All in all, it was a pretty entertaining draft. It's a shame that all the crazy trades that have occurred over the last few days didn't occur all within a two hour span, causing Stuart Scott's good eye to go wide in shock while the other blinks independently with uncontrollable excitement. The only substantial-ish trade on draft night was the Q-Rich for Darko swap, which is exciting for exactly two reasons: the pained, overdramatic reaction of Knicks fans, and the reunion of Q-Rich and Darius Miles. Headpound!
There never has been, nor will there ever be a draft moment as hilarious as when Earl Clark was drafted by the Suns at fifteen. "Earl Clark is not here tonight...... BUT......", followed by a surprise appearance from Brandon Jennings. I kept hoping that whenever someone was drafted without being present that they'd have Brandon Jennings accept the Commissioner's handshake on their behalf, but to no avail. Likewise, the thirty seconds or so before it was announced that the Wolves weren't keeping Ty Lawson were great, especially the shot of a very confused Roy Williams counting the number of point guards the Wolves had taken on his fingers.
Speaking of that, I think the Wolves had the best draft of the night by far. People are giving them flak for not drafting Stephen Curry, but I think Flynn is just as good a pick. The Wolves could have definitely used the scoring that Curry may have brought to the table, assuming his game translates well enough to the NBA, but the Wolves need defense just as badly as they need scoring. David Kahn seems like a pretty sharp guy, and I don't see any reason to blame him for taking the best guy he thought was still left, especially when he fills their needs. Rubio and Flynn aren't as ideal as Rubio or Flynn and James Harden, but they should be able to play together just fine. The Wolves aren't competing for a championship anytime soon, so for now they can play their two point guards, decide which one they like better, and eventually move one of them if it's not working out. Flynn also gives the Wolves an insurance policy in case Rubio can't find a way out of his buyout over the next year or two, which isn't ideal for Minnesota but doesn't cripple them if they have to wait until Ricky is a spry twenty years old to come over.
A couple more thoughts on the draft:
• It's going to be interesting to see how the Amare Stoudemire trade plays out in light of the Warriors drafting Stephen Curry. I already mentioned that I wasn't sure he'd be a star player, but he's certainly a good prospect. The rumored deal was already practically highway robbery for the Suns, but throwing in the draft pick is just a bad idea.
• The Nets have a really good young core now that they've added Courtney Lee via trade and Terrance Williams through the draft.
• Scott Skiles is going to hate Brandon Jennings for some reason and never play him, which is too bad because the Bucks could really use a pure point like him.
• I think Thabeet is going to be a good player in the Dikembe-mold, but I doubt he's going to be able to play very well at the same time with Marc Gasol, who turned out to be a pretty good player in his own right. Thabeet's bright silver suit was also second only to James Harden's bow tie.
• Not that there were many good players left when by that time, but the Pistons selected a 6'11", 190 pound guy. Worse than that, Austin Daye has a reputation for being lazy. It's almost like Joe Dumars fell down in his office and got badly hurt so he's making bad moves like crazy so someone will come in and check on him.
• Even the Austin Daye pick wasn't the worst of the first round. The Cavaliers drafted Christian Eyenga with the last pick of the draft. Eyenga, who wasn't projected to be drafted at all, is a player who only entered the draft so he wouldn't be drafted so he could avoid the rookie pay scale structure if he ever decided to come over to the NBA.
-Sam
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