Morning review, June 27, 2014: NBA Draft losers and winners (mostly winners!)

Well, draft day came and went.  Here are some winners losers.  Mostly winners, because this draft was chock full of talent: all the teams had to do was stick their hands in and they’d come out with something.

First, then, the very few LOSERS:

The Cavaliers and the City of Cleveland, Ohio: Oh yes, that's right, I’m going to put the Cavs in the loss column. Wiggins was good for them, but are they, in the end, coming out THAT much of a better team?  They still have to do something with that roster, with that lockerroom, with that offense, with that defense.  They did the right thing and looked competent for once—but is that really a win for them?  It still isn’t clear to me whether trading the pick might not have been better.  That would have gone some ways to deepen an aging roster, and it would have actually involved real competence.  In many ways, they played it safe.  That should still leave the poor people of Cleveland wondering at the organization and whether a franchise headed toward mediocrity in the worst Eastern Conference in the history of the NBA (though better after this draft) can truly be considered a success.  After this, I'm not much more sure.  Come back to me when you are winning, Cavs.  Put up or shut up.

The Raptors: The Bruno pick seems like a solid pick if you trust Masai—which Raps fans have every reason to do—despite the lack of knowledge about him.   They wanted him at 37 though and to pick Ennis at 20, and then to trade Ennis and Salmons to get Prince from the Griz.  Meanwhile, the Suns picked up Ennis, mucking all this up.  So the Raps had to pick Bruno at 20 and got their little plan messed with.  Not a huge setback, just definitely a loss strategywise compared to what other teams pulled off.  Bruno though looks interesting—so still a bit of a win.

Zach LaVine: Made a wonderful gesture in absolute wonderment at the fact that he was just picked to be in the NBA, putting his head on the table and going “Fuck me!”  Looked to everyone watching and who knows what’s in store for him in Minnesota like he was regretting ever being born.

Now the WINNERS:

Andrew Wiggins: Pure joy on that face.

The Sixers: Cleveland won the first pick, but the Sixers won this draft.  They didn't just win, actually: they slayed it.  Getting Embiid was a steal for them.  Getting Saric is brilliant.  They will tank another year, but there's no way--unless one of these guys doesn't pan out, which I think is unlikely--that they will not be a real, real force in the league for several years to come.  And it would look like cheating or screwing the fans, except that every step they take to build what will eventually be a seriously NBA-thumping roster--a roster that will be making a serious championship run--is executed brilliantly, and simply feels right and genuine.  By genuine, I mean that they make decisions with the exact right amount of risk.  So while they tank, at the same time, they do not play it safe.  There is no way they shouldn't have taken a chance on Embiid, but other teams (like the Cavs) indeed would not have taken that chance.  Not so the Sixers.  And in a couple years they will have an absolutely vicious frontcourt to reward their fans with.

The Magic:  Quietly adding to the the intriguingness-factor of their roster.  Getting Aaron Gordon was an excellent move.  Getting Elfrid Payton and a pick for Saric is also great.  It now remains to be seen how all these pieces will be put together, but it seems as if with this draft the full damage of the Dwightmare is now repaired, and that's a huge, huge win for them.  And, the ultimate poetic justice of it all is that they probably have one of the most athletic rosters in the league.  Last time I checked, five athletic guys are definitely worth more than one hyper-athletic guy.

The Heat: Somehow they ended up with Napier, which is a steal.  Goodbye Cole or/and Chalmers.  It was in exactly the right way to come up with Napier too, given everything that is going on right nowon their roster: they somehow flexed muscle, or did some wizardry, to make that move, and that works as a broadside sent LeBron’s way to notify him that they are an amazingly efficient and effective organization, committing to absolutely slaughtering the rest of the league.

Adam Silver: Class all around.  Professionalism.  The players really, really have to remember that this guy is out to screw them when it comes time to negotiate the next CBA.  But that’s also a benefit: you know where you stand with this guy.  Having the league itself draft Isaiah Austin was wonderful and deserved.

The Knicks: Getting Cleanthony Early is a steal, and Antetokumpo is just charming.  Combined with getting rid of Felton and Chandler, this does a good deal to move them forward towards cleaning house.  Both will bring some new blood into the organization.  Combined with or rotated in for Hardaway or Shumpert, Early could be great.  And having a mobile big as a backup instead of the plodding Amar’e and Chandler, will just be a breath of fresh air for Madison Square Garden spectators.  Not that there’s any fresh air in NYC.  But you get what I mean.

