A Fan's Draft Night

Last night was an absolutely great night, it was the night of the NBA Draft. I like the NBA but if there's one thing I don't want to miss out of anything associated with the NBA its the draft. As a Portland fan I could not have asked for anything better then last years draft. Portland got 2 legit good players Roy and Aldridge, and picked up a personal pre-draft favorite Sergio Rodriguez. I knew this team was headed in the right direction after that draft, however I thought there was still lots of room to improve. I wish I would have kept a running diary of my night, but I didn't but here's my recap of what happened.

About 15 minutes before the draft I'm watching ESPN and searching through realgm.com and stumbled upon a Zach Randolph trade rumor. At first I thought oh great hes probably going to be traded for KG and Kobe, just like nearly everyone else in the NBA. It didn't have much detail but it said it he may go to the Knicks, now I was thinking what do the Knicks have to offer us, maybe the 23rd pick; ESPN reported it quickly after, but didn't say much about it either, so I assumed it wouldn't happened and just moved on.

First Pick time, we all know its Oden, its basically written on the wall and I love the pick. Every championship team besides the Jordan's has had a Good to Great big man. Please don't say what about the Pistons, because Sheed is one of the most underrated players ever, but that's a different story. Now think about this, who wants to face an Aldridge-Oden post combo; combine Oden with last years draft your looking at a solid young core.

Some time passed after the Oden pick before the trade was announced. What turned out to be Zach Randolph, Dan Dickau, Fred Jones and the 53rd pick (Demetrius Nichols) to New York for Steve Francis, Channing Frye and a 2009 2nd rounder. At first glance I thought ok they got rid of Randolph that's good, but the more I thought about it, I hate this trade. Your telling me you couldn't get more for Zach Randolph than these two? Channing Frye is the exact same player as LaMarcus Aldridge, THE EXACT SAME, hes about 1 inch taller, 8 pounds heavier and 3 years older, look at them they are the same. So why do you add a piece to the puzzle that is the same as one of the first ones you got? It makes no sense to me, then I thought ok well we got Stevie Franchise that's a good thing right. Well, Francis hasn't done anything relevant in a while in the league, but hes only 30 which is good. However you have this 3 headed monster that could grow into champions and the veteran you have to show them how to win is Steve Francis; the guy has been to 1 playoff series in his career and is now going to be on his fourth team. Terrible deal Portland, this is all you could get for Zach Randolph; I was just disappointed and felt that for the 4 steps forward Oden brought us this trade moved us to the right and out of the way 2 steps.

It seems like we got a lot of time between Portland picks, then a report comes in that we've bought a pick from the Suns for the 2nd year in a row. The year before we bought the 27th pick and got Sergio Rodriguez; now how this made sense to the Suns I'll never get, if you were going to say I'm looking for a cheap young run-N-gun PG to backup Steve Nash and develop how is Sergio Rodriguez not mentioned; instead they overpaid Marcus Banks and look how well that's going. I'm looking through the draft and the player I wanted 3rd most in the draft for Portland is on the board still Derrick Byars. Now Byars will be a glue guy in this league, there is no doubt in my mind that he will be on an all rookie team next year; Byars doesn't do anything great, he just does everything well. He also fits a huge need for the Blazers, a young solid shooting SF. Are we about to steal a great player from the Suns for the 2nd straight year; this is to good to be true, I'm excited chatting with my friend Bryson about how great a pick this is going to be. The pick is...Rudy Fernandez, I was shocked how can we pass up on a 3 that fills a huge need, for an international 2 that will come to the US in a year or 2. I like the pick I don't mind Rudy Fernandez at all this isn't a knock on him but how can we pass up Byars, oh well good pick another steal from the Suns.

End of the first round and Byars is still on the board I'm counting down the picks how can this guy be dropping this far, I get excited as each pick passes and he falls. 35, 36, hes still there now the Blazers are up with the 37th pick and a chance to get him, we can't pass up on him here its to great a pick. JOSH McROBERTS, you got to be kidding me, we add this guy so Oden will be comfortable? He is now the 6th best post player on the Blazers roster, he's behind Oden, Aldridge, Frye, Pryzbilla, and LaFrentz(yes that Raef LaFrentz hes still in the league). Currently our 3 man is Darius Miles that's it. Its ok though we still have the 42nd pick he could still be there, doubtful but there is always hope.

Andy Katz just came on told me that Portland has sent Cash and the 42nd pick to Philly for Petei Koponen. Well that is ok, we just got our 3rd first rounder of this draft, although hes a Finnish PG who won't come to the US for probably another year like Fernandez. On second thought of this deal, how does this make sense for Portland; we now have 4 point guards Jack, Sergio, Francis, Koponen. Someone must be getting traded soon so at least its nice to have good pieces to fill any needs. WAIT WHAT with the 42nd pick we drafted DERRICK BYARS, is there anyway we could reverse this deal? Can we throw in McRoberts instead and still give you the cash, please. This draft went from a 9 to a 7 for me, we passed up on Byars 3 times when he becomes a starter on a playoff team remember reading this.

Still fuming from the Byars trade we use our last pick in the draft we pick Taurean Green, wait this is now our 5th point guard? I know his contract is not guaranteed, but I mean come on another point guard(Side note I think Green was the most important part of those Flordia championship teams, take out one of the 3 front court guys they still have a shot at a title, but take out Green they are nothing, this guy could be like a Chris Duhon in the league). I guess its assuring that someone is gone from that group of Point Guards we have.

Now after the draft I found out we are probably not going to keep Francis, which makes some sense but why not use him to maybe bring in something else? Just cut him for nothing, if he plays against us and leads a team to a victory or playoff victory over Portland does that not hurt us more? We are still paying him and hes hurting our chances. Also GM Pritchard said there is supposedly a trade for a SF already complete it just needed to take time for the New York trade to go through before it was announced. So maybe that's why we didn't pick Byars, but I mean that killed me on what was supposed to be a great night. In the past two years the Blazers have been the most exciting franchise in the draft which is great. I love their aggressive moves and I wish more of the NBA followed their lead. In the past 2 drafts counting trades we made for or with our draft picks these are the players we've added; Roy, Aldridge, Rodriguez, Oden, Fernandez, Koponen, McRoberts, Frye, Francis, Green. Look at that young talent, tell me is there any other team in NBA history that has added that much talent in 2 years in a draft? Its an exciting time to be a Blazers fan but I'm still pissed we didn't pick Byars.

Overall Draft: 7 out of 10 (Byars trade takes of 2 points, an the NYK trade takes of 1 point because it makes no sense).