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The Utah pick will be virtually valueless. With a lock-out looming, after the top of the lottery, the only college players you're going to see in the draft are seniors that shouldn't be in the NBA anyway (or they would have left earlier). Typical second-round Euros with any hope of being NBA players will be snagged in the teens. Moreover, whoever uses that pick is going to have two years of guaranteed salary stuck on a player who's even questionable as a prospect.

It's best value isn't practical .. it's emotional. DEN fans may expect to see a pick involved if they lose Carmelo, and to a lesser extent, the same goes for a productive Iguodala.

Also, keep in mind that if the 2011 draft is sparse, the 2012 draft will be loaded by those delayed potential-nba players. Even if that 2012 MEM pick came in at around 20, that could be a talent-equivalent of a lottery player in a typical draft. We need to be careful not to throw that pick away -- and we have 18 months to regret trading away our own 2012 pick.

I'd toss it for Vasquez without any regrett, don't want another Ellington/Hayward on the team.

It's too early to tell how a lockout will affect the draft, there may not even be a lockout.

Worm Guts wrote:It's too early to tell how a lockout will affect the draft, there may not even be a lockout.

i'm pretty sure it's 99.95% that there is gonna be a lockout, both sides are a LONG way away from each other apparently and both sides have conceded that the chance of something getting done is not gonna get done.

We'll see. Just because there's a lockout doesn't mean it will affect the season either. There's a lot of money to be lost with a lockout.

gensu3k1 wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_NBA_Draft

I followed a link to Sports Illustrated's Top 20 NBA Draft Busts .. and Darko wasn't on the list.

shrink wrote:The Utah pick will be virtually valueless. With a lock-out looming, after the top of the lottery, the only college players you're going to see in the draft are seniors that shouldn't be in the NBA anyway (or they would have left earlier). Typical second-round Euros with any hope of being NBA players will be snagged in the teens. Moreover, whoever uses that pick is going to have two years of guaranteed salary stuck on a player who's even questionable as a prospect.

It's best value isn't practical .. it's emotional. DEN fans may expect to see a pick involved if they lose Carmelo, and to a lesser extent, the same goes for a productive Iguodala.

Also, keep in mind that if the 2011 draft is sparse, the 2012 draft will be loaded by those delayed potential-nba players. Even if that 2012 MEM pick came in at around 20, that could be a talent-equivalent of a lottery player in a typical draft. We need to be careful not to throw that pick away -- and we have 18 months to regret trading away our own 2012 pick.

I realize that most of the draft hub-bub centers around how weak it will be due to the likely lockout, but we'll have to wait and see.

Even if there is a lockout and a shortened season, collegiate players still stand a better chance of making more money sooner if they declare. They don't lose any money by declaring, they would potentially lose money by staying in school (if that's their motivation for declaring.

Many prospects across pro sports leave school shortly after their seasons end in order to go to work on their skills full time with trainers set up by their agents. There were reports not too long ago about agents reserving gyms and setting up trainers to help get their clients through a lockout. We'll likely see potential draftees joining in those sessions. There may even be a few who go the route Brandon Jennings has mentioned and play in Europe during the lockout. We may also see just about every foreigner (and this iis a strong year for overseas prospects) with a chance to declare this year in order to take advantage of more favorable rules that may not be there when the next CBA rolls around.

All in all, I don't see a whole lot of players staying in the draft just to wait until next year. If they feel they're ready to leave, they'll leave. The financial situation may scare away some on the fence, but it's likely those would have stuck around anyway.

The main problem with this year's draft is Irving's injury (which may cause him to stick around an extra year) and the underwhelming start of Harrison Barnes (which may encourage him to stick around another year if he likes life in Chapel Hill). Other than that, it's not quite time to declare the sky is faliing for the 2011 class (although there does seem to be an uncommon amount of Chicken Littles around the board these days).

shrink wrote:

gensu3k1 wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_NBA_Draft

I followed a link to Sports Illustrated's Top 20 NBA Draft Busts .. and Darko wasn't on the list.

This post made me search the internet for "top nba busts" and i found this link:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Top_10_NBA_Draf ... t_10_Years

Out of the 10 players mentioned here, 5 played for the Timberwolves. We could still give Bender or Kwame another shot ...

kiwi_adam wrote:

Worm Guts wrote:It's too early to tell how a lockout will affect the draft, there may not even be a lockout.

i'm pretty sure it's 99.95% that there is gonna be a lockout, both sides are a LONG way away from each other apparently and both sides have conceded that the chance of something getting done is not gonna get done.

They're not even negotiating yet. Right now it's all posturing. It won't be 'til the two parties sit down and talk for a week that we find out how far apart the most important issues are.

Keep in mind that there are also NFL labor issues. If they go into a lockout it will be a very clear cautionary tale for the NBA players.

Yeah, we are all assuming there will be a lockout but it is not written in stone by a long shot at this point. There is a lot of money to be lost on all sides with a lockout and that is a great motivator.