Archive for June, 2009

Following up on his excellent draft previews, Ed Weiland of HoopsAnalyst offers up his grades on last Thursday's draft, including an interesting comparison between the bevy of point guards in this year's draft class and the iconic group of quarterbacks taken in the 1983 NFL draft. (Ty Lawson = Dan Marino!)

No, that title shouldn't be interpreted as a particularly butchered way of writing "The 223 Club"... It's about guys who made at least 220 3-point field goals in a single season.

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Laughs (at poor Luke Walton's expense) courtesy of The Onion:

"While coach Phil Jackson said losing to the Celtics by 39 points in Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals motivated Bryant to succeed, he acknowledged that Kobe could not overcome Walton's utter lack of talent alone.

'Kobe certainly put up big numbers, but he also rallied this young group of players and took their play to another level with him,' Jackson said. 'Winning in the Luke Walton era took a total team effort. They should be proud of what they accomplished. You have to be at the very pinnacle of your game to rise above a player of Walton's caliber.'"

Here's the final part of Ed Weiland's draft coverage over at HoopsAnalyst:

NBA Draft 2009: Centers
NBA Draft 2009: Power Forwards
NBA Draft 2009: Combo Forwards

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On Monday I assigned expected values to the top 60 picks in the NBA draft, both in terms of career value and value in their first four seasons, and on Tuesday I looked at some of the biggest draft busts since the merger. Today I am going to turn that around and look at some of the best draft picks in history.

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On Monday I assigned expected values to the top 60 picks in the NBA draft, both in terms of career value and value in their first four seasons. Today I would like to use that information to look at some of the worst draft picks since the merger.

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Hate how the NBA's age limit creates automatic "one and done" situations for colleges? Here is ESPN's Steve Delsohn's report from Monday's Outside the Lines, regarding the impact of the rule on the NCAA game, focusing on how exactly coaches are supposed to deal with players who have great talent but are not in the program for the long haul. Meanwhile, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett -- two of the more notable preps-to-pros of the past 15 years -- have led their teams to NBA titles in back-to-back seasons. So does the one-and-done rule make sense for the pros or college? What do you think?

It's draft season, when every team is a contender and every fan hopes (and prays) that their team makes the right pick. But if you're a fan of a team with a lottery pick, how optimistic should you be? How much is that fifth overall pick really worth? By looking at data from past drafts we can get an estimate of how much each pick is worth, and once we have those expected values we can answer any number of interesting questions.

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With the draft swiftly approaching, it's time to examine the specific needs of the teams with the top 10 picks from a statistical perspective. For this exercise, we'll use our various metrics to see the areas in which each squad was a lacking a year ago, we'll see which rotation players the team may lose via free agency, and finally (with a little help from Kenpom.com) we'll look at which prospects in this year's draft may help them where they need it most.

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