2008 NBA Draft Diary - Part VI

By Felipe Melecio

2008 NBA Draft:

21ST PICK—Ryan Anderson, who Bilas reminds everyone that he “Doesn’t move feet well on D” and he needs more strength (a guy who can’t play defense and is weak and soft? Another guy who’ll fit right in with his new team). Bilas did marvel at Anderson’s offensive game (so he’s another Adam Morrison, except Anderson is not a lottery pick). Bilas went on to compare him to Troy Murphy. Hey, Murphy, when healthy, could hold his own. And I saw a game where Anderson torched DePaul all game long. They couldn’t find an answer for the guy. This pick is not too shabby, except that he can’t play defense, but I think the Nets will give him ample opportunity to succeed.

Orlando is on the clock and Jeff wants to make a prediction; “Orlando needs a backup PG.” Nooooo! They need a PG who can play better than Jameer Nelson, but they’re not going to find anyone this late in the draft to do that. Nelson has been a sort of an enigma in our league as the last two owners who drafted this guy have been disappointed with his play and have been more than happy to trade him away.

22nd PICK—Courtney Lee, your Sun-Belt player of the year and the 2nd leading scorer of that conference.
BILAS: “Tough as nails” (whoa, don’t mess with him!).
--“Developed every year” (or was it the fact that the competition got worse?)
--“Solid player” (I’m thinking that when Bilas has run out of things to say, he just goes ahead and finishes with the very vague “solid”).
--“NBA ready” (yeah, we’ll see).

Jeff just swung and missed on a fat joke that was targeted at his brother, Stan. Jeff’s Joke-O-Meter is also at .000.

Kiki Vandeweghe, part of the Nets front office. is being interviewed. Kiki highlighted the following points:
--They needed a change (you think?)
--He is excited to have big men who can put the ball in the basket (but are soft on defense and have a hard time rebounding. Continue, please).
--He was happy that these same big men have mid- to long-range jumpers (So the plan was to get as many Vladimir Radmanovic-like players as possible?).

The Utah Jazz are on the clock and Jeff lets it be known that “No softies are allowed to play under [coach Jerry] Sloan. Only tough guys need apply.”

23rd PICK—Kosta Koufas as Bilas describes him as a “finesse center” with good hands and a “good turn-around jumper” (oh Bilas, I bet you say that about all the boys!). He’s not a great athlete.
NEEDS TO WORK ON: REBOUNDING, DEFENSE, AND PASSING. This guy is the antithesis of a “Jerry Sloan player.” Jeff, I thought only tough guys can play for Sloan?

24th PICK—Seattle has six picks in this draft, which means we get to see a lot of Kevin Durant. That’s always a good thing. In the meantime, to pass the time, the panelists discuss Seattle’s roster and Jax just made a Ricky Ricardo reference (“they got some ‘splaning’ to do”) that had everybody on the panel laughing (Jeff should hire Jax’s writer). Serge Ibaka from Congo was drafted.
Fraschilla: Likely to stay in Spain for 3-4 years. He’s very athletic.
MUST IMPROVE: EXPERIENCE (how does one improve on experience? And I wasn’t the only one perplexed as I can hear Jeff and Jax baffled on that “attribute.”

Stan Van Gundy is being interviewed and Jeff wants to know why his own brother didn’t tell Jeff that he would draft Courtney Lee. Stan pretty much told Jeff to stop his whining. I must say for a guy who usually looks very fat and bloated, Stan looks pretty thin in this interview. Stan also made a fat joke, about himself no less, which had everyone laughing. Jeff needs to hire his brother’s writer as Stan has been on camera for a few minutes and his Joke-O-Meter is already at 1.000!

The Houston Rockets are on the clock and Stu has something on his mind: How’s Yao’s recovery going?
Jeff: I think he’s healing well (Dr. Jeff?)
Stu: Isn’t he playing for China for the upcoming Olympics
Jeff: He will, healthy or not, because he has great pride in his country (I remember that when the Rockets and the Chinese Government were negotiating Yao’s contract, the Chinese made sure that Yao’s participation with the national team would be mandatory. So I don’t think it’s about pride as it is about obligation. Get it right, Jeff!).

25th PICK—Nicolas Batum, an All-Star in the French League (finally an International player with some credentials).
Fraschilla: He’s just not Athletic, but NBA athletic (insert your own punchline now).
--Doesn’t have great escape ability (last I checked, he’s not a QB and this isn’t the NFL draft. Get it right!)
--Needs to toughen up (surprise!)
--He’s super-duper athletic (I don’t think he mentioned that one before).
--He predicts that Batum will be in the NBA in 2 years. That’s actually better than the 3-4 year waiting period on the other International players. I’m actually starting to buy the hype on this player. Oh, oh.

It gets worse, Ric Buchner is back to slap me across the face: The reason Darrell Arthur is still in the green room and on his third pack of gum is because NBA teams are being scared away by possible kidney problems. WOW, Buchner does it again! My face is numb.
Meanwhile, D’Antoni is now being interviewed as he now has to defend the Gallinari pick:
--“Most talented player”
--“He’ll be tough”
--“Was picked because of talent” and not because of any family affiliations
I don’t think Knick fans are buying it

Next: 26-30