Evaluating the 2008 Draft Class and the Potential Organizational Impact of Each Choice, Pt. 3

Due to popular demand, I’ll do a quick review of two players that have been asked about frequently—Roy Hibbert and Hasheem Thabeet. Here it is: if we draft them with a top 5 pick, I’ll be a Phoenix Suns fan. Thanks for playing. Don’t get me wrong, both will probably be decent contributors in the NBA, put a top pick for a decent center at best? That’s just dumb. If you think one of those two will be better than an average NBA center, ask yourself if you see Hibbert or Thabeet being better than the following: Emeka Okafor, Samuel Dalembert, Chris Bosh, Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jermaine O’Neal, Shaq Diesel, Dwight Howard, Chris Kaman, Andris Biedrins, Andrew Bynum, Tyson Chandler, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Marcus Camby, Greg Oden. That’s a list of more than half of the current NBA starting Centers right now. Neither Hibbert nor Thabeet will be better than any of those guys. Using a top 5 pick on a stop-gap, below-average starting player is not a good plan.

#4 Eric Gordon. 6’4’’ 220 lb. SG Indiana

Is Eric Gordon the most shockingly good player based on appearance alone that you’ve ever seen? If you did a lineup of all the Indiana players, had no prior knowledge of any of the players’ playing ability and were asked to put them in order of prowess, no one would put Eric Gordon in the first half. In fact, I’d be positive the guy was a walk on. Gordon looks like a strange mix of Mike Jones and the kid from Webster—hardly an all-world basketball talent.

Nonetheless, Gordon is an absolutely dirty scorer. His shooting range is fantastic. His stroke is smooth and effortless. He’s a highlight reel athlete capable of jaw-dropping slam dunks. He also has fearless attitude common in most superstars.

So, why wouldn’t we want Eric Gordon? Well, how many stocky, 6’4’’ 2 guards can we have? Gordon’s not a great defender. He’s not a Michael Jordan-esque caliber guy, and definitely has no chance at playing the 1. In a nutshell, at his ceiling, he’s likely not much of an improvement on what we have in Foye or McCants.

So, the only reason to draft Gordon that makes sense is if we have a deal or deals in place involving Foye and/or McCants for a contributing young C and/or PG. Let’s say we take Gordon and don’t have trades in place for Foye and McCants. Then, maybe we even keep Gerald Green. Here’s our depth chart:

Telfair
Foye/McCants/Gordon/Green/Brewer/Jaric
Gomes
Jefferson/Walker
Richard/Madsen

Maybe we can work a Walker and Madsen deal to the Clippers for Quentin Ross and Eric Piatkowski and go with a depth chart of:

Telfair
Foye/McCants/Gordon/Green/Brewer/Jaric/Ross/Piatkowski
Gomes
Jefferson
Richard

That seems very McHale-esque to me.

In all seriousness, the only move that makes sense is to take Gordon as a better-personality replacement for McCants and to swing a deal involving Rashad for a young center. If Memphis continues the fire sale and unloads Mike Miller, Rashad would be a nice young, cheap, short-contract replacement at the two guard and would likely swap us for Darko Milicic. Darko takes a lot of heat for not living up to his high billing, but don’t let that fool you—Darko is still a 22-year-old 7 footer that is fantastic at blocking shots, rebounding, playing tough on D and has a mean streak to boot. He’d be great next to Big Al.

Telfair/Foye (or Foye/Telfair)
Gordon/Foye
Gomes/Brewer
Jefferson/Walker
Darko/Richard

That’s a nice young squad and a coach’s dream.

#5 Brook Lopez. 7’0’’ 260 lb. C Stanford

First of all, I’ve always wondered how Brook Lopez has a twin brother that is significantly worse than him at basketball. How does this happen? Is the other one a huge drunk? Does Brook use HGH? Where’s the separation here?

Anyway, Brook Lopez is a very talented player. In fact, he is, in a way, somewhat similar to our own Big Al. Brook is a force on the offensive end. He’s a strong kid with a myriad of solid post moves. I watched him a couple years ago in person against my Arizona State Sun Devils, and he pretty much destroyed us because we had absolutely no one that could sort of defend him. Brook is also a pretty good rebounding big man and his success on the boards in college should translate to success in the NBA as well due to his good instincts.

Unfortunately, he makes little sense for the Wolves to draft. For one, though he’s a bit taller than Big Al and they have similar strengths, Big Al is much, much quicker and a bit more athletic. Plus, you don’t want a poor man’s Big Al next to Big Al because who the hell is going to play defense? I guess Brook Lopez would help our interior D due to his size and strength alone, but he’s certainly not going to take the league by storm defensively. I honestly think a defensive beast like DeVon Hardin would be much better suited in front court with Big Al. Think of the dynamic a David West and Tyson Chandler have. I think that’s what you’re looking for here. Unfortunately, Big Al and Brook Lopez provide the same side of that front court dynamic…thus not creating much of a dynamic.

Where Lopez would be a very good player is on a team like the Nets alongside Sean Williams and serving as the main post offensive option on a perimeter oriented team. That’s a much better fit for Lopez.

So, what are the team ramifications of drafting Lopez? They’re minimal. Like Jordan, you just plug him in at center. Like Hibbert, I don’t see Lopez taking the league by storm and being an above-average starting Center in the NBA. Add in the fact that he’s more of an offensive player than a defensive presence, I don’t know why you’d want him with other/better draft options available. The only way I could see us selecting Lopez is if another team covets him and we get a draft-day deal in place.