whirlwind is over. Let’s try to make some sense out of all the trades and all the moves that went down on Draft day.

Insanity at #8

We had this story on the live blog from the Sonics draft room as it was happening, but let’s review. Word leaks that Memphis is going to trade to the #8 spot from Houston. Houston will get Mike Miller in the deal and Juwan Howard is going to Memphis. The Grizzlies are going to draft Marcus Williams with the #8 pick.

The Sonics staff, which does an incredible job at forecasting the draft - evidently much better than others (see the Blazers) - knew that Rudy Gay would be on the board at eight and if Marcus Williams went #8 and Patrick O’Bryant stayed as forecasted at #9, then Gay could shockingly become a Sonic.

When it got to the #8 pick and Gay was there, from what I have heard around the league, Houston wants to pull out of the deal, so Memphis puts Shane Battier in the deal and is willing to take the long contract of Stromile Swift - a huge price for the #8 pick. Houston obviously takes the deal. I think it was the best move of the day by any team and Rudy Gay goes to Memphis. Gay better be great or the logo, Jerry West, made a very questionable move.




this is how things shake out sometimes, this is how a player drops. but make no mistake IF we took Marcus Williams even to hold as an asset, we couldve done something with it this summer --as in player + future 1 and taken Blakman at 29.


this is like the curry deal is someway--they spin it to say that id rather have curry than tyrus thomas when we shouldve had BOTH. this way they spin it as phoenix was going to pick balkman which was never the case per Pheonix. with just a little patience and savvy we couldve had both marcus williams tyrus thomas +balkman--but they are terrible at forecasting/negotiating/managing situations.

So you're saying that lottery teams actually wanted Marcus Williams but only passed him up because top players fell? Stop. We passed him up, so he must be a scrub. Had we taken him, he'd be a star, but we didn't, so he's a scrub.

y do we get all the heat for not drafting williams

im seroius y cuz we got an unknown?!

The heat is because the Renaldo Balkman selection was out of left field. So far as anyone knows, he'd have been there at 29, so why not take the presumed BPA at 20? Because he steals laptops?

Posted by Rich:

21 teams. 'Nuff said.

Rich, nothing personal at all, but anytime someone brings this up I have to say, 21 teams passed on Arenas, some passed twice....what do they have to say?

Saying 21 teams passed on him means absolutely nothing.

Which one is it?

Whichever one the Knicks don't do!

Posted by Killa4luv:

So basically this is another briggs thread about not taking Marcus Williams. great.

Either you are for amassing talented players for little value to trade later (ala Steve Francis)
Or you're not.

Which one is it?

bit of a difference when one makes rookie scale and one makes $57 mil.

Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by Killa4luv:

So basically this is another briggs thread about not taking Marcus Williams. great.

Either you are for amassing talented players for little value to trade later (ala Steve Francis)
Or you're not.

Which one is it?

bit of a difference when one makes rookie scale and one makes $57 mil.

point taken. but until Marcus proves me wrong by suceeding in the NBA, their respective values are that far apart as well. What is it that people think we could have gotten for him?

Posted by djsunyc:

marcus was highly rated in the draft. if he has a good summer league, his value is INFINITELY more than if balkman had a good summer league.

this draft pick is not about next season. these two picks are about the future. there is no way balkman or collins break 8 mins a game for the season.

What exactly is his value after this hypothetical good summer league?

Balkman could very well be playing 8 minutes per game next year. Its not liek we have some great SF's starting ahead of him. Especially when you are saying Q2 is gone.