Well it really doesn’t, but I was trying to be witty. Bear with me.
Yahoo’s ‘Ball Don’t Lie’ blog decided to ‘attack’ the Blazers draft pick at #13. And let’s just say I was less than pleased with the results.
Not like I can say they are wrong…I mean we do need a point guard. There are two problems.
- We can’t draft a point guard without moving one. Can we really trade Sergio and piss Rudy Fernandez off like that? No. And we’ve been shopping J-Jack for a while to lackluster response.
- We can’t draft a quality point guard without moving up. There are four good PG’s in the draft. Rose (1/2), Bayless (going 4th to Seattloklahoma), Augustin (Knicks might chance him at 6 but the Pacers will snag him) and if you want to count him Westbrook (definitely gone by 10). And unfortunately, no one ahead of us is going to take Jack or Webster in exchange for the rookie they can get.
So those are the dilemmas with drafting a point guard. That’s our biggest hole and we can’t fix it in this draft without addressing some of things above.
Now…in their blog post, they say we should draft DJ Augustin. I get it. But at the same time…why on earth would you publicly suggest we draft someone that everyone knows is not going to be available at #13? It makes no sense to me. Am I being unreasonable to think that is just dumb. I mean seriously the entire paragraph is spent talking how Augustin and the point guards won’t be available. It just seems lazy to me, I would have respected if they had just said ‘trade’ and left it at that.
If that wasn’t bad enough taking a guy from Chicago to represent us, then said man suggests that we draft JaVale McGee and ‘wait four years for him to develop’. What?!?! We have Oden. LMA. Big Joel. Channing Frye. We need no big man, his career would end ASAP. Look what happened to McRoberts. If we’re going to do that why not just take the best talent available at 13?
Brandon Rush. Brandon Rush. Brandon Rush. Brandon Rush.
There we go.
Other Blazers news includes a trade rumor that ends up with us getting Barbosa. Said rumor says we could send the #13 pick, Martell Webster and something else for Captain Barbosa. I don’t like it. Yeah I said it…I don’t like it. Too much for Barbosa. In my head I’m not trading Rush and Webster for Barbosa I’m sorry. We might as well just keep letting Martell develop, we still don’t really know where his ceiling is at. We know the best we’re getting from Barbosa. And we know he’ll disappear during the playoffs, so sorry if I’m not exactly hopping on the bandwagon to get him. And I’m not even Martell’s biggest fan. KP wouldn’t do that.
Around the league:
- The Beasley vs. Rose debate rages on. Even I find myself torn between the two when I put my eyes through the Bulls lenses. So I know John Paxson is completely overwhelmed. I mean come on….they spent the summer almost hiring Doug Collins and Chuck Person before deciding on Vinny Del Negro. On one hand you have Rose…can’t miss PG in a league that is quickly developing into a ‘guards’ league. Scouts see bits and pieces of Chris Paul and Deron Williams and well…the Bulls want that on their team. Who wouldn’t? Plus he’s from Chicago and he is openly campaigning to be a Bull. Then there is Beasley or shall I say Beastley. Not only a great scorer and rebounder, but he’s the piece of the puzzle the Bulls have been missing during this “Baby/Toddler” Bulls run. A low-post scorer. The Bulls can live with Hinrich. Even if they draft Rose…they still have the same problem that they’ve always had. But then if they draft Beasley…they still have the same problem they’ve always had: a lack of leadership. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t John Paxson.
- I love that Memphis was such a terrible experience that Juan Carlos Navarro decided to go back to Spain. That and they paid him a ton of money. But still in my head I blame it on Memphis. I mean can’t you imagine Navarro leaving the arena, seeing another Elvis impersonator and just cursing in Spanish. I wish a documentary team would have followed him. I’m telling you Stern…you missed out not following the Knicks last year and not following La Bomba.
- And that’s that.