Blazers – no doubt what a draft day they had. without a doubt, they were the winners of this draft. You’re comments on Randolph are hilarious.

- Freddie Footballer

Suns v Warriors My name is Chris Mullin. I have the skinniest front court in the NBA. My starting lineup this year will include Andris Biedrins, Brandon Wright and Stephen Jackson. Hold on let’s not mind who we already have on our team, or what our team needs (Strong, solid, Rebounder, like a real PF and a true backup point gaurd) and take a lost twin of Brandon Wright. WHile Rudolph is very good and has a lot of potential and Nelli will not play him next year, how can u have a future front court that looks like three Nicole Ricci’s. Amare, Robin and Shaq will mistake them for breadsticks and eat them up! if i lived in portland right now i would not be able to stop smiling, jerks! i am very jealous

McCants is a pure scorer/3 point specialist and Westbrooke is more defensive. McCants is actually turning into a decent player – poormans Rip Hamilton? Don’t be surprised if his #‘s continue to improve.

re: I don’t understand why people are hating on Randolph so much. Yes he’s skinny, but Wright weighed the exact same amount his rookie year and gained 25 pounds. Yao Ming was too skinny to play C and gained about 70 pounds over about 3 years. Chris Bosh was thin as a rail when he came into the league and look at him now. Kevin Garnett weighed 220 when he came into the league, as a PF/C. It’s much harder to teach skill and athleticism than put weight on a guy.

Not to mention Randolph will be playing SF, not PF. Wright won’t be starting this year so I don’t know what whoever said that was thinking. Wright needs one more year of development, and he’ll probably get that as a 20-25 mpg bench player. Our frontcourt will be thin with Randolph, Wright, and Biedrins, but most teams are transitioning to thin and athletic big men rather than Duncan-esque post players. The whole weight issue can easily be remedied by having a Millsap or Bass type come off the bench.

People need to start thinking about the future. SJax is 30 and Baron is 29. Both play like there are about 2-3 extra years of mileage on them, they don’t have many more years of high level basketball left in them. A nucleus of Wright, Randolph, Monta, and Biedrins sounds pretty promising assuming they all develop.

Regardless, let’s see who was available at our pick. Darrell Arthur, Donte Greene, Marresse Speights, Robin Lopez, JaVale McGee, and Kosta Koufos. Arthur slid far down the draft boards while Robin Lopez has bust written all over him as does Kosta. If you’re worried about weight, McGee weighs less than Biedrins and probably won’t put on much more weight. I like Greene, but he went 28th. You think 14 might be a bit of a reach for a guy with less potential than Randolph? That leaves Speights, who plays PF. My question is, what do you do with Wright if Speights is drafted? Tell him to play SF? Good luck with that.

Draft for the future, not the present. If you always draft for the present, you end up with a team of half decent players that won’t improve. Like Mullin said, it’s a draft not free agency.
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LB23

blazers, warriors, timberwolves, oh my! Hackneyed as my subject title may seem, it just begged to be used.

As far as my blazers go, their draft was a pretty nice success (like Chad Ford I give it an A- only because we have to see how Bayless and Batum turn out over the next couple of years). I must admit, thinking that we had aquired Darrell Arthur and Joey Dorsey to go along with Jerryd Bayless and Ike Diogu, I was pretty stoked. But the Blazers in the long run did the right thing by trading those two rookie big men away for Batum and Asik for 3 future second round draft picks (aka trading assets down the road!!!) because we would have had an immense frontcourt logjam (Oden, Aldridge, Przybilla, Frye, Diogu, Arthur, Dorsey, and LaFrentz—yes, Raef LaFrentz). Getting Batum is giving us a European project who has worked with Tony Parker (Finals MVP 2 years ago, remember?) and who can play both the 2 and the 3 off the bench (so his minutes won’t be as limited if he were totally one-dimensional). And let’s not forget that Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez are coming in for their rookie seasons. Oden will start right away, and his workouts have the Blazers staff singing praises and me salivating at another possible rookie of the year in Portland (and maybe even 2 All-Stars in the same year!!!). Bayless will come off the bench to start the season and help him develop, but he could earn the starting job if he matures and figures out the game quickly. We’re looking at a first unit (the white unit, as McMillan refers to it) of Blake, Roy, Outlaw, Aldridge, and Oden, with a second unit (the black unit) of Bayless, Fernandez, Webster, Frye, and Przybilla, and Batum and Diogu as role players who can come in and fill up the stat sheets with points and rebounds if any of those guys get in foul trouble. Then, of course, there’s Raef’s expiring contract, which can be used at the February trading deadline to acquire a veteran, or we could keep him and let it get off our books and allow us to go after a big-name free agent next summer (did somebody say Chris Paul?). The playoffs this year is a very real possibility for my Blazers, as is a solid run in those playoffs if Oden, Bayless, Outlaw, and Fernandez live up to their potentials. I am so excited!