Jabari Parker and Julius Randle: The first got to go where he wanted to go, the second gets to stay in California.  Three cheers for people ending up in a nice place that they wanted to be at.

Milwaukee Bucks: Three cheers also for the Bucks, who with Parker will be actually fun to watch again and may make some news in the near future.

The Celtics: I really would have liked it if they had ended up with Gordon, because I feel like they need someone that’s a mobile bruiser, but getting Smart will also help.  It also means Rondo might be on the way out, which is sad but again good for them: blow the whole thing up, start afresh, try your damndest to still get Kevin Love.

Detroit: Dinwiddie looks like a great pick.  Plus he is named Dinwiddie.  This officially makes Detroit the funnest-sounding roster in the league.

Draft caps: Best draft caps that I can remember.  Definitely better than previous years’ caps.  Ick.

Jalen Rose: Looks more and more like a resourceful, knowledgeable analyst every day.  He is that already, yes, but now he comes off looking that way too.  He had opinions on picks all the way down, based on looking at the footage, which is when he is at his best.  He translates team-analysis into player-analysis, and that’s crucial and not talked about with all the numbers and figures thrown everywhere.  And he can talk about character in a way that doesn’t sound blow-hard-y but concrete.

Bill Simmons: “WOAH!!!” isn’t going to be topped, ever, and one could only feel for Simmons, coming into this draft with the big question mark about what he’d do this time.  He didn’t give into the pressure, and the follow-up came out in the best way, not unlike his reaction to the Cavs getting the number one pick: the camera picking up something that it shouldn’t have seen, a nice, solid, satisfied fist pump,followed by a gesture of modesty.  It was all class.

A Blazers mock mock draft!

Woe unto Trail Blazer fans today and really this whole week, the week of The Draft.  The Blazers don’t have a pick, front office isn’t expected to trade for any, and everyone seems pretty peachy with the roster as it is, though a couple spots still need to be filled out, and perhaps something done to upgrade a little in some certain areas.

Pretty boring, then.  All these other teams with their picks and their trades and their possible trades and their trading up and their trading down and their setting-themselves-up to-get-Kevin Loves.  All the talk about moves and potential moves would provide me hours of speculative napkin-drawing at the bar with friends, as I demonstrate exactly how Jarrett Jack is the crucial link in a 5 team roster swapping extravaganza.  Cleveland has reportedly received at least seven trade offers, it’s rumored, for their number one pick.  Can you imagine how much conversation over beers that has generated?? How exciting would it be to be a Cavs fan right now!   Even if you have to live in Cleveland to do it!!  (That’s a cheap shot for their getting that damned pick and screwing it up so much.  I actually like Cleveland, but it was necessary.  I imagine Cleveland fans are already desensitized to this sort of stuff, though, so no harm, no foul.)

Plus, it is one of the best drafts we’ve seen.  We’re all salivating after the meh draft of last year.  We’re ready for some game changing stuff.  And this draft doesn’t disappoint.  The top five especially are interesting, but there’s even talent down in the second round that looks useful to a lot of teams.

So there you are, O Trail Blazers compatriot, not getting to participate in any of this.  You’re watching NBA TV air reruns of the 1998 draft all day interspersed with that damned 1984 draft special they made while your friends in the rest of the country gab and gab away.

Fear not.  Because thinking of what would happen if the Blazers were to draft someone is just about as fun as thinking about their actual moves.  That’s right, I’m suggesting you start creating a mock mock draft for the Blazers this year.

Obviously with no picks, it doesn’t quite work to speculate too specifically on what trades might have been made and whatnot since those pingpong balls could have fallen to so many different spots (yeah, right, says the statistically-nearly-impossible Cavs ping pong ball), but we can indeed take a gander at some of the prospects and think about how they’d have altered this Blazers team, as good as it is.  I’ll go through them in the order I have them showing up in the draft this year:

Jabari Parker: Parker didn’t have the best NCAA tournament, but his year was impressive, and from all accounts he’s a standup dude, a good “culture guy,” which makes him a nice fit with this current group of Blazers.

