There was some media speculation that the top of the NBA draft was facing a possible shake up, but the first three picks ended up playing out pretty much as most people thought they would.
The Chicago Bulls chose hometown hero Derrick Rose number one overall and it’s hard to argue that he is not going to be a star. One thing to consider, however, is that he lands among a Chicago backcourt already overcrowded with the likes of over-paid Larry Hughes, over-hyped Ben Gordon, and over-paid/hyped Kirk Hinrich. Plus Rose’s nickname is Pooh, making him the player most likely to have his name be the butte of a poor joke (or in this case pun).
Michael Beasley put all the speculation of Riley’s man crush on O.J. Mayo to rest when he was drafted second overall by the Heat. One thing he didn’t do is trick David Stern like he said he would. There were issues about his character going into the draft and I wonder if he was advised by his agent/entourage not to go through with the fake-handshake. Childish antics aside, he did set a record for college freshman by racking up an astounding 28 double-doubles last season and is sure to make an impact on the Heat from day one.
Here is when the draft got interesting. In front of a national TV audience and to no one’s surprise, Kevin McHale did something stupid. Despite my earnest pleas, he selected USC guard O.J. Mayo third overall. I can’t say that I was surprised – after all he did give away the beloved Kevin Garnett for 30 cents on the dollar – but at this point we all have to agree to call bad basketball decisions, McHalean decisions.
“Did you hear about that trade?”
“Yeah, it wasn’t just bad. It was a McHalean bad.”
The rumored Supersonics/Clippers trade fell through the cracks, then for some reason Seattle decided to draft Russell Westbrook about a million spots too high. Hyperbole aside (and this is coming from a Bruins fan), Westbrook wasn’t even the undeniable best point guard on his team last year.
UCLA’s Kevin Love went fifth to the Memphis Grizzlies, the place where good young talent goes to squander in irrelevance. The Clippers took sharpshooter Eric Gordon of Indiana seventh overall and I personally can’t wait for him to make his first all-star team as a member of another team.
The Bucks traded for offensive juggernaut Richard Jefferson, pairing him with Michael Redd and creating in theory a killer one-two punch. Then the Bucks made a truly McHalean pair of decisions. They drafted small forward Joe Alexander eighth overall and then proceeded to take small forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute in the second round. That’s three small forwards in a span of 24 hours … what in the world were they thinking?
Other notables from the first round: Stanford center Brook Lopez dropping to 10, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless falling to 11, Brook’s brother Robin Lopez rising to 15, and Georgetown big-man Roy Hibbert going 17.
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