With the NBA draft lottery’s conclusion last night, it’s time to start mock-drafting. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the top pick and will get who they think is most likely to become an NBA superstar. And the consensus has emerged: the top pick is going to be Duke’s Kyrie Irving.
Irving’s a one-and-done college player who would have been picked in the NBA draft last year if high schoolers were still allowed to enter the draft. He’s exciting, he’s fast, and he’s a good shooter. He could be denigrated as a “scoring point guard” but, considering Derrick Rose just won the MVP and Russell Westbrook is a key part of a very good Thunder team, a point guard who can take over a game can be a major asset.
I’m personally more excited for the crazy-athletic Derrick Williams, whose tournament performance in leading his Arizona team to the Elite Eight was sublime. But I’m a sucker for upside and, like Mike D’Antoni, am smitten with six-foot-eight pogo-stick athletes who really, when you get down to it, might not be all that good at basketball.
This year is not looking like a great year for the draft in general. It’s certainly not going to have the yield of the last draft in which Cleveland had the top pick (2003, used to select LeBron James). The only other top names you might recognize amongst the top picks are Derrick Williams and Brandon Knight. It’s projected that the top ten will get filled out by teams taking chances on little-known foreign players. Practice these names: Jonas Valanciunas, Donatas Motiejunas, Bismack Biyombo. Because those are some of the names that may fill out the top ten.
Given the track record of highly drafted foreigners, this could be a big mistake. But with Dirk Nowitzki tearing up the playoffs and a very lackluster incoming rookie class, teams may more and more decide to roll the dice.
Oh yeah, and look for the diminutive Kemba Walker to be drafted way too high by someone enamored of his college performances. He could turn out to be a bigger bust than all the foreigners you’ve never heard of.