Okay, enough about my team. There has been some griping about the Warriors’ draft and the woes for Memphis and Minnesota. First, the Warriors. I lived in Contra Costa county for two years and got to see a lot of what they were doing down there during their first playoff birth in 10+ seasons or whatever it was. That was due to a surprising combination of athleticism, 3-point shooting, and Phoenix-style offense (quick shooting and run the break). But Baron Davis is, sorry to say, not someone the Warriors can rely on in the future because he has a history of injury and temper tantrums. As has been pointed out, he and Jackson play a couple years older than they actually are. Bringing in Randolph is a move for the future 2 or 3 years down the road without question due to his lack of muscle, which any player can put on so it’s no big deal that he looks like he could fall through a crack in the hardwood come game night. No, the real concern is going to be moving Baron Davis because his contract will be up soon and he will not likely stay if the Warriors miss the playoffs a second year in a row (which could happen with their roster as is—sans strong big men in the Western Conference; see Pau Gasol in the NBA Finals for proof). Plus, Baron has value after putting up big numbers last year without missing many games. The Warriors should look into a sign-and-trade with Washington for Gilbert Arenas—bring him back to the Bay. They are pretty identical, but Arenas is better offensively and less volatile on court, which will help Jackson in the locker room, and their contracts would be similar anyway. Warriors fans, unless that move happens, be ready for another Chris Mullin rebuilding era, althought it should be much shorter than last time with Monta and Randolph to lead the way. Just don’t expect Nelly to stick around.

Minnesota is an interesting situation because Al Jefferson and Kevin Love are both large guys. It may be a struggle for both of them to play in the paint, as teams will pack it in. I know Love can shoot with some range and pass better than most big men in the league, but it’s hard to see him running motion sets to get those looks with his body type and conditioning. I know he lost a lot of weight, but it’s time to see how that translates. Believe me, I’m rooting for him; he is from my own backyard in the Portland area. The Timberwolves should get tape on the Blazers’ Arvydas Sabonis and make Love watch it for hours. That would prove beneficial. As far as McCants goes, he is not going to get any better than he is because he is a volume shooter—he needs lots of shots for the numbers, and Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Randy Foye, and Mike Miller are going to be taking most of them this coming season. Don’t be surprised to see McCants frustrated with a 7th-man role behind Corey Brewer and ask for a trade. Minnesota will be better, but it will take time.

Memphis will also be better off in the long run. They got Mayo to play alongside Conley and to replace Juan Carlos Navarro (who booked it to Europe for more money thanks to the weakness of the American dollar), Darrell Arthur to be their starting power forward (eventually, because Warrick is really a SF with PF height), and Marc Gasol is coming in to show Darko Milicic how to play center (well, at least better than Milicic can; the jury is still out on Marc). If the Grizzlies can move a guard or two and get a decent swingman to come off the bench and hit 3-pointers while star Rudy Gay is resting, the Grizzlies will have something to go along with their future cap room. I like what their GM is putting together for the future and don’t be surprised if it takes Memphis less time to become a playoff contender than Minnesota; they have trade pieces and young talent in Conley, Mayo, Gay, Arthur, and Gasol. Plus, they can move Antoine Walker for other pieces, because I’m sure come the trade deadline or earlier his value to a contender—like Phoenix or the Lakers—will be very high and net the Grizzlies assets. The West is getting better by leaps and bounds while the best in the east get better and the worst over there stay worse. Go Blazers!!!

re: For the record, Gilbert Arenas is a terrible teammate. He tortured Mike Dunleavy while he was with the Warriors and has so many off the court problems with him it’s ridiculous. He basically tried to drag the spotlight to him through stupid stunts such as sleeping in a tent which simulates respiration on a mountain and taking showers with all of this clothes on during halftime. He’s an attention whore and if you’ve read his blogs or seen that video of him challenging DeShawn Stevenson, you’d know what I’m talking about.

Sorry, but I hate the guy.
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LB23

Where I would not go so far to say that I hate Gilbert Arenas, I certainly do not want him back on the warriors. I do not know if you noticed but the wizards played fine or if not better without gilbert this last year.

I do think Randolph was the player to take at 14, but the thing that has killed the warriors in the past two years, while they have had some success, is their size down-low to play, defense and rebounding. The warriors have a very promising future in a couple of years if all of our young guns can continue to mature. Monta will continue to make the transition to pg, I really think Bellinelli could have a terrific future, Randolph, Wright and Biedrins. But unfortunately no one in that lineup is known for his defensive skills and I doubt if any of them can bench more than 200 lbs. I love all of the guys and I am looking forward to the future, but I am just saying the warriors need to look to acquire defensive players and some meaty centers. How can you expect one of those guys to defend Bynum, Boozer, Amare or Oden? While some teams are going with skinny front courts, you cannot forget these four guys on some of our toughest rivals in the years to come. Also nellie is not going to be our coach forever, we cannot keep acquiring players for his style of basketball only.