By Joe Manganiello
If you missed picks 1-3, here is the link to Page One.
Again:
The Charlotte (Hornets) trade the No. 4 pick, Ramon Sessions and Tyrus Thomas to Utah for Al Jefferson (sign-and-trade) and the No. 14 pick. With the No. 4 pick, the Utah Jazz select Trey Burke.
The soon-to-be-Hornets very suddenly have the most interesting pick in the draft, and undoubtedly the selection that will spin the draft in the most extreme direction. On the one hand, the expectation is that Michael Jordan will take the easy route, draft Noel, claim “I Can’t Believe A Player Of This Magnitude Was Still On The Board,” and pencil him into the starting lineup… Oh wait, Noel can’t play until December. (Why is he in the discussion for top overall pick again?)
However, if I’m Charlotte, I consider that (1) my top draft pick last season, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, can’t shoot; (2) my team’s best player, by default, is Kemba Walker, an undersized guard who lacks game-changing athleticism; and (3) everybody else on my team either sucks or is a free agent. Charlotte desperately needs to add a player of merit to this roster, somebody who can be the face of the team, at least long enough to keep fans interested while MKG develops. And they have the money to do it! Do I think that Chris Bosh for the No. 4 pick trade is plausible? No. It would be too much of a PR nightmare for Miami. But Utah, on the other hand, would get a lot out of partnering with Charlotte.
For starters, how about getting something in exchange for Jefferson, Utah, you know, as opposed to just watching him leave? And look what they could get: Ramon Sessions for one year at $5 million is better than any point guard they have had on roster the last calendar year; Tyrus Thomas is a terrible contract now, but will be a great expiring contract asset in 2014; and with the No. 4 pick, the Jazz can draft a player who can change their fate right away in Trey Burke.
Is Burke a franchise player? Probably not; I don’t imagine Burke will ever put up a season like Chris Paul in ’07-’08 or Derrick Rose in ’10-’11. You know what I do see for Burke? 15, 8 and 4 with respectable shooting splits and at least one toughness play every night. He’s a starting point guard at the next level, period. In a draft full of risks, he’s as close to a sure thing as it gets. After prematurely ending the Deron Williams tenure, Utah has a chance to draft their point guard for the next ten years at No. 4, as well as his mentor (Sessions), which shouldn’t be overlooked either.
Back to Charlotte. Why do they do this deal? There is not a single player at No. 4 they could draft that helps them sell tickets next year. Not one. That’s how agonizingly bad Charlotte is right now. They’ve lost 120 of their last 148 games. They stink. If they want to salvage anything with their fan base, they can’t afford to sit on that cap space. Not when there isn’t one good move for them at No. 4, and not when respectable NBA stars are on the trade block. Al Jefferson is going to leave Utah for NOTHING; the Jazz WOULD listen to this trade offer; and Jefferson overnight makes Charlotte three times more interesting next season. What would Charlotte’s starting lineup be next year after this move, and if they used some of their cap space to add a free agent power forward? Kemba/Shabazz (spoiler alert)/MKG/Paul Millsap or J.J. Hickson/Al Jefferson. Wow. I might watch a Charlotte home game or two on League Pass next season.
With the No. 5 pick, the Phoenix Suns select Anthony Bennett.
I can explain this move in a paragraph. Bennett is better and safer than Noel, and matches the team’s style better than Otto Porter Jr. and Cody Zeller. The Suns have one more year of Marcin Gortat before he can become an unrestricted free agent, so drafting a big man here would absolutely be justified, but I’m higher on Bennett as an NBA small forward than Zeller as an NBA center. Bottom line: I would not be shocked if we looked back on this draft in five years wondering how Bennett wasn’t the No. 1 overall pick. He’s super athletic, can score in transition and would be a dream-come-true for Goran Dragic, who is the franchise’s best player (albeit that’s not saying much). Dragic to Bennett could become a poor man’s Nash to Stoudemire, and might actually be a pretty comparable Nash to Marion. The sky’s the limit for Bennett, who went to school at UNLV and is meant to stay on the west coast.
With the No. 6 pick, the New Orleans Pelicans select Cody Zeller.
The Pelicans are paying Eric Gordon $14.3, $14.9 and $15.5 million dollars the next three seasons and Anthony Davis roughly $27 million over the next four seasons. Even still, the Pelicans have plenty of money, roughly $20 million in cap space this off-season. What does that tell me? It means the Pelicans don’t have all the pieces in place yet. (I can hear the collective “Duh” from Pelicans fans as I write this.) But hear me out.
The starting lineup for this team is somewhat aesthetically pleasing: Greivis Vasquez (playmaker, creator, PG); Eric Gordon (scorer, shooter, SG); Ryan Anderson (lengthy, shooter, SF); Anthony Davis (franchise defining shot blocker, world of potential on offensive end, PF); and Robin Lopez (size, rebounding, C). Unfortunately for New Orleans last season, Vasquez was the only one of the five that stayed healthy; Davis underachieved in his rookie campaign and lost the ROY award by December after Damien Lillard capitalized on Davis’ early-season injuries; Gordon regressed and appears to be among the more overpaid players in the Association; Ryan Anderson is the opposite of a DTA, he’s a OTN (offense-only, threes, nothing else); and Robin Lopez proved for the fifth-consecutive year why Brook Lopez is the only Lopez brother who will ever make an all-star team.
