NBA DRAFT 98 = NBA DRAFT 86

[Ryan.Lee@parexel.com (Ryan Lee)]

     With the departure of all the underclassmen in college and high school 
     seniors to the NBA, the upcoming NBA draft looks very bleak if Raef 
     Lafrentz is the projected #1 player.  I've been watching college ball 
     and reading scouting magazines for years and I've never seen a draft 
     so thin.  Raef Lafrentz is a good player but he is not anywhere in the 
     same class as Tim Duncan was in college.  Someone in the discussion 
     group compared Raef to Laetner which in my opinion is horribly wrong.  
     If anything Raef is much less smoother version than Laetner.  Laetner 
     had a much better shooting touch than Raef and had better ballhandling 
     skills.  The rest of the projected draft is filled with more smaller 
     conference players than in recent years which is good in a way because 
     it gives those conferences more national exposure.  Other than Raef 
     though, can anyone possibly name any other dominating collegiate 
     players going into the draft?  The really funny thing I found was that 
     a majority of the players listed in the projected draft were no names 
     last year.  They were mainly complementary players or role players 
     (case in point Todd Burgan, Syracuse - don't tell me he was as 
     dominating a presence as John Wallace or Lawrence Moten).  My NBA 
     draft sleeper (someone who may have a great NBA career) is Eastern 
     Michigan's 5'5 point guard Earl Boykins.  He's basically Mugsy Bogues 
     with a shooting touch.  That's my two cents of the day.
     
     R