It's about that time again.
A few weeks have passed since my last crack at a mock draft, which now isn't worth the cyberspace it was printed on. Two Russians have pulled out, two Jayhawks have moved up, and two teams don't have a trade anymore because of Jay Williams' ill-timed Duane Allman impersonation.
So let's get caught up. The top three picks are etched in stone, but after that it's a mystery -- not only the question of what player will be taken after No. 4, but who will do the choosing. Several picks in the top 10 could be dealt on draft night, making my mocking muckier.
Nonetheless, I bravely forge ahead. Here's one forecast of the first 29 picks on Thursday:
| Pick |
Team |
Pos. |
Player |
School/Team |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Age |
|
1
|
 |
F
|
LeBron James
|
Akron, Ohio
|
6'8"
|
240
|
18
|
|
Jim Paxson says he hasn't been this impressed by a high schooler since DeSagana Diop. |
|
2
|
 |
F/C
|
Darko Milicic
|
Serbia
|
7'0"
|
245 | 18
|
|
Darko comes from a depressed, war-torn industrial city in Serbia. He'll feel right at home in Detroit. |
|
3
|
 |
F
|
Carmelo Anthony
|
Syracuse
|
6'8"
|
220 | 19
|
|
Nuggets will beg him to shoot every time he gets it and encourage him to steal the ball from teammates. |
|
4
|
 |
F
|
Chris Bosh
|
Ga. Tech
|
6'10"
|
210 | 19
|
|
The Raptors have more holes than Vitali Klitschko's eyelid, so if they don't trade the pick they'll go for the best player available. |
|
5
|
 |
G
|
Dwyane Wade
|
Marquette
|
6'4"
|
210 | 21
|
| Pat Riley is looking to trade this pick, and based on his recent moves, he appears to be targeting washed-up 34-year-old former All-Stars. |
|
6
|
 |
G
|
T.J. Ford
|
Texas
|
5'10"
|
165 | 20
|
|
What bitter irony. While the Cavs and Pistons get Rolls Royces, the cheapest team in the league picks up a Ford.
|
|
7
|
 |
G/F
|
Mickaël Pietrus
|
France
|
6'6"
|
200 | 21
|
|
We were just kidding about that whole "boycott France" thing. |
|
8
|
 |
G
|
Kirk Hinrich
|
Kansas
|
6'3"
|
190 | 22
|
| He'll fit in perfectly with George Karl's strategy of trying to win by playing four guards and a 6-foot-7 center.
|
|
9
|
 |
C
|
Chris Kaman
|
Central Michigan
|
7'0"
|
255 | 21
|
|
Per usual, 52 trade rumors involving Latrell Sprewell and this pick will
surface between now and Thursday, nothing will happen, and the Knicks
will draft a stiff. |
|
10
|
 |
F
|
Nick Collison
|
Kansas
|
6'9"
|
255 | 22
|
| Collison joins Christian Laettner to give Wizards the two greatest white power forwards ever to sit on the end of the bench for the U.S. national team. |
|
11
|
 |
F
|
Maciej Lampe
|
Spain
|
6'11"
|
240 | 18
|
|
He's the NBA's second player from Poland, after Memphis' Cezary Trybanski, but he's the first one with a pulse. |
|
12
|
 |
F
|
Mike Sweetney
|
Georgetown
|
6'8"
|
260 | 20
|
|
The Sonics' best post player last year was Jerome James.
Yikes. |
|
13
|
 |
G/F
|
Jarvis Hayes
|
Georgia
|
6'7"
|
220 | 21
|
|
Hayes will get more time to train now that he doesn't have to study for Jim Harrick Jr.'s grueling exams. |
|
14
|
|
G
|
Leandro Barbosa
|
Brazil
|
6'3"
|
176 | 20
|
| Some teams are worried about drafting a point guard who doesn't speak much English, but John Stockton went 20 years without talking in any language and it didn't hold him back. |
|
15
|
 |
G
|
Reece Gaines
|
Louisville
|
6'6"
|
205 | 22
|
| The Orlando brass are fans of big guards. Could it be Penny envy?
|
|
16
|
 |
G
|
Marcus Banks
|
UNLV
|
6'2"
|
220 | 21
|
| The Celtics are high on Banks; Red Auerbach thinks
he can be the next Joe Forte.
|
|
17
|
 |
F/C
|
Zarko Cabarkapa
|
Serbia
|
6'11"
|
235 | 22
|
| You know you don't have a life if you can identify the other NBA player to have the name "Zarko." |
|
18
|
 |
G/F
|
Aleksandar Pavlovic
|
Serbia
|
6'7"
|
210 | 19
|
| "Here in America, we have something called Bourbon Street." Have fun, kid. |
|
19
|
 |
F
|
Brian Cook
|
Illinois
|
6'10"
|
240 | 22
|
|
Cook was invited to the Green Room, so apparently somebody will take him in top 20 ...
unless some prankster with the league is just screwing with him.
|
|
20
|
|
F
|
Sofoklis Schortsanitis
|
Greece
|
6'9"
|
255 | 18
|
| This Greek widebody could eat Vin Baker in a
single sitting, and Boston is already looking into whether it would get a cap exception for it. |
|
21
|
 |
G/F
|
Boris Diaw
|
France
|
6'8"
|
203 | 21
|
| My sources tell me the Hawks are soliciting Pete Babcock's input so they know whom not to draft. |
|
22
|
 |
G/F
|
Zoran Planinic
|
Croatia
|
6'7"
|
195 | 20
|
|
| The Nets see Planinic as a key piece in their quest to be this decade's Buffalo Bills. |
|
23
|
 |
G
|
Luke Ridnour
|
Oregon
|
6'2"
|
175 | 22
|
| Every year one player sinks faster than Sammy
Sosa's Q rating, and this year it's Ridnour. Even the Blazers will first look for somebody with an arrest record before finally settling on the local star. |
|
24
|
 |
C
|
Zaur Pachulia
|
Turkey
|
6'11"
|
240 | 19
|
| He stayed in the draft, so somebody gave him a
first-round guarantee. The Lakers can let him stay overseas and avoid the luxury
tax hit, so they make the most sense as the culprit. |
|
25
|
|
F
|
Travis Outlaw
|
Starkville, Miss.
|
6'9"
|
210 | 18
|
| The Pistons will need to bring this high schooler along slowly as he makes the huge adjustment of moving from Starkville to the United States. |
|
26
|
 |
G
|
Carlos Delfino
|
Italy
|
6'6"
|
230 | 20
|
| The T'wolves' nightly prayer of "Please, God, not another year of Anthony Peeler" is answered. |
|
27
|
|
F
|
David West
|
Xavier
|
6'9"
|
240 | 22
|
| West picks West. Speaking of Memphis, I'll miss having Hubie Brown at this year's draft, because around this point he'd start talking about the picks as if they would move straight into the starting lineup and continue the ruse all the way to pick 58. |
|
28
|
 |
G
|
Travis Hansen
|
BYU
|
6'6"
|
210 | 25
|
| He's a nice shooter, but good heavens, he's 25
already. It's hard to talk about "upside" when a guy plays canasta on
Wednesday nights and has more hair in his ears than on his
head. |
|
29
|
 |
F/C
|
Malick Badiane
|
Germany
|
6'10'
|
230 | 19
|
| Dallas' walking U.N. of a clubhouse hasn't
checked the "Senegal" box yet. The Mavs also are considering Latvians, Costa Ricans and Ferengis with this pick. |
