2016 NBA Draft Reaction
For people like me, (NBA weirdos) the draft is one of the most exciting nights of the year. Watching good front offices make smart decisions to help their teams continue to have success is fascinating. Watching sub-par teams make decisions by shaking a magic 8-ball is fascinating. Watching the Kings make decisions by shaking a regular 8-ball is fascinating. And watching good teams fleece bad teams in trades is fascinating. Last night had it all and I'm going to give some quick reactions on the interesting (to me, at least) transactions from draft night. Let's get to it.
The Sixers took Ben Simmons (pictured above) with the first pick in the draft, and Philly is excited for basketball season for the first time in many years. Although Simmons is the best player and prospect in the draft, I don't like him on the Sixers. Simmons is best when he has good players around him, he has outstanding vision and passing instincts, and he likes to make plays for others. Unfortunately, since Philly has been going all Philly these last few years, he doesn't have good players around him. You could swap the majority of Philly's roster out for replica statues of the Venus de Milo (that's the one with no arms) and you wouldn't notice much of a difference. Okafor and Noel are NBA players (although each can only play on one end of the court), Covington may be an NBA player, but it's impossible to know if he is actually a decent player or just looked decent in comparison to the rest of the roster, and Joel Embiid is either a future NBA star or a future fast-food manager, or anywhere in between. He's played exactly the same amount of minutes in the NBA as I have, except I don't have health issues (Gimme a call Sixers, I may be the next Yi Jianlian, except shorter, and worse, and much less Asian). Simmons is still a great player, but his lack of starting-caliber teammates means he won't be as phenomenal as he could be.
With the third pick in the draft, the Celtics selected the eighth pick in the draft, Jaylen Brown.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
The first surprise came when the Celtics were forced to keep the third pick in the draft, and with that pick they selected Jaylen Brown. According to draft experts, Brown is a high-risk, high-reward player, which is not usually what you want from the third pick in the draft. I don't think anyone had Brown ranked higher than Jamal Murray, Kris Dunn, Dragan Bender, or Marquese Chriss, yet here we are. Brown is a very bright guy and a good athlete, but he underwhelmed during his one year at Cal. Beyond that, Brown has no clear path into the rotation on this Celtics team. At 6-7, Brown is yet another perimeter player on a Boston team that often played a three guard lineup. Brown will compete for minutes with Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, R.J. Hunter, Jae Crowder, Jonas Jerebko, and (possibly) Evan Turner.
Celtics fans after Boston took Jaylen Brown with the third overall pick.
I was somewhat surprised that Jamal Murray fell to pick 7, although I'm sure Denver was quite pleased. And I can't for the life of me figure out why the Pelicans took Buddy Hield over Jamal Murray one pick earlier. Hield and Murray have similar skill sets, but Murray is a more polished ball handler and passer, with higher upside being that he is only 19, while Hield is 22. It's like Dell Demps told his guys to pick Hield before the draft even started, then turned off his phone and went golfing or something, I don't know what Dell Demps does for fun. I also don't know what he'll be doing for a job next year when he's inevitably fired after New Orleans misses the playoffs.
With the tenth pick, the Bucks took the (hopefully) Sudanese-Australian Greek Freak (but probably not, though).
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
The next big surprise was Milwaukee taking Thon Maker with the tenth pick in the draft. Maker's handlers found a loophole in the one-and-done era, declaring Maker's final year in high school as a graduate year or some crap like that, trying to convince the league that Maker is actually a year removed from high school despite playing for a high school. There's no way Adam Silver and the NBA would fall for such trickery, and it's insulting that Maker's camp even thought they could...wait, what's that? The league agreed that Maker was a year removed from high school and could enter that draft? Well who cares, he's probably a late first round pick, possibly even second rounder who...huh? TENTH PICK? WTF is happening right now??? Yeah, that's the abridged version of my thoughts on Thon Maker from the first time I heard his name until he got drafted last night. I have no clue what Milwaukee was thinking, maybe they just really, really, REALLY love Maker (and/or are being blackmailed) and couldn't find a way to trade down into the 20's, where his selection would be less shocking, but either way, this is a guy who's main competition came against high schoolers and who's age is best summarized as "19...ish". He's tall and long and has an ability to dribble and shoot, so I get why a team could see him as potential star in the modern NBA, but he's a high-high risk guy who may be a complete bust. The conversation around Maker sounds an awful lot like what was being said about Bruno Caboclo two years ago, and he was taken at pick 20 for comparison.
The official (unofficially) GIF of the Sacramento Kings.
And now we come to the best part of the night, the Sacramento Kings going all Sacramento Kings on the league. If you're a Kings fan and you're reading this I'd like to take this opportunity to just say I'm sorry, no one deserves to have Vlade Divac making important decisions for their team. Someone needs to give Vlade a toy phone on which he can pretend to trade DeMarcus Cousins for Nemanja Bjelica, while hiring a secret GM to make all real decisions for the Kings. Like this:
I think the picture speaks for itself.
