Comments on: Not everybody would take Irving, Wizards favor Williams

By: pepesmith88

pepesmith88 — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:14:23 +0000

Wow…Cavs take 1st pick?

The script on this one is more obvious than WWE

By: purdueman

purdueman — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:12:34 +0000

king… good points. While this draft lacks “franchise” type players at the top of the draft, it’s also a very deep draft so teams that have stockpiled draft picks will have the opportunity to find at least one diamond in the rough.

I look at the draft two years ago when the Bulls had one middle of the pack and one bottom of the 1st round picks. With the 15th pick they took bust James Johnson (now with the Raptors), and with the 25th pick they took Taj Gibson. Gibson is an emerging stud; that’s what can happen if you stockpile draft picks and luck into a deep draft.

69 collegiate players have declared for the draft, and another 24 international players. I again point to the Bulls, who used their then stockpiled draft picks to make a deal with Portland to draft a raw, unknown center from Turkey. Two years of additional development later (internationally), Omar Asik is now an emerging solid center.

Bottom line? I agree with you in that there was no compelling reason for the Clippers to hang on their #1 pick this year, but Cleveland also did the right thing because now they have two of the top 4 picks in this years draft and the odds are with them that at least one of the players they select using those picks will emerge as a solid starter, if not a future star down the road.

The problem the NBA has right now is that with so many “one and done-ers” coming out of college at only 18 or 19 with very little coaching, it just takes a lot more time to develop these guys making picking them a crap shoot. Better to have more picks than just one high pick.

By: kinggw

kinggw — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:40:12 +0000

Did it really backfire? The Clippers were more likely to end up with the 8th pick in a weak draft than what happened last night. Furthermore they dont need Irving as they have Bledsoe already and who says Derrick Williams will amount to be anything special? He is a tweener who tore up a weak Pac10 and is too small to be a 4 and too slow to be a 3. Would we even be talking about Williams as a top 5 pick if he didnt have a great tournament? Yes he destroyed Duke in the tournament, but so did Tyrus Thomas a few years back. Williams seems to me as someone who projects to be a good role player and nothing more.

The Clippers got from under Davis’ contract and will have some money to spend on established veterans instead of hoping that their high draft pick will pan out. I think it was a win-win for both the Cavs and the Clips.

By: purdueman

purdueman — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:59:54 +0000

Semantics; it really doesn’t matter which of the two first round picks the Cavs had that wound up being 1st overall, but it’s the fact that they did and as usual puppetmaster Stern got the end result that he was no doubt seeking.

By: savocabol1

savocabol1 — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:14:56 +0000

Is this site really going to put out an article about what teams say they want to pick in the draft already?

Haven’t we learned from numerous examples from every single draft in every sport for the history of time that teams will lie about who they want to choose?

By: savocabol1

savocabol1 — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:12:39 +0000

Your facts are wrong purdueman. The Cavs got the first overall pick thanks to the Clippers. The Cavs should have gotten number two based on the % but their pick fell to number 4.

By: goforthanddie

goforthanddie — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:24:08 +0000

Not that they’ll have a shot at Irving, but drafting/trading him would probably be more helpful than skipping him completely.

By: goforthanddie

goforthanddie — Wed, 18 May 2011 01:22:49 +0000

Exactly what I thought.

By: jstrizzle

jstrizzle — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:59:50 +0000

Is it time to rip the Clippers for trading that first round lottery pick? Derrick Williams or Kyrie Irving sure would look nice next to Blake Griffin. This site proclaimed them the smartest ever for making that trade. Kinda backfired really.

By: purdueman

purdueman — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:55:44 +0000

Re: The NBA draft, it played out EXACTLY as I said it would (with Cleveland getting the first overall pick in the draft). That’s what Stern the puppetmaster wanted… i.e., to try and take some of the sting out of the La Bum debacle last offseason. The Cavs will also draft 4th overall, complements of the hapless LA Clippers.