You Should and Should Not be Angry: Two Draft Perspectives.

In the heat of the moment, we were all thirsting for big shotblockers (pause) and Alabi and Varnado were available. Personally, I’ve never been that sold on Alabi, but I have been high on Varnado for a while. So I got excited, and then got brought down to earth because those guys didn’t seem, from what I read, like they were going to be drafted at all.

BUT, even if that were true, if you try to sign a non-draftee, you might get trumped by another team. So there’s no guarantee you’re going to be able to sign them if they go undrafted. So the Knicks really valued these guys for their skills (including defense) and more importantly, understanding of team basketball and maturity, so now, no one else can sign them unless the Knicks renounce them. And Zoubek is still unsigned – and he said he wanted to come to the Knicks.

Plus, the Knicks seem to have nabbed Jerome Jordan, and that makes me feel a lot better about everything because at least they got a really big dude who has a chance of contributing. I actually think this guy’s come an enormous distance in a very short time. It’s potentially high-reward. Probably as good a risk as Alabi anyway.

It looks like the Knicks are trying to put together a team of intelligent team players that know what they can do on the court and know how to play with others. I like that approach. I’m starting to look forward to summer league to see what these guys can do.

I think it was Tommy D who made a good point – what’s the difference between Gordon Heyward and Landry Fields? Is it that huge? Heyward almost won the NCAA championship as a huge underdog. Fields’ team was not as strong. We’ll have to wait and see.

I mean, sure Rautins and Fields were not expected to be drafted…but that doesn’t mean they would not have been, is NY hadn’t pulled the trigger. Sure there are plenty of sights out there that do their own research, and I am sure NBA teams see what they have to say. But there is a reason why each team has its own scouts. Everyoen has their own strategy and evaluation system too.

Hey, who even heard of Tony Parker when the Spurs drafted him? Guys like Monta Ellis, Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer, and on and on… man, those were 2nd rounders and like you said, expectations are nonexistent for those late draft picks.

Those guys happen to have become stars in the league. It makes those GMs or whomever made the picks look like geniuses and the evaluation systems who rated these guys low or not at all look flawed.

who wrote The Princess Bride famously said about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” Is the NBA really so different?

I was upset about last night’s picks because I spent countless hours studying the likely picks and picking favorites and it’s now clear that was a ridiculous waste of time. But I’m not really upset about the picks themselves just because draft “experts” didn’t see them coming. If you look back at their prior predictions, it becomes clear that those guys really don’t know anything.

The Jordan Hill pick was so upsetting last year precisely because it was so gutless. He was picked because nobody would blame them for picking Hill in the lottery but they would have been mocked for picking Ty Lawson there. But Lawson was the better player and it would have been great if our GM just said F’ the “experts”. (I hate to say it, but Isiah was good at that.)

So I’m just going to look at the players based on what I can see, and I’m not too displeased. Though I am tired of every guy we pick up being a small forward.

you seem to stay level-headed through most crises, and that’s respectable. Tough to have a problem with smart, team-oriented players who excel in their particular niches. We’ll see if they make it.

u guys might be willing to soften up on our draft picks but i wont. worst choices ive ever seen the knicks make since sweetney or even weis.

Does this mean they trade chan for a true SG now. We obviously have some swingmen and a center. You gotta figure there is some masterplan going into place. If donny wanted armon that bad, they wouldve bought up right?

I keep thinking this is the recap thread.