Winners And Losers From The NBA Draft

Now that it looks like all the deals are probably done, we can all hate our teams GMs (Larry Bird) and the teams that ripped them off (Blazers).

And the BIGGEST WINNER from the 2008 NBA Draft is...
THE PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS!
Why: For the 2nd straight year, the Blazers had a great 1st pick, and finished with great picks later in the draft. The Blazers-Pacers trade is pretty one-sided to me and I'm still trying to figure out why the Pacers did it. Bayless can be a star in this league and fits well with B-Roy in the backcourt. Also, grabbing Nicolas Batum after trading Darrell Arthur was good, although I liked Arthur to begin with. With Oden back, Bayless, Batum, and Rudy Fernandez (who I've heard would be a top 10 pick had he entered this draft, the future is extremely bright and unfair to any other team.

Other winners:
Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat: Rose and Beasley....'Nuff said.

New Jersey Nets-Added depth to the frontcourt and made cap room for when King James decides to come to Brooklyn when the Nets move.

Seattle Sonics-With the future the Sonics have, it's easy to see why the city wants them to stay. Westbrook will be a lockdown defender and contribute scoring immediately to lighten the load for Kevin Durant. Ibaka is an athletic freak although he won't play in the NBA for a few years. And DJ White will be a solid contributor off the bench.


Los Angeles Lakers- So they traded away Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenten, and the 28th pick for Pau? Nice job Mitch Kupchak. I still would've liked to see a Odom-trade though.

Boston Celtics- Giddens is a lottery talent, if he matures this was the steal of the night. Bill Walker has a lot of potential as well.

LOSERS
...And the biggest losers of the 2008 NBA Draft is...The INDIANA PACERS
Why: First off, let me state that I love the Jermaine trade for the Pacers. He needed to go and they got a decent pick, a starter (TJ Ford), and cap relief after Nesterovic is off the books next year. But they screwed the draft up. Drafting Bayless was a genius move even if they do have too many point guards, Bayless was by far the best available. Then trading him for Brandon Rush boggled my mind. Bird said their "untouchable" players were Mike Dunleavy and Danny Granger, a shooting guard and a small forward. So who do you draft? A SG/SF??? Makes no sense when you need help everywhere else, you draft your strength? Still don't get it. And Hibbert will be a decent player but nothing special.

Other losers...

Milwaukee Bucks-I liked the trade for Jefferson for both teams, but then they draft Joe Alexander who is pretty much the same player as Jefferson.

Dallas Mavericks-Traded 1st rounder in the J-Kidd trade that hurt them for the near future and killed their long-term future.


Sacramento Kings-Shouldn't have taken Jason Thompson so high when I hadn't seen his name in the lottery anywhere. There were better players available and this provided the "Renaldo Balkman-What?!?" moment of the night.