NBA Draft And Trades

As expected, Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers with the #1 pick. The rest of the draft was unpredictable, and the Oklahoma City Thunder drafted James Harden with third pick, which was not expected. The Minnesota Timberwolves owned the fifth and sixth picks, and used them on Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn, two point guards. They later drafted another point guard, Tywon Lawson, with the 18th pick, but traded it to the Denver Nuggets. They drafted Nick Calathes, another point guard, in the second round. The Golden State Warriors drafted Davidson sensation Stephen Curry with the seventh pick.

Many trades were made today, but the biggest one was the trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers acquiring Shaquille O'Neal from the Phoenix Suns for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic. Also, the New Jersey Nets traded Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson to the defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic for Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, and Tony Battie. In smaller trades, the Atlanta Hawks acquired Jamal Crawford from the Golden State Warriors for Acie Law and Speedy Claxton. The New York Knicks acquired Darko Milicic from the Memphis Grizzlies for Quentin Richardson and money.

After the draft, I didn't know what the Timberwolves plans were. I'm still sold on the fact that they're going to still move one of the point guards they drafted. It didn't make any sense for them to draft that many point guards. The Thunder drafting Harden didn't make much sense since they have Kevin Durant as their scorer. Harden is basically a scorer. He doesn't do much more than that. I like the Warriors drafting Curry because he can pair up with Monta Ellis to form a good backcourt. I didn't see the reason for the Milwaukee Bucks drafting Jodie Meeks in the second round. They have a great shooter in Michael Redd, and Meeks is basically a poor man's version of Redd. They didn't need that. The Jazz drafting of Eric Maynor is great because they get themselves a great backup point guard.

The trades that happened today aren't making much sense to me. The Hawks' acquisition of Jamal Crawford doesn't make much sense, because they have Joe Johnson already. They needed to get post players. Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia are terrible in the post, and that is holding them back from being a better team. They don't gain anything by getting Crawford, even though he is a good player. The Knicks or Grizzlies do not benefit from their trade either, because both players are ineffective and are in their last year of their contracts. The Vince Carter trade makes a little bit of sense. The Magic get a good scorer who can create his own shot, which lessens the pressure on Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard. But they gave up Courtney Lee, who was just coming off of a productive rookie season. They also gave up Battie, with Marcin Gortat entering the free agency pool. They have lost depth with this deal, but their starting five is much better if Hedo Turkoglu re-signs with the team.