So, yea, last night was pretty crazy. I’m just now making sense of everything that went down. Here’s a short list of things that caught my attention.
- The Anthony Bennett, Sergey Karasev, Carrick Felix Cavs haul
My biggest complaint about the Tristan Thompson pick for Cleveland wasn’t so much about the actual player, it was that Thompson didn’t project to be one of two vital things when it came to complementing Kyrie Irving — he wasn’t a stretch 4 and he didn’t have the size to be a competitive small-ball five (You could play him there, but there’s zero chance the Cavs would stop anyone from scoring. Ever.). This draft showed me they want to put Irving around as much shooting as possible. Felix, Karasev and Bennett should all prove to be at least capable from behind the 3-point line, giving their star point guard a lineup with loads of spacing to break people down off the dribble. If Cleveland can develop that group and add in a Tyson-Chandler-esque 5-man when Varejao breaks down and/or leaves town, look out.
- Alex Len in Phoenix could pay off huge
There are two things about the young Len I thought he required to have a great chance at reaching his potential — time to develop and a strength staff that made his body stronger without just blindly adding weight. Given the logjam in the Phoenix frontcourt, Len won’t be forced into major minutes and, most importantly, a role where he’s counted on to produce in ways he’s not ready for. If the Suns keep Gortat (or even if they don’t), they have plenty of bigs to soak up minutes while Len grows into his body, improves his skills and learns the game at whatever timeline is best for him. It stands in stark contrast to how another super young prospect that needs time, Cody Zeller (more on him later), is going to be thrown to NBA wolves from the word ‘go’ and because of it, stands a chance to get his confidence destroyed by being exposed to major minutes (and expectations) well before he’s ready. As far as the weight room work goes for Len, landing in Phoenix is the best possible thing that could have happened to him. If any team is going to maximize his athleticism through strength training without exposing him to a higher injury risk, it’s going to be the Suns.
- Are Jeff Teague’s days in Atlanta numbered?
The Hawks selected Dennis Schroeder, a bright young point guard prospect, as they prepare to enter a new era under former Cavs GM and Spurs exec, Danny Ferry. I’d be curious to know if this is at all an indictment on Jeff Teague, Atlanta’s incumbent point guard who is entering restricted free agency. Schroeder seems to be more of playmakers (though he looks to score as well) than Teague and he comes from overseas, not the American AAU circuit that Teague came up in. Perhaps Ferry sees how the Spurs cast of mostly foreign-born, team-first players shared the basketball so unbelievably en route to their epic Finals run and thinks Teague has too much of a selfish streak to captain a Spursian version of the Hawks. Or maybe he envisions Schroeder developing behind and at times playing with Teague. He hasn’t said much yet publicly, but it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
- No one noticed, but Chicago had a nice draft
I wrote a little bit on Grantland about how the situation a player gets drafted into effects his development. With that in mind, I couldn’t think of a better place for Tony Snell than Chicago. He’ll be surrounded by a fiery competitor in Joakim Noah and have blue-collar workers like Jimmy Butler, Luol Deng and Derrick Rose around him every day. Needless to say, Snell is going to have some serious peer pressure to bring a high intensity to every practice, game and workout. And obviously, Tom Thibodeau will be his normal, demanding self when it comes to Snell fitting into a role offensively and paying attention to every detail on the defensive end of the floor. Also, don’t count out second round selection Erik Murphy. He’s tough, played for a winning program and can shoot it. If Murphy can show in summer league that he could be capable of handling limited minutes in a NBA rotation, it could spell the end of the Carlos Boozer era in Chicago while giving the Bulls a true stretch big they’ve never had.
- The Bobcats timeline of development
Adding Cody Zeller to the selections of Kemba Walker, Bismack Biyombo and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in recent years makes you wonder if the Bobcats are every going to pull themselves up from the NBA cellar. I wasn’t super high on Zeller but he has a rep of a good kid and hard worker so at just 20-years-old, he’s got a chance to build himself into a productive NBA player, it’s just going to take time. Which points to the notion that despite a run of lottery picks over the past few years, Charlotte is already all-in on tanking yet another season for more lottery help in 2014. This is the downside of the ballyhooed Oklahoma City model. The Bobcats have tried to land lottery luck but still are years — and lots of hard work from players like Biyombo, Kidd-Gilchrist and Zeller — away from respectability. Now landing a stud like Andrew Wiggins in next year’s draft helps matters, but if they end up with another Zeller-like prospect in 2014, it still be a long, slow grind to the top that will take years of subtle, internal improvement. And if Zeller doesn’t pan out and they whiff again in next summer’s draft, it would officially be time to wonder if ‘Cats are the taking over the title of “league’s perennial doormat” the Clippers held from their inception to the late 2000s.
