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Thursday, June 28
Updated: July 9, 6:33 PM ET

Who did well, who didn't on draft night
By David Aldridge
Special to ESPN.com


Finally, a moment to relax, and think.
Shane Battier
Does getting Battier mean the Grizzlies will be better than last season?

You just don't know what it's like to be lied to, consistently, for three months.

In the weeks before an NBA draft, no one is honest. No coaches, no GMs. The scouts are fairly honest early, but when their teams have a chance to take a guy, the candor is replaced by political correctness crap. This is why I hate mock drafts. Seriously, what's the point of predicting picks when you and I both know a) teams are not being truthful about who they really like, and b) there are deals afoot, and not usually until the last 48 hours, that will completely wreck all draft scenarios.

So it's better to just wait, and keep score after player 58 is chosen (this year, of course, it was player 57, because of the Wolves getting stripped of their first and all). And so we do ...

Draft Day Ups

  • Atlanta. A year ago, the Hawks were planning to have $20 million in cap room this summer, in order to be able to make a run at Chris Webber. But give GM Pete Babcock credit. After watching the Bulls and other teams with big cap room flounder last summer in futile attempts to sign free agents, Babcock changed course. And in the space of a year, the Hawks have rebuilt their team. They did so with every team in the league knowing they had to move the only asset they had, Dikembe Mutombo. That normally kills any shot at getting equal value. But Babcock managed to get Toni Kukoc, Theo Ratliff and Nazr Mohammed -- probably a better deal than Marcus Camby and Glen Rice, wouldn't you say? -- for Mutombo. Then, when everyone expected them to deal Kukoc, they opted to keep him. Now, they add an all-star caliber forward in Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and, seriously, is there a better frontcourt in the east? Plus, they get rid of almost $48 million worth of future contracts in Brevin Knight and Lorenzen Wright.

    The Hawks' young guys played hard almost every game last season. Lon Kruger gets credit for that. And they've nearly completed an astonishing remake in almost no time. Babcock and team president Stan Kasten get credit for that. I've been critical of them in the past. Time to give them some props.

    Knight
    Knight

    Walker
    Walker

  • Boston. The Celtics looked at what Dallas and Sacramento did and decided, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So forget Rick Pitino's diatribes about his team's defense. It's Go Time in Beantown. The Celtics will throw Joe Johnson and Kedrick Brown (not going to Portland, as rumor had it) and Joe Forte out there to provide scoring punch in back of Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce. GM Chris Wallace told us on ESPN Radio Wednesday that the Celtics' dropoff from their second-leading scorer (Walker, at 22 per game) to their third (Bryant Stith, just eight per) was one of the biggest in the league. That should no longer be the case. But don't the Cs still need a point guard? I still think they'll make a run at Alvin Williams -- who they had acquired last year for Danny Fortson, only to have the trade voided -- or another playmaker before the summer is done. In the interim, they'll frequently give the rock to Walker to bring up the floor. No kidding. Boston's not going to win the east next year, but it has a lot more talent on its roster than it did 48 hours ago.

  • Houston. Getting one potentially great player in Eddie Griffin beats three okay first-rounders any day.

  • Portland. The picks were fine -- Zach Randolph and Ruben Boumtje Boumtje are both young, athletic bigs. And there's no doubt the Blazers will be making a lot of deals this summer, starting with Dale Davis, and ending with, who knows? Gary Payton, maybe? But the Blazers' best move was falling into Maurice Cheeks as head coach. He certainly wasn't their first choice -- Flip Saunders got offered $30 million, after all -- but I think he'll turn out great. Some coaches spend a lot of time trying to tell you and show you how smart they are. Cheeks is from a different wing of the coaching fraternity. His style is no style -- just teaching the game the way it should be played. Lord knows if he'll be able to reach Rasheed Wallace, but if Cheeks can't, no one can.

  • Lakers. Didn't have one pick in the entire draft. Doesn't matter.

    Draft Day Downs

  • New Jersey. I'm sorry; I just don't understand the reasoning here. Maybe Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong will be better than most people think. But my guess is they won't. I know the Nets' argument is they needed to add to their talent pool, and with all the injuries around Secaucus, it isn't a surprising (or necessarily wrong) one. But you don't win in this league with good, you win with great. And Griffin could be -- could be -- a great one. Of course, a lot depends on whether New Jersey moves Stephon Marbury, and what the Nets can get for him. The scuttlebutt on Wednesday was that the long-rumored Marbury-Jason Kidd trade talks, thought dead, were moving back toward the front burner, with a July 18 birth date.

    Doleac
    Doleac

  • Cleveland. Taking a huge gamble on DeSagana Diop, the high schooler from Oak Hill Academy, with UNC-Charlotte forward Rodney White or Notre Dame's Troy Murphy available. Even if he improves and loses weight, Diop's got a long way to go, and bringing in Michael Doleac from Orlando doesn't help a whole lot. Basically, with Zydrunas Ilgauskas not likely to overcome his foot injuries, the Cavs are a mess.

    Jury's Out

  • Chicago. Bulls wind up with two high schoolers, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, to surround new-old power forward Marcus Fizer up front. Or Chandler may come off the bench. Whatever the result, the trading of Elton Brand makes you think Tim Floyd might have a little more juice than we thought. (And by the way, second-rounder Trenton Hassell could be a steal, if he gets over the jitters of playing in the Second City.) It's not a good frontcourt now, but check back in three years. Of course, by then, Jerry Krause and Floyd might both be cashiered.

    Brand
    Brand

  • L.A. Clippers. Brand's a good player, don't get me wrong. But he put up his 20 and 10 numbers in the east, where power forwards are often of the Tim Thomas/Keith Van Horn/Bo Outlaw variety. In the west, Brand will face a steady diet of bigger fours: Tim Duncan, Wallace, Karl Malone, Antonio McDyess, Kevin Garnett. Will he be as solid? Will he have to be, with the Clips' other young guns around? LA was determined not to take another kid player, though.

  • Grizzlies. I have to call them "the Grizzlies" until the move to Memphis is complete. And I'm not sure what to make of all their moves, either. But they took a blowtorch to their roster, that's for sure. Mike Bibby and Abdur-Rahim, the leaders of the old crew, are toast. In their place come Jason Williams, Shane Battier and Pau Gasol. Williams and Battier are the sizzle and the steak, respectively. Let's be real: JWill is in Graceland to sell tickets to the working folks; Battier to the corporate types. It's an interesting idea. I have no idea how it's going to sell on the floor. The Grizz have three pretty interesting frontcourt players now, but does Stromile Swift play in the hole now, or stay at the four? And if he stays, will Gasol come off the bench? And will Williams pay attention to Sidney Lowe, or tune him out like he did Rick Adelman? Doubt it.


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