So, Sacramento starts the night with the number 8 pick and takes Marquese Chriss, who actually makes a little bit of sense with the Kings as an athletic four who could potentially stretch the floor around Cousins. Of course, being that this pick was a fairly good decision, the Kings had to trade him away immediately for fear of fielding a team that fits together. They traded him for Bogdan Bogdanovic and the 13th and 28th picks in the draft. With the 13th pick the Kings took...wait for it...Georgios Pappagianantosgoroahgjdjeaoidsiapadsdeicvnabeicbgbeaovnabdroeorivabdrovis. Who plays...wait for it, again...center! Just like DeMarcus Cousins (their star) and Willie Cauley-Stein (their lottery pick last year. Last. Freaking. Year). Oh, and he wasn't likely to go until the 20's or later. If only the Kings had a pick in the 20's with which they could've taken Pappagianis (you know, like the pick they just traded for). Speaking of the 28th pick, the Kings used it on Skal Labissiere, another center. Labissiere was the number two prospect coming into last year, but fell in the draft due to a lackluster (to be kind) year at Kentucky. Labissiere does have a nice jump shot and good shot blocking ability, and bigs who can both stretch the floor and protect the rim are highly coveted in the modern NBA. Skal is more of a prospect who doesn't figure to see much playing time this upcoming season, so despite the positional redundancy he represents on the Kings (which is, apparently, their main goal while drafting) this pick isn't terrible since it's a fairly low-risk, high-reward decision.
The Sacramento Kings' front office!!!
Aaaaaaaaaand the Sacramento Kings' fans!!!
And finally we move on to perhaps the most head-scratching move of the night: the OKC Thunder - Orlando Magic trade. I'm not sure I'm articulate enough to express my astonishment over this trade, so let me just beat around the bush for a while. Apparently, during exit interviews, Serge Ibaka tells the Thunder brass that he plans to leave the team during free agency next year. The Thunder, doing what a good organization should do, decides to explore trades since they don't want to lose Ibaka for nothing. Here's where the story gets interesting/totally fabricated by me: Thunder GM Sam Presti spends the month between the exit interview with Ibaka and the draft secretly concocting a mind control potion. Presti then adds the potion to Magic GM Rob Hennigan's favorite juice box (Hi-C Flashin' Fruit Punch) and has it sent to him the morning of the draft. Presti waits until draft time to make the call to Hennigan, to ensure the potion has the time to take effect. Presti offers Ibaka for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, AND the number 11 pick in the draft, to which Hennigan asks if there's anything else Presti wants, but Presti politely declines so as not to arouse too much suspicion. Presti and Hennigan then contact the league office to make it official. Now, this is probably not actually how this trade went down, everyone knows Hennigan only drinks Hi-C Orange Lavaburst, but I can't explain the Magic's rationale in any other way. If I'm the Magic, I don't trade Oladipo for Ibaka straight up, forget throwing in Ilyasova and the 11th pick. Ibaka is a stretch four/rim protecting big, which is a valuable commodity in the league, as mentioned in the Labissiere section, the only problem is that Ibaka doesn't really stretch the floor or protect the rim. He shot 32.6% from three last year (the same as new teammate Elfrid Payton) and averaged only 1.9 blocks per game. Oladipo is a guy that can play either guard spot and defend multiple positions. He is an explosive athlete and improving three point shooter (34.8% last year) who is 3.5 years younger than Ibaka. I'd take Oladipo over Ibaka any day of the week and twice on Sunday (assuming we have a game on Sunday). But in a one-for-one deal, I can at least understand why Orlando would make the deal. They want someone who can protect the basket behind Nikola Vucevic on defense and stretch the basket around Vucevic on offense, and there's a chance that Ibaka just became disheartened after being the third/fourth banana on the Thunder, and a change of scenery may push Ibaka back to peak form. But the Magic didn't trade Oladipo for Ibaka one-for-one, they also threw in Ilyasova, a legitimate stretch four, and the 11th pick, Domantas Sabonis (Arvydas's son). Sabonis was mainly a back to the basket player at Gonzaga, showing some really advanced footwork for a young player. The back to the basket big is on the verge of extinction in the NBA, but Sabonis may also be able to shoot the long ball, which would make him an incredibly valuable big and potential starter for the Thunder. Assuming Durant comes back, the Thunder look like they'll be even better than last year's team that nearly made the finals. And if they do, I'd like to go ahead and nominate Rob Hennigan as Executive of the Year, for his outstanding work in making the Thunder such a dominant team.
Iverson = Thunder GM Sam Presti, Lue = Magic GM Rob Hennigan
Speaking of the Thunder, there is no guarantee Durant comes back, and along with LeBron James opting out of his contract, Dwight Howard entering free agency, and the gobs of cap room every team possesses, this should be an interesting summer in the NBA. Stay tuned, everyone, things could get crazy.