What most impressed me this year seeing Parker is how he moves.  There’s a lot of ways to get around a basketball court.  Some players are smooth, gliding through the air.  Others are small and crawl.  Some are large and grind their way through.  Parker hops.  He is a hoppy player.  This doesn’t mean that he jumps high, or that he explodes up into the air.  It means that he is always ready to make his way into the air, is always ready to move laterally, it always ready to get a rebound.  He doesn’t move his feet without being ready to plant one and take off in another direction: each step is also a pivot. Interestingly, some of his draft workouts seem to focus on this and how it allows him to get to the hoop, and focus instead on the way it allows him to make stepbacks and whatnot James Harden style—something I never quite saw him get the opportunity to display this year.  So maybe there’s even more that you can do with him as you develop him than we saw even with every other college game being Duke or Kansas this year.  A lot of that mysterious quantity we call by the name of Upside.  

Portland is an interesting position as a team because of the presence of Aldridge in the offense: it makes any going to the bench always a bit like going-small, unless another sort of shooting giant should ever appear.  The roster stresses length over size so as to preserve quickness and so doesn’t find Parker’s type of body the most appealing.  The Blazers finesse their way to the hoop, they don’t hop their way there.  The people who do need to muscle their way inside though—like Lillard—might appreciate some sort of help on this front: the threat of some dangerous cutter with a mean stepback that could also add unpredictability and stretch the floor.  What Parker would add is that: someone who would mess up the inside without Lillard being taken out of the offense through driving and passing with his head down.  In short, Parker could serve as a Danny Green type character who could actually get to the hoop (the Danny Green of the last season’s Finals did this, but he never did it before! it was a wonderful sight to see) with a bit more muscle, which would allow Lillard to be a bit more Tony-Parker-style bothersome.

Andrew Wiggins: Wiggins is tall and lanky and is a great athlete and seems to really have a nice sense of the floor and is boring as hell for mock mock Portland fans.  Not that we in Portland wouldn't be the first to appreciate him: it's just that we have someone not unlike him in Nic Batum and Will Barton.

We are simply stacked at the lanky 3-guard/small-forward spot, and even if the Blazers were a part of this draft, they would not much incentive to have anything to do with Wiggins.  He’s a building block for some team in the East that needs a sizable guard who can shoot, and who can help with finessing their way to the rim.

He could, indeed, be somewhat of an upgrade over a backup two-guard, if he were to play that small, and would add a bit more length to the bench than the Blazers already have.  But he’s actually only at 2 here because the Sixers are going to pick him—not because I’m excited to talk about him.  Let’s move on.

Joel Embiid: Obviously, if he is healthy, he is a franchise-changing addition to any roster.  The man can do anything, judging from the clips of him posted around.  I don’t mean to exaggerate this.  Draft clips are odd and always immensely flattering to the talent they showcase.  They put a premium on the exhibition of pure physicality, which can’t really be appreciated and evaluated anyway except when you see it in person.  They feature little to no competitive trials, so that you have to watch how they played in college and then extrapolate from there if you want to see what they can do against a defense.  Just to make him that much more tantalizing for us, even Embiid’s college footage wasn’t as available to our eyes as it was with other prospects, due to his injuries during the season.

But he is remarkable.  Every post move of his is the Platonic ideal of a post-move.  It’s what Dwight Howard has in his head every time he gets the ball down there, and then makes a mockery of as he bumbles his sorry way to the hoop.  In fact, Embiid is in many ways the athlete that Howard should have been.  He is graceful, he is nimble, he never looks confused about his place on the court, yet he is strong and hulking and simply, brutally huge.  Each movement is approached with a quiet unassuming curiosity which masks a kind of subtler, more intimate relationship to space than any basketball player actually has—but which comes naturally to soccer players (which he was).  This is more impressive than any “footwork,” and is probably more what people mean when they compliment him on the latter.  And he can shoot—a bizarre, bizarre thing to see in someone so big and so good in the post because, unlike LaMarcus Aldridge, who shoots with the facility and the unconsciousness and accuracy of a guard, Embiid looks like a big man when he does it.  It’s very strange.  Like a big man, he takes a little more time to get in rhythm; but unlike a big man, this is because he is a poor shooter and his hands don’t work with the ball thingy in them unless he’s shoveling it into the backboard or dumping it into the hoop: it is simply because he is so damned big and the ball simply has to move more to make its way to the top of his shot.  When it does this, the jump, the release, everything takes the shape it does when a smaller guard does it—only the earth quakes when he comes back down and hits the hardwood because the man is seven damned feet tall and 240 pounds.

