no shot at the NBA, but teams take these players instead of other players as favors to powerful agents, who get to look good bragging about having so many players drafted -- when recruiting etc. You'll notice a lot of Bill Duffy, Andy Miller, and CAA's Leon Rose and Andre Buck.
ESPN Insider John Hollinger: "Special kudos also are due to Kevin McHale for taking two Florida guys -- looks like his remote was his main scouting tool again. I think Corey Brewer will be a decent role player but not much more; I doubt Chris Richard will be even that."
ESPN's Chris Sheridan in a chat: "Once the T-Wolves and Pacers couln;t get anything done by Wednesday night, they did the prudent thing and decided to wait until after July 1 to see what new kinds of deals come around. I expect to see the Bulls get involved in the KG sweepstakes, and I've been hearing for several days that Dallas should not be discounted as a possible destination. I get the impression the suns' chances to get him have come and gone."
Ron Hitley of Hornets247: "Hey, I just got back from the draft party, and I must admit it was the best damn party I've been to all day. When all was said and done, the Hornets ended up with Julian Wright from Kansas and Adam Haluska from Iowa. Wright wasn't expected to be available at 13, so I guess that's a good thing. All I can say about Haluska is that he has an intense stare, which may prove useful if we ever need a technical."
Not happy with the Jason Richardon trade in the Bay Area. Nor with Thaddeus Young in Philadelphia. SLAM's Khalid Salaam: "I just hoped we drafted smart and got someone who can rebound, since that was obviously our biggest need. So when they announced Thad's name I knew we failed. I'm not saying he's a scrub; in fact the kid has lots of potential. Dude might end up being nasty but it's a stretch to take a guy who is not known for defense or rebounding when those are our obvious needs. In fact when they put his profile on the screen and under the line 'need to improve' it read rebounding. Well then what the hell would make the Sixers brass think that this was the best pick for the team?"
And here's Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty on Spencer Hawes: "Greg Oden and Kevin Durant were always pipe dreams, but Al Horford wasn't. Brandan Wright wasn't. Joakim Noah certainly wasn't. Yi Jianlian wasn't. Those guys excited us, thrilled us, made us ache for November 1 and a new start. Spencer Hawes? Maybe it's superficial and we're all reverse racists, self-loathers. But still, there's no quicker way to suck the wind out of someone's sails than to drop what some have called 'the next Todd Fuller' on their deck."
The very complicated legal mess between Mark Cuban and Don Nelson gets even more complicated with the suggestion that Don Nelson may have violated his non-compete agreement by coaching the Warriors. (Via UweBlogSports and Deadspin)
SI.com's Luke Winn: "One player who would not be clubbing Thursday night was Hornets draftee Julian Wright, who, of all things, was going bowling. He had an entourage of seven high school friends (from Homewood-Floosmor, near Chicago) at the Garden, all wearing freshly printed, black Nike shirts that said 'J. Wright' on the front and 'The Legacy Continues' on the back. They were planning on hitting Bowlmor Lanes in the Village, because Wright -- as he talked about in an old blog Q&A -- became a bowling nut during his two years at Kansas. He even has his own ball, a red 'Big Bully' model."
The Painted Area: "THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND 1. Phoenix selling its draft picks. This just makes absolutely no sense to me. When you're trying to cut costs, what you want to do is *maximize* guys on their rookie contracts - those deals are by far and away the best bargains in the league. You want to dump veterans' bloated salaries and pick up more rookie contracts. So instead of having a Sergio Rodriguez (pick sold to PDX last year) making about $800K/yr and a Rudy Fernandez (sold this year) making about $950K/yr, they go out and sign Marcus Banks to a $21M/5-yr deal??? I understand the desire to avoid the luxury tax, I just really don't understand why you don't want more rookie contracts if that's your goal."
Clipperblog wonders: "The graphic on ESPN during Thornton's interview with Stuart Scott reads, 'Father is 6'6" and has 3 sisters nearly 6 feet tall.' Does this mean that if you stack his sisters one on top of the other that they'll collectively measure six feet, or is each sister six feet tall individually?"
Knick fan Joey, from Straight Bangin', called me in the middle of the draft ECSTATIC about the Zach Randolph trade. With the sobriety of time, however, he has downgraded his mood to ambivalent.
Knickerblogger: "I must admit that my initial gut reaction to the Randolph trade was not exactly great. And I still don't really like it. The obvious parallel here is the disastrous Francis trade, in which the Knicks acquired a talented but flawed player with a huge contract who duplicated almost exactly the skill set of a player already on the roster. Unlike the Francis trade, there is no question the Knicks won big on the talent end of this trade. But is there any hope that Curry and Randolph might coexist any better than Marbury and Francis did?"
Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Bog: "Anyhow, then the deputy commissioner came out and said 'The Golden State Warriors select...' and some fans started shouting 'IT DOESN'T MATTER.' Greg Oden walked by for some reason, shaking hands with fans; someone in a suit trailed him, carrying several massive bunches of roses. The kids who slapped his hand promised never to wash them."
Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune: "Told of the enthusiastic response by Blazer fans after his selection at the Rose Garden Thursday, Oden laughed, 'I heard they stormed the court. I wish I was there right in the middle, jumping up and down, too.'"
Kevin O'Connor is one of the best GMs in the NBA. And one with a sense of humor, too. From the blog of the Salt Lake Tribune's Ross Siler: "O'Connor telegraphed the pick midway through the first round when he addressed the crowd and teased a group of fans in the front row with Almond signs by saying, 'Don't tell everyone who we're taking.'"
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