RE: Things heating up

["j.hironaka" <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

At 10:47 25/06/01 -0400, OzerskyJA wrote:
>btw,  do you guys want to exchange phone numbers
>so we can talk during the draft or pre-draft show?
>I'm planning on putting my free minutes to good use....

I'll just use e-mail, Josh. I'll set up a mobile draft HQ outside Tony 
Parker's house though. ;-) I'm so thankful it is a weeknight, so I can 
pretend to have a killer amount of work that night. There is no chance I 
could follow the draft for more than 15 minutes if it fell on a home day. 
Draft day makes no sense to the layman and I sound like an idiot trying to 
defend it. Who cares, my wife will say, about seeing some clueless kid get 
called up to a podium? It's not even a live sporting event.

Anyway, if Diop falls to #10, I wonder if Boston would be interested in 
trading down or out of the 11th slot for Mike Miller, last year's ROY, who 
looks to get zero playing time in Orlando next year behind Grant Hill and 
McGrady? He was one of my favorite players in last year's draft.

Regarding wing players, I think Boston won't look to trade down or "reach" 
for Kedrick Brown at #11 unless the perimeter player Chris Wallace list 
covets fails to fall to #10 (Joe Johnson for instance). In saying there is 
no truth to the rumor that he is locked into taking Brown at #11, Wallace 
is basically saying that Portland can have him if they want at #19. The 
hope is that another player Portland wants but doesn't expect to see at 
#19, like maybe Loren Woods, will fall there and they'll draft "big" to 
back up or replace Sabonis.

I was excited about Kedrick Brown at #11, but I absolutely see why Wallace 
would at least need a workout and interview with him before pulling the 
trigger, neither of which he claims to have gotten. The weekend papers made 
it sound like Boston hasn't had any luck talking to Brown.

As for Diop, if the other three high school big men go top-5 this may 
actually increase the likelihood he'll end up a  Detroit Piston at #9. If a 
team like Detroit that is looking to get bigger sees both Tyson and Diop 
dropping, they might choose Chandler even though they were perfectly happy 
with Diop. That was the only scenario where I could envision Diop falling 
to us, even though he is cancelling workouts and acting like the 
International Man of Mystery of this year's draft. I just think that unless 
Detroit is sure they can find a taker for Stackhouse, they aren't going to 
waste a bigman draft on Jason Richardson or Joe Johnson. If Battier falls 
to #9 than yeah maybe, which would leave us with Joe Johnson or Jason 
Richardson or most likely "Waiting (a year) for Gasol". All fine with me.

I kind of think Diop is less than a 5% possibility, and so I won't keep my 
fingers crossed nor judge the outcome of the draft based on whether or not 
we ultimately get him.

***