So what does New Orleans do with all of this? Vasquez has to come back as a starter next year, if for no other reason than he was the team’s best player last season (and Trey Burke is off the board). Despite any fascinating trade rumor that suggests otherwise, Gordon isn’t getting traded unless somebody overpays for him (ie: Gordon straight up for Pau Gasol) or if the Pelicans short change themselves (ie: Gordon straight up for Paul Pierce and Avery Bradley). Davis (franchise player) and Anderson (the game’s best three-point shooter not playing for Golden State) are already written in ink as the team’s starting forwards next season, so if the team is going to make a change, which they desperately need to, it’s at center.
Am I the highest on Cody Zeller? Not exactly. But he is very good at a lot of things, he had a respectable two-year stint at Indiana (although it finished about as poorly as could be imagined) and figures to be, at the very worst, a decent NBA big who will bounce from team to team for the next decade. At best, Zeller is athletic enough to get his own shot at the next level, adds a dozen points per game to a Pelicans lineup that needs scoring (and talent) from the center position, and the five-man unit of Vasquez/Gordon/Anderson/Davis/Zeller helps the Pelicans flirt with a low-playoff seed. As long as Zeller’s rookie season is closer to the later than the former, he’ll stick in New Orleans.
Also, see what he did to future teammate Anthony Davis while in school:
Cody Zeller at times looks damn impressive. Highlight package here shows a nifty move against UK Anthony Davis #NBAhttp://t.co/MhETwQf3RY
— Joe Manganiello (@thatjoemags) May 16, 2013
With the No. 7 pick, the Sacramento Kings select Otto Porter Jr.
This pick makes the most sense of any of the options Sacramento has here. Imagine if the Kings, who in recent years have turned collecting combo guards who shoot too much and play little to no defense a hobby, drafted CJ McCollum or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. I’d chalk both those picks up at 5 percent odds that it could work out well for them. But the Porter pick? I’ll go 95 percent it’s the steal of the draft! Why? He plays defense, has intangibles you can’t teach, is coachable, is a winner (excluding Georgetown’s horrid NCAA tournament run over the last decade), is athletic and can guard/play multiple positions.
Let’s assume the Kings mercifully let Tyreke Evans go, build the team around (gulp) DeMarcus Cousins and trade away even one of the superfluous wing players on roster (John Salmons, Marcus Thornton or Travis Outlaw). The Kings could draft Porter, use the roughly $20 million dollars they have in cap space (following the trade I suggested) to sign actual basketball players, and suddenly the Kings starting lineup could look like this next season: Isaiah Thomas/Randy Foye or Jodie Meeks (FA)/Porter/Patrick Patterson/Cousins.
That’s not nearly as bad as they’ve been in past seasons, and Porter’s defensive instincts might even be contagious enough to bring Sacramento above 30 wins for the first time since 2008.
And it goes without saying that Nerlens Noel is NOT going to work in Sacramento.
With the No. 8 pick, the Detroit Pistons select Michael Carter-Williams.
Detroit is one of the worst situations in the NBA right now. They are not bad enough to start from scratch, but not even close to good enough to satisfy their fan base. Who’s the face of the franchise? Greg Monroe? Andre Drummond? Brandon Knight? Eeek. This is a team with a measly $26 million committed to next year’s payroll if Rodney Stuckey is bought out. The team’s second toughest decision of the off-season (behind choosing who to select at No. 8 of a terrible draft) will be what to do with Jose Calderon, whose cap hold is $16.4 million and will have no shortage of suitors on the open market. Let’s assume Stuckey, Calderon and Will Bynum don’t come back, and Brandon Knight is still an above-average combo guard entering the final guaranteed year of his contract come October. The Pistons don’t have a real point guard. This is a problem.
So no, the Pistons will not draft Nerlens Noel with this pick, instead opting for a 6-foot-6 point guard who led the NCAA in assists for a portion of the season, has incredible defensive instincts, is destined to lead the NBA in steals someday and will start at point guard from day one.
Sidebar:
Here’s how close the Pistons are to having an all-Big East starting lineup next season. If they start MCW (Syracuse) right away, pair up Greg Monroe (Georgetown) and Andre Drummond (UConn) in the post and flip Brandon Knight straight up for Lance Stephenson (Cincinnati), they’d be one more former Big East wing player away. Here’s a list of NBA wings out of the Big East who will be free agents this summer, from worst fit to best fit: Kris Joseph (Syracuse), Sam Young (Pittsburgh), James White (Cincinnati), Wesley Johnson (Syracuse), Francisco Garcia (Louisville), Devin Ebanks (West Virginia), Terence Williams (Louisville), Randy Foye (Villanova), Earl Clark (Louisville), Ben Gordon (UConn), Ray Allen (UConn), Richard Hamilton (UConn).
Wait, did I just find a scenario for the Pistons and Rip Hamilton to reunite before he retired AND spontaneously create an all-Big East NBA starting lineup the winter following the cruel disbanding of the greatest college basketball conference of all-time? Yes, yes I did. End sidebar.
With the No. 9 pick, the Washington Wizards select Nerlens Noel.
(Continue on to Page Three)
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