By Joe Manganiello
If you’ve missed any of picks 1-8, here are the links to Page 1 and 2.
Once more:
With the No. 9 pick, the Washington Wizards select Nerlens Noel.
The Wizards end Noel’s suffering and take him two hours later than he had hoped.
Sidebar:
Truthfully, I don’t hate Nerlens Noel. In fact, it’s because of his decision to attend Kentucky that my Syracuse Orangeman went to the fourth final four of the Jim Boeheim-era. All right! Thanks Nerlens. End sidebar.
As risky as Noel is as a draft prospect, this move makes sense at nine. Consider that the Wizards real draft day prize is the acquisition of Derrick Williams (see: No. 3 pick), and there starting lineup for next year (Wall/Beal/Williams/Nene/Okafor) figures to be competitive. As things are, however, the Wizards are slightly over the cap and inevitably will have to restructure Okafor’s contract if they want to fill out the roster. Noel on a rookie contract becomes an affordable backup power forward and center, who could see anywhere from 20-30 minutes per game depending on discipline, health and production. Instead of Noel going to a team that “needs” him, playing 35 minutes per game as an unprepared rookie, being exposed as an ordinary offensive player, and struggling to make it through the full season healthy, Noel could duplicate Andre Drummond’s rookie season, with the hope that he’d be 25 to 30 percent healthier. Noel would be humbled by the draft day fall, motivated to silence the critics and excited by the prospect of playing with Wall, Beal and Williams long term. (Five years later, Alex Len and Nerlens Noel make their first all-star team together.)
With the No. 10 pick, the Portland Trailblazers select Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
On paper, it appears that the Trailblazers have a decent wad of cash, until somebody in the room says aloud, “Brandon Roy steals a little over $31 million from them the next two years for coming out of retirement and ripping up their amnesty agreement.” The Trailblazers will be over the salary cap next season because of Roy’s $17.8 million price tag, and so the Trailblazers best chance at adding assets is through draft picks. The Trailblazers have four draft picks (No. 10 and three second round picks), so if they sign all four rookies, let Eric Maynor and Sasha Pavlovic walk, and retain all their remaining guaranteed players, they will have exactly twelve (active) players for around $70 million.
What would I do? I’d find a way to turn Wesley Matthews ($14.2 million over the next two years) into a cheaper asset. A team with a need at shooting guard might just absorb the blow in order to acquire a player who has averaged at least 13.7 points, 1.9 threes and 1.2 steals per game each of the last three seasons. (Matthews is an underrated DTA player. I don’t think he is that far behind Danny Green, with the biggest difference being Green plays in the Spurs offense and Matthews has been stuck in Portland for the bulk of his career.) What if that team was also Matthew’s first NBA team, suddenly presented an opportunity to get him back cheap? The Utah Jazz (who acquired Trey Burke with the No. 4 pick) could upgrade at shooting guard, replacing the unproven Alec Burks with Matthews. Suddenly, the Jazz boast a Burke/Matthews/Marvin Williams or Gordon Hayward/Derrick Favors/Enes Kanter starting lineup that could be a young contender in an aged western conference.
Meanwhile, the Trailblazers turn Matthews into one year of Alec Burks for $2.2 million (with a team option the following year for $3 million). At a third of the price tag of Matthews, Burks is a promising player in his own right, considering he received inconsistent playing time at best during his first two seasons (16.9 minutes per game) and yet still averaged 15.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per 36 minutes. The Trailblazers won’t make the playoffs in 2014 with this roster, but a Lillard/Burks/Batum/Aldridge/Meyers Leonard starting five would be competitve and could absolutely show signs of potential long-term.
What does this have to do with the No. 10 pick? As promising as Burks may be, unless he wows Portland in his first season, I doubt they’d pick up his $3 million option in 2014. Instead, the Trailblazers best move would be renting Burks for one year and than letting him walk, which means drafting a scoring guard for the future with this pick. It’d be harder to justify taking Caldwell-Pope here if Matthews was already on roster blocking his path. But in theory, Caldwell-Pope could overtake Burks in the starting lineup by season’s end, depending on how quickly he makes the adjustment to NBA defenders. Caldwell-Pope is a scorer’s scorer, and although I thought he would have gone much higher next year, Portland would unquestionably be a great fit for him, playing alongside Lillard, Batum and Aldridge.
The Philadelphia 76ers trade the No. 11 pick to the Golden State Warriors for Jarrett Jack (sign-and-trade). With the No. 11 pick, the Golden State Warriors select C.J. McCollum.
Some draft picks just make too much sense. Let’s watch how this comes together. First of all, McCollum is without question the best player on the board; whoever is picking eleventh is drafting McCollum, whether it is the 76ers or not. While Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner are set as their starting backcourt, it’s no secret that the offense struggled last season without a Louis Williams-type off the bench. McCollum could enter the scene and overnight become Holiday’s backup plus the second unit’s go-to scorer.
But then, Golden State calls. The 76ers know that the Warriors aren’t going to hang up the phone until they get an agreement to pair up McCollum with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Basketball-wise, it’s genius, and economically, with Jarrett Jack a bit out of their price range, substituting McCollum into Jack’s role is equally smart.
Then the lightbulb clicks for Philadelphia: Jack for McCollum. The 76ers have the most money to spend of any team in basketball, and adding Jack to their backcourt makes their point guard position as formidable as any in the league. If the 76ers brought Bynum back AND he was healthy, they’d boast a eight-man rotation of Holiday, Jack, Turner, Thaddeus Young, Jason Richardson, Lavoy Allen, Spencer Hawes and Bynum, which is very competitive in the Eastern Conference. They might even be the favorite in the Atlantic with that rotation.
With the No. 12 pick, the Oklahoma City Thunder select Lucas Nogueira.
Immediately following this pick, and for about two or three years after it, the whole basketball universe will question up and down why Sam Presti didn’t select an American-born player like Shabazz Muhammad or Steven Adams with this pick. The first sentence of Nogueira’s profile on NBAdraft.net reads, “A project, but one with loads of untapped potential.” If Presti gets 80-85 percent of that potential or more, eventually, everyone will know why the Thunder drafted him, even if they don’t know why the Thunder have the pick. (Don’t get me started on how idiotic the James Harden trade looks now.)
The Dallas Mavericks trade the No. 13 pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for Brandon Jennings (sign-and-trade). The Milwaukee Bucks select Dennis Schroeder.
The Mavericks realize that they are no longer in the front seat to sign Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, and the Bucks understand that they are going to lose both their leading guards, Jennings and Monta Ellis, to free agency. With this move, both teams are deciding to be proactive. Dallas adds a star player with plenty of ability, while Milwaukee acquires their point guard of the future after the short-lived Jennings-era. I’d imagine Dallas would follow up this move by attempting to add veterans like Andre Iguodala and Josh Smith, while Milwaukee would draft an off-ball guard with the No. 15 pick, either Tony Snell or Allen Crabbe.
With the No. 14 pick, the Charlotte (Hornets) select Shabazz Muhammad.
I already spoiled this one, but Michael Jordan has just the right mix of confidence and utter disregard for what others think of him to select one of the largest headaches of the draft. It would truly be something if Jordan, after years of absolutely whiffing draft after draft, walked away on Thursday with Al Jefferson and Shabazz Muhammad.
Too bad it won’t happen.
Joe Manganiello (@joemags32) is a NBA fanatic, screenwriter and a New York sports fan (Syracuse basketball, New York Knicks, Buffalo Bills). He studied journalism and cinema at Oswego State University – Peace, love, recycle and ball.
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