Give me Ham on 5 and hold the Mayo

First and foremost, since this is my first post, I use a lot of my own personal nicknames and a lot of pop culture references. I'm not as 'in your face' as say Jim Rome but I am direct and, at times, over the top.

I'm one of those guys that lives for the NBA Draft. It's one of the events I look forward to most in the sports calendar year. That sentiment is only intensified by the fact that my beloved Chicago Bulls were rewarded for failing to make the playoffs, when they were on many pre-season lists as not only making the Eastern Conference Finals but also going to the NBA Finals, by setting Vegas on fire by taking that 1.7% chance of obtaining the first pick and doing just that. But enough about all that, let's look at this year's draft as a whole.

I have to start by saying that ESPN's coverage is good but I still prefer the old TNT coverage. Nothing was better when I was a teenager and watching Hubie Brown forget more names than George Bush at a State Dinner. That was classic comedy. And what is up with Stephen A. Smith interviewing the draftees? It's the highlight of these kid's lives, their dreams just came true, and they have to immediately sit down and speak to Stephen A? This guy makes "Mouth Of The South" Jimmy Hart look like McMurphy after the lobotomy.

Jay Bilas is knowledgeable, I'll give him that, but can we be spared the insinuation that he is somehow the NBA Draft equivilent of Mel Kiper? Kiper hibernates for 11 months out of the year and then wakes up ready to go for 30 days of hardcore scouting and draft prep. The draft was a week ago and Jay Bilas is already prepping for his next gig as a rodeo commentator on "The Duece." Nice credibility. But, just like every other Dukie not named Elton, he has to get in where he can fit in.

As for the picks though:

1. Derrick Rose - So how do I feel about Mad Pax drafting a PG when we're already rocking Tiberius at the Point and we have Not Jordan coming off the bench as an undersized 2? I love it. He's a local kid who is going to be the star of the draft. Best freshman performance in the NCAA Tournament since Mike Bibby played Sundance to Miles Simon's Butch Cassidy in '97. The kid wants to win and I'm not going to fault anyone who aspires to be Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season.

Now they just have to find a taker for Tiberius. A lot of teams need a PG so that shouldn't be too hard. I would love to see Not Jordan go too, because of the matchup issue that he creates and the fact that he's never going to start and I'm a firm believer that you cannot win in the NBA with your leading scorer coming off the bench. Look at the Spurs this year. Reports are that Corey Maggette is on the way out of La-La Land and, being as that the Clips need a Point and that the Toros could use a good 2 (do I even need to mention that Maggette is from Chicago as well?) then it looks like a decent option to keep open. Now I know that I am contridicting myself because Maggette is a Dukie not named Elton but life is funny at times. There are other options there as well, of course, but I don't want to just focus on this.

2. Michael Beasley - Only time will truly tell if he is the star of the draft that some predict. Granted the last time Chicago drafted someone named Michael in the top 3 that worked out alright but I have questions about Beasley. He's a good fit for Miami because they need anything they can get not related to the 2 Guard position and #2 was much too high to take a Westbrook or a Bayless. Sure there are attitude questions but he is still a kid after all and mistakes are allowed to be made. The biggest thing that put me off about him is the fact that he is only 6' 7" and he's a PF which is a position which is becoming dominated by 7 footers these days. He's undersized for the position and will be a defensive liabilty for at least the first year or two and that's assuming he decides one day that he wants to learn how to defend.

3. OJ Mayo - Traded to Memphis. Very interesting. Jerry West is not running that team any longer that much is for certain. How does he fit in with the Griz? I guess ok but I'm not sold on him yet. Too many mistakes as a freshman and they weren't just freshman mistakes. He'll team with Conley, Gay, Gasol and Darko (sounds like a law firm) and they will be back in the top 5 next year. The problem is that he will take shots away from Rudy which hurts his fantasy value a little bit.

4. Russell Westbrook - So a SG in college gets drafted to be a PG in the NBA? Ok. It's happened before. It'll happen again. The one thing that stands out to me about Westbrook is his athleticism. He can flat out fly up and down the court, he can finish and he can defend. With him and Durant and Green they have a nice nucleus to build around in Oklahoma City.

5. Kevin Love - All the experts seem to love, well, Love. I don't. I think he is a solid player. I think he is a smart player. And he most certainly if anything is a strong player. I think that Minnesota would have been better off addressing other needs than taking post pressure off of You Can Call Me Al. I look at Love and I see a smarter version of Mark Madsen.

6. Danilo Gallinari - Was this really a surprise? I love how the Knicks tried to cover this pick up by saying that the fact that Danilo's father and D'Antoni played together in Europe. Was anyone really fooled by that? The biggest shocker to me though wasn't the pick, seriously did that shock anyone, but when Fran Fraschilla came out and said that someday this kid is going to be to NYC like Jeter and Tiki Torch are. Are you kidding me? I know that Fran covers all the European players for ESPN but I didn't realize that his home office was in Amsterdam. Will Danilo be good? Probably. He's a European player so we know without even seeing him play that the fundamentals are there. Will he be as good as Dirk? Well he's not going to win for a while in the Big Apple so at least he isn't going to be in a position to choke like Dirk in the Finals. I just don't see him being bigger than Jeter in NYC. I just don't see it at all.

7. Eric Gordon - What is it with people with this last name? They all have to be undersized 2's who can shoot the lights out but cannot play a shred of the 1 so they create matchup issues for any coach. Will he thrive in LA? Probably because it's LA and he can shoot. That town loves anyone that can shoot. If Vujacic can become a crowd favorite at Clipper games then Gordon should turn into Billy Crystal's very own Kobe...............without the rings and trophies though of course.

8. Joe Alexander - This guy benefited the most from March Madness. He had a great tournament, had great individual workouts and got himself into the Lottery. He'll be a good fit in Milwaukee though. He'll take pressure off of Bogut on defense and he'll stretch the defense on offense.

9. DJ Augustin - Not quite sold on this pick. Sure he was named the best PG in the country this season but with Lopez on the board, no Center to think of, and Raymond Felton running the Point I just think that it was a wasted pick. Michael may have been the greatest of all-time on the court but he is having problems running the show from off of it.

Ironically this is where Chicago should have been picking so, um, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10. Brooke Lopez - Great fit for the Nets. He'll team with Yi and Sean Williams to form a great future frontline for Jay-Z and Company to lure King James to Brooklyn in 2010. Solid offensive player who needs to work on defense and footwork a bit.

Other notes from the rest of the draft:

* Bayless is a great fit in Portland. If Pritchard doesn't win Executive of the Year in the next year or two, tops, then all post-season awards immediately lose all credibility

* Anthony Randolph? Um...........................whoever forgot to remind Chris Mullin that they traded in last year's draft for a rail thin freshman big man who has all the talent and none of the skills who plays the same position should be fired immediately. Do not pass Go and only collect $200 if it's part of your severance package.

* Roy Hibbert will be a bust. He sucks. Sure he has size and you can't teach that but all that means is that he is a big waste of size. Did the Pacers learn nothing from David Harrison?

* Courtney Lee is a great pick for Orlando. He addresses a major need. That team is one of the funnest to play as on NBA Live '08 until you pass to a guard. Lee will help to fix that problem from day one and the advantage is that he was a senior. No freshman growing pains at the next level. He did it the way people did it 30 years ago and there's nothing wrong with that.

Ok. First post and this has taken a tad bit longer than I anticipated. I'm out like trout but I'll be back later. One thing I want to do with this every Sunday I want to give out the Cousin Eddy Award of the Week to the biggest idiot in sports, or sometimes the news. So check back for that and whatever else may come to mind.

Kamryn's Dad