Answering Your Questions - 5/29

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

International Players Eligibility:

- Between the years 18 and 21, they have to declare for the draft.

- Age 22, automatically eligible, it's their draft class.

- Apres 22, unrestricted free agents, of which there's some very fine
and helpful players available like Gregor Fucka, Ognen Askrabic,
Georgos Diamantoupolos, Walter Hermann Heinreich, the center
for Maccabi, who's a terrific offensive player: Nikola Vujcic,
Dejan Tomasevic, Demos Dikoudos, Jorge Garbajosa (Fabio favorite),
Milan Gurovic, etc.

:: Darius Miles: How soon before Jimbo has him taking three-pointers?
But Ainge has to undertake some daring maneuvers and this could be one
of them.  The contracts don't match up, so they would have to use their
trade
exception or do something along the lines of Williams/Bremer for
Miles/Jones.
However, they may need to save E. Williams for a PG trade.

:: Darko measured in at 7-1, 253. Those ought to be some matchups with
Antoine;
well Battie will end up covering him.

:: Luke Ridnour, says he sees himself going anywhere from 8 to 20 in the
draft.
If he's there at 16 or 20, you'd have to think the Celtics will draft
him.  And if
Ainge can force O'Brien to let Luke be Luke, he can have a Steve Nash
effect
on the Celtics.

:: Here's NBADraft.net's updated Mock Draft and I see several problems
with it:

.1.  Cleveland  Lebron James 6-8 240 PG Akron OH HSSr. 3
2.  *Detroit Darko Milicic 7-1 253 PF (Serbia-Montenegro) 1985 31.
3.  Denver Carmelo Anthony 6-8 220 SF Syracuse Fr.
4.  Toronto Chris Bosh 6-11 210 PF Georgia Tech Fr.
5.  Miami Maciej Lampe 7-0 240 PF (Poland) 1985 (likely too high)
6.  *LA Clippers Chris Kaman 7-0 255 C Central Michigan Jr.
7.  Chicago TJ Ford 5-11 165 PG Texas So. (They'd be trading the pick,
before this happens.)
8.  *Milwaukee Kirk Hinrich 6-3 190 PG Kansas Sr.
9.  New York Mike Sweetney 6-8 260 PF Georgetown Jr. (They don't want
anymore
short PFs.)
10.  Washington Jarvis Hayes 6-7 220 SG/SF Georgia Jr. (Too high.)
11.  Golden State  Luke Ridnour 6-2 175 PG Oregon Jr.
12.  Seattle Pavel Podkolzine 7-5 300 C (Russia) 1985
13.  *Memphis Mickakl Pietrus 6-6 200 SG/SF (France) 1982
14.  *Seattle  Dwyane Wade 6-4 200 SG Marquette Jr. (Orlando will try to
trade up for him;
Seattle has Ray Allen.)
15.  Orlando Reece Gaines 6-6 185 PG/SG Louisville Sr.
16.  Boston Leandrinho Barbosa 6-4 190 PG (Brazil) 1982 (Not ready quite
yet,
but a possibility.)
17.  Phoenix Sofoklis Schortsanitis 6-9 275 PF/C (Greece)
18.  New Orleans  Nick Collison 6-9 250 PF Kansas Sr. (Too low)
19.  Utah  Boris Diaw 6-9 201 SG/SF (France) 1982
20.  *Boston  David West 6-8 232 PF Xavier Sr. (Too high)
21.  *Atlanta Anderson Varejco 6-10 230 PF (Brazil) 1982 (May withdraw)
22.  New Jersey Viktor Khryapa 6-9 210 SF (Russia) 1982 (Too low,
mistake for the Celtics not to draft him.)
23.  Portland Zarko Cabarkapa 6-11 230 SF/PF (Serbia-Montenegro) 1981
24.  LA Lakers Zaur Pachulia 6-11 260 PF/C (Georgia) 1984
25.  *Sacramento Aleksandar Pavlovic 6-7 207 SG/SF (Serbia-Montenegro)
(Too low, supposedly a promise to his agent to be taken between 13 and
19;
he's also 6-8.)
26.  Minnesota Carlos Delfino 6-7 191 SG/SF (Argentina) 1982
27.  *Memphis Travis Outlaw 6-9 190 SF Starkville MS HSSr.
28.  San Antonio Marcus Banks 6-1 200 PG UNLV Sr.
29.  Dallas Marcus Moore 6-6 182 PG/SG Washington St. Jr.

(Where's Dahntay Jones?  Jerome Beasley may surprise.)


Ray