NBA Draft First Round Live Notes

The 2012 NBA Draft is taking place at the Brooklyn Nets’ old home, the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This is the second consecutive draft to take place at the Prudential Center. The draft is obviously very important. I will watch the whole draft tonight and post my thoughts and observations here.

Pre-draft

ESPN’s “experts” Ric Bucher and Andy Katz are saying that the Charlotte Bobcats are trying to trade the number two pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Michael Jordan, Bobcats owner, has a horrible track record in the draft and I recommend that he does not make his night more complicated by trading away his pick. He should take Thomas Robinson, Bradley Beal, or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with the #2 pick and be happy.
The New Orleans Hornets are absolutely not trading away their #1 pick and they are definitely going to select Kentucky standout Anthony Davis.
While the draft is a fun and important event, it is also sometimes silly. I went to the draft last season and there is a great tradition of heckling Stan Van Gundy. There were multiple vuvuzelas in the stands at last year’s draft and I can already hear the heckling on TV tonight. David Stern tends to get booed a lot too.

Top 3 picks

New Orleans picked Anthony Davis, Charlotte kept their pick and drafted Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and the Wizards drafted Bradley Beal.
It is the first time ever that two college teammates were selected first and second in the draft. Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist both played for Kentucky.
Kidd-Gilchrist has been compared to Gerald Wallace.
Chris Broussard, a knucklehead himself, said that the Washington Wizards had a “knucklehead factor” last season. JaVale McGee, in particular, did stupid things for the Wizards. He believes that Bradley Beal will help make the Wizards a smarter team.

Picks 4-5

The Cleveland Cavaliers selected Dion Waiters, a pure scorer from Syracuse. I do not know much about Waiters because this is a surprising pick. Thomas Robinson is still available. Waiters apparently had some maturity issues. I get a bad feeling about this pick and think that it was a mistake.
The Sacramento Kings selected Thomas Robinson. They must be very happy about this. Robinson led the nation in double doubles last season and should fit in well in the NBA. Before the Nets lost their first round pick to the Trail Blazers, Robinson Tweeted that he wants to play for the Nets.

Pick #6: the pick that the Nets traded for Gerald Wallace

The Portland Trail Blazers selected Damion Lillard, point guard from Weber State.
This completes the Gerald Wallace trade: the Nets gave up Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams, and Damion Lillard for Wallace. The Nets would never have selected Lillard if they did not trade their pick. They probably would have packaged the pick in a trade for Dwight Howard or a top 3 pick.

Rest of the first round

The Houston Rockets have not dealt any of their three draft picks. They took Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, and Terrence Jones.
The Dallas Mavericks selected C Tyler Zeller but then traded him to the Cleveland Cavlaliers for three picks later in the draft. The players the Mavericks pick later in the draft will not command large salaries. This will help the Mavericks clear salary cap space so that they can pursue multiple free agents, including Deron Williams. John Hollinger Tweets, though, that the Mavs will only clear $340 thousand dollars from this transaction.
With the 20th pick, the Denver Nuggets selected a rumored target of the Nets: Frenchman Evan Fournier. This probably lessens the chance that the Nets trade for a first round pick tonight.
It’s the 25th pick and the Nets still have not traded for a first round pick.
Perry Jones III is an athletic player who was at one point in time considered a top player in the draft. Some Nets writers were wondering if the Nets would trade up in the draft to select Jones.
It’s the end of the first round and the Nets did not make any trades. This concludes my notes tonight.