2003 NBA Draft

The Draft is over. There were a few suprises, a few dumb moves, and a few great picks. There was no anticipation for the first three picks becase they have pretty much been set in stone for a few weeks now. No huge trades took place either which is a suprise. If Jay Williams hadn't been in the motorcycle accident I am almost positive that Chicago would have made a trade of some sort. There were quite a few trades involving picks and cash but nothing that will change the league too much.

Who are the winners and losers? It will be hard to say for a while. For the most part there aren't any teams that totally tanked or any that did outstanding. A lot of teams made a bad pick and then followed it up with a good pick. Many teams picked some very good players but they won't help the team at all though since the teams already are stacked at those positions. Some definitly did better than others though. Here are my picks for the winners and losers:

Winners:

The best draft would probably go to the Detroit Pistons. Darko Milicic will be the Rookie of the Year this year and Carlos Delfino will be a solid guard coming off the bench. The Greek 7 footer the took in the second round probably won't be on the team for a year or two but could help the team in a few years.

The Orlando Magic picked up some good talent with Gaines and Pachulia and also picked up Keith Bogans from Milwaukee for cash. Reece Gaines will help the weak Orlando back court and at 6-11, 250 Pachulia will provide some muscle and bulk down low.

The Knicks got very lucky that Lampe dropped all the way down to them at the 30th pick. Many people had him projected to go as high as #5! He was almost a sure lotter pick but some questions about his contract with his Real Madrid team scared a lot of team away. The made a very bad pick in Sweetney. He shouldn't have gone at #9 and also isn't needed on the team because they already have plenty of undersized power forwards. Slavko Vranes will be a major project but at 7-6 it is hard to pass him up.

Losers:

The biggest losers in the draft were the Memphis Grizzlies. Neither Troy Bell or Dahntay Jones will every contribute on an NBA team. They would have been better off keeping Marcus Banks and Kendrick Perkins instead of trading them.

Minnesota also choked big time. Ndudi Ebi is a marginal talent. It will be a few years before he can contribute to the team. Also Rick Rickert was one of the worst picks of the draft. He will be on the end of the bench assuming he even makes the team. The Timberwolves needed somebody who would be able to contribute to the team right away and they didn't get it done. Barbosa or Lampe would have been better picks at the #26 spot.

The Philadelphia 76ers took two weak players in Willie Green (via a trade with Seattle) and Kyle Korver. Korver is a great shooter but will do nothing defensively and can't create his own shot at all. He might be OK at hitting 3 pointers on some kick outs from Iverson but he won't make the team better.

Best Overall Pick: Obviously any of the top 3 picks could take this honor but for picking up a great player in the second round the Knicks and Maciej Lampe take the title. Lampe should have been a lottery pick. It will cost something like $1.8 million to buy out of his contract with Real Madrid but that is still a steal. He can average 12-15 points and 8 rebounds this year which is very good for a rookie.

Runner up would be the Lakers and Luke Walton. He could be the third best player on the team this coming year.

Worst Overall Pick: This is a toss up between Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones and they are both headed to the same team. Memphis is slowly developing some very good talent and they took a huge step backward with these two players. They needed some bulk down low and instead got two mediocre guards. I though both of these players would be decent second round picks but they shouldn't have been picked this early in the first round.

Runner up, based on the fact that these teams needed players at other positions, goes to the Knicks with Sweetney and the Warriors with Pietrus. These are both good players but these teams had huge needs at other positions that needed to be filled. Pietrus will be a stud in this league but Golden State already has Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Jiri Welsh will be taking most of the minutes. Sweetney will be another undersized power forward competing with Kurt Thomas, Othella Harrington, and a host of others at that position. These picks to give these teams some good trade flexability though.

Final Thoughts: Overall I though it was a solid draft for most of the teams. There are a number of players that will contribute this season and a lot of the young foreign players will stay overseas for a couple years and come in ready to play. I would tend to pick a 18 year old European player over a 18 year old US high school player because over in Europe the guys are playing against men and not 16 and 17 year old kids for the most part. The European players have great fundamentals and are good shooters but generally speaking not as tough and not good individual defenders. Once they learn the NBA game those things will come though.

Current Popular Jerseys
NBA Rookies		NFL Rookies
Lebron James	Carmelo Anthony	Charles Rogers	Andre Johnson
Darko Milicic	TJ Ford	Carson Palmer	DeWayne Robertson
Dwyane Wade	Chris Bosh	Byron Leftwich	Terrell Suggs
Kirk Heinrich	Michael Sweetney	Terence Newman	Marcus Trufant