When you wish upon a star, sometimes, you just get rocks
As the cliché goes about hindsight, so goes NBA Draft criticism. Because many of the draft selections won't pay off until years down the road, it's tough to say who made the right choices and who dropped the ball. So, for the here and now, we'll take a look at which teams got help for the immediate future, and which made some rather strange decisions.
Five immediate impact players
Everyone knows Kevin Durant and Greg Oden will be getting the keys to their respective cities right off the bat, but some teams selected players who could get heavy minutes in their rookie seasons.
PG Acie Law, Atlanta Hawks
(11th overall pick)
The lowdown: The Hawks have been in need of a point guard to complement their legion of small forwards for several years now. Although Law sometimes takes on a scoring role, he has shown the ability to be a distributor who can make his teammates better.
Move to look for: Pinpoint alley-oop from Law near the 3-point line to high-flying Josh Smith, who hits his face on the rim.
G Rodney Stuckey, Detroit Pistons
(15th overall pick)
The lowdown: With Chauncey Billups filing for free agency, the Pistons are in an uncertain situation. If they can't re-sign Billups, they are left without a point guard because Lindsey Hunter just isn't going to cut it. Although Stuckey is more of a combo guard than a distributor, he could find himself a quick study under Rip Hamilton and the rest of the Pistons' veterans.
Move to look for: Stuckey hits a big 3-pointer, and SportsCenter anchors ham it up by calling him "Jr. Big Shot."
G/F Corey Brewer, Minnesota Timberwolves
(7th overall pick)
The lowdown: With the T'wolves looking to trade Kevin Garnett in the near future, a youth movement is most likely. With Minnesota's lineup already shallow, Brewer is ready to step in make a difference on the defensive end.
Move to look for: Brewer strips the ball from the opposing team's best player, sprints to the other end of the floor and dunks while his listless teammates stare from the other end of the court.
G Marco Belinelli, Golden State Warriors
(18th overall pick)
The lowdown: The skinny Italian scorer is not really a surprise selection, considering Don Nelson probably had something to do with it. With Jason Richardson shipped off to Charlotte and the returns of Matt Barnes and Mickael Pietrus uncertain, Belinelli, 21, could find himself running and gunning alongside Baron Davis and Co.
Move to look for: Belinelli and Stephen Jackson bump chests on the way to the bench, and Belinelli learns some interesting new American words.
F Alando Tucker, Phoenix Suns
(29th overall pick)
The lowdown: The guy can run the floor and is a strong athlete, which is the main requirement to play with the up-tempo Suns. With essentially a six-to-seven man rotation, the Suns need depth, and Tucker is a good offensive rebounder who fits right in.
Move to look for: Steve Nash hits Tucker, who is sprinting up the floor, for a pretty layup. Shawn Marion glares in Tucker's direction.
Five questionable draft-day decisions
Knicks trade for Zach Randolph. Knicks fans stood up and cheered during the draft, a rare occurrence indeed. However, the question remains: How does this make the Knicks better? Randolph is a questionable character who can't play defense and has weight issues. Add that to the four years and $61.2 million left on his contract, and you've got a sizeable risk on your hands. Previously untouchable center Channing Frye (one guaranteed year remaining at $2.48 million) and sinking star Steve Francis (two years, $33.6 million remaining) were shipped out in return, so the Knicks didn't get any salary cap relief either. Randolph will team up with fellow overweight, no-defense-playing big men Eddy Curry and Jerome James, who will make a combined $30 million over the next two years.
Bucks select Yi Jianlian with the sixth pick. Despite having Yi's representatives block the Bucks from seeing him work out -- a small hint that Yi wanted no part of Milwaukee -- the Bucks felt Yi was the best player on the board and took him anyway. As Yi made his way to the stage with a "why me?" expression, you could almost hear all the computer mouses clicking in the Far East as Chinese basketball fans looked up to see where exactly Milwaukee was. Golden State made the interesting move of trading Jason Richardson for power forward Brandan Wright, the player who went two picks after Yi. The Bay Area has the second-largest Chinese-American population in the country, and now the Warriors have a promising young forward on their hands who could be trade bait. Could something be brewing?
Spencer Hawes is selected 10th overall. Evidently, the Kings like Brad Miller so much, they selected his younger, softer clone. Teams are always enamored with size, so there was bound to be a big man taken way too early despite the obvious depth in this draft. In three years, when the Kings are finally tired of waiting on Hawes to develop and let him go, they might be wondering what it would be like to be able to offer a contract extension to Al Thornton, Julian Wright or Acie Law.
Celtics trade for Ray Allen. When the trade was first announced, a certain "wow" factor was involved. Ray Allen, a premier scorer and the best 3-point shooter in the game, was headed across the country to team up with another dynamic scorer in Paul Pierce. The more you think about it, though, the less sense it makes. Allen and Pierce demand a lot of touches, and Allen, coming off ankle surgery, turns 32 in July. What happened to Boston's youth movement?
Los Angeles Lakers select Javaris Crittenton. Javaris Crittenton isn't a bad choice at 19th overall, but the Los Angeles Lakers showed they aren't interested in appeasing Kobe Bryant. Javaris Crittenton, a 19-year-old point guard who likely won't have much impact until Kobe is 32, will be a work in progress and will do nothing to quell Kobe Bryant's desire to get a decent sidekick.
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