Dante Exum: The big ??? of the draft.  If he is what he is rumored to be—some strange Australian Kobe Bryant—the Blazers would be interesting if they landed him.  The Blazers aren’t quite the team of 2’s, but if they had someone who did more of that in the second string of the rotation to come in and play 10 minutes in the first half and the first half of the fourth, I don’t think they’d be doing too shabby.  Matthews does this currently, lighting things up when the bench guys stagnate a bit: next year, Will Barton will be doing a lot more of it instead of running point, I imagine.  But another Barton-like player wouldn’t hurt, I think.  Go for it mock mock Blazers!  Draft Exum!

Aaron Gordon: The Boris-Diawsiest of this draft (only ripped), and therefore the most exciting. I love players that have strange bodies that do all sorts of well, and to me, he’s the strangest.  Living out West, I’ve seen got to see a lot of Pac 12 basketball, and particularly a lot of Arizona games.  Every single one he’s played, he just couldn’t disappoint. He’s built like a tank, and provides a formidable defensive presence that would to add to any roster.  Yet he can move with a lightness of foot that destroys people on the block.  People have been making a big deal about his lack of shooting.  But that improves as things go—it doesn’t look like he has a shot that won’t develop in the future.  In the meantime, he can bang just enough while being on the move.  He is the perfect combo in a biggish man for the quick-running, anti-plodding league of the present.

This makes him in particular the perfect biggish man for Portland, since the Blazers are one of the foremost teams to embrace these new trends.  He would be, in particular, a wonderful defensive addition for this team—perhaps the quickest way to improve it all around would be to add a potential rim protector can still move like Gordon.  The Blazers are currently light of frame in the paint, with Aldridge away from the rim.  Lopez is their most Hibbertesque man on the inside, and while he has been an absolute ripping success this year—more than anyone could have predicted—he’s about it.

Besides Lopez, the prospects are thin: Freeland has ensured himself a place in the rotation by seizing upon this hole in the defense and becoming willing to play extremely physically and brutally, in the best way.  But he brings absolutely no offense to the table.  Thomas Robinson, who—despite what some critics seem to think—can: he has a great shot and he is one of the best passers on the team among the bigs.  But he can’t quite play physically against the biggest guys, and has to turn to swatting blocks—which he does well, but which involves one’s position already being conceded.  If he bulks up even more—expect him along with Will Barton to be doing this during the summer—this situation should improve.  But someone with a body like Gordon would plug this gap immediately for the Blazers.  An Embiid would be even better—because he’s even bigger, and even more mobile—but if that wouldn’t be possible, Gordon is a great second option for filling out the 4 or small-5 spot.

Marcus Smart: I’m not quite sure about anything with Marcus Smart: he apparently is the best guard in the draft, which is saying something.  It is odd to me that his stock is soaring over that of Randle because…

Julius Randle: Randle seemed to me as providing a more limber version of everything that Wiggins gives, which frankly makes him a more appealing candidate, in my book.  We can say that he’d do everything Wiggins would give to the roster and then some: length, shooting, ability to get to the hoop.  The thing is, the Blazers don’t need more 2’s, really: with Aldridge in there, they have that covered, and when he’s out, they need to be spreading the floor with 3’s unless they go big.  These are, then, three players the Blazers wouldn’t really be dallying with.

Cleanthony Early:  Here’s someone who would add something to the Blazers.  He’s the nearest thing in this draft—from what I can see—to a Wes Matthews.  And the Blazers need more of Wes.  They need bigger players, who preserve their quickness, who use their muscle and who can play defense.  Either that or they need quicker, longer players, and a more demanding defensive scheme with much more movement and much more zone.  It seems like they are moving in the latter direction, but having Early on the roster would not have been a bad thing. 

Nik Stauskas: Do the Blazers need more three point shooters?  No.  Will they take them?  Absolutely they will.  Indeed, among the current roster, expect both Barton and Aldridge and Batum to take more threes next year.  In many ways, Stauskas would serve as a quicker, younger Dorell Wright, who brought so much to the team last season.  Unlike C.J. McCollum, though, he would preserve something of that length as well.

There are more: Vonleh, McDermott, LaVine, Hood, what have you.  Even OSU’s excellent Eric Moreland.  But that seems enough speculation to at least get quite a few table-thumping debates about the future of the Blazers going!  So now that you’re no longer bereft of things to talk about, get going!  It matters hugely who mock-mock-Portland picks!  Let’s do this thing!