As you recall, I'm representing the Clippers (call me Elgin) in two different Blogger Mock Drafts. Both of them are approaching the Clippers pick - the SBNation Mock Draft is up to pick 13, while the 'Great Blogger Mock Draft' is at pick 11.
It's pretty interesting, seeing how variable this process can be, especially given the Clippers interest in a point guard. On the SBNation draft, Conley went 4th to the Grizz, Law went 10th to the Spurs (after a trade), and Crittendon went 11th (in an admitted reach). So the top three points are gone, with one more pick in front of the Clippers. Meanwhile, on the other draft, Conly lasted to 6th, and Law and Crittendon are still on the board. Go figure. Of course, with the Hawks picking at 11, one more point guard will undoubtedly go there, and I'm not going to take Crittendon (the Clippers need help NOW, and 19 year old point guards rarely help), so cross your fingers that Atlanta passes on Law.
Anyway, here's the latest, as of 1 PM Pacific Time.
SBNation Mock Draft
1 Portland - BlazerDave (Blazer's Edge) - Greg Oden
2 Seattle - Brian (Sonics Central) - Kevin Durant
3 Atlanta - Chase (Impending Firestorm) - Al Horford
4 Memphis - our very own citizen MP - Mike Conley
5 Boston - Jim (Green Bandwagon) - Yi Jianlin
6 Milwaukee - Don (With Malice) - Brandan Wright
7 Minnesota - Sonia (I Heart KG) - Corey Brewer
8 Charlotte - Hugh (The Charlotte Blogcat) - Al Thornton
9 Chicago - Matt (Blog-a-Bull) - Spencer Hawes
10 San Antonio (from Sacramento) - Matthew (Pounding the Rock) - Acie Law
11 Atlanta - Chase (Impending Firestorm) - Javaris Crittendon
12 Philadelphia - Jon (Passion and Pride) - Jeff Green
Tom at Indy Cornrows is hosting, and will have an update (with Blogger writeups) later today. I have a newfound respect (pity?) for him after slogging through all of the links in this post.
The trade at number 10 went down like this. San Antonio gave up their first round pick and a second round pick (28 and 33 overall) and the rights to Luis Scola. Matthew from PtR was really hot to get Acie Law - turns out Matthew is an Aggie. With Finley, Barry and Bowen aging on the wings, and Jacque Vaughan a poor backup point at best, I surmise he felt like a combo guard was the glaring need, and I tend to agree. Is Law the guy? Can he shoot well enough to play the two? If not, will he get buried behind Parker at the one? We'll never know, since I doubt San Antonio is actually going to draft him (R.C. Buford did NOT go to A&M), but I think I see where Matthew was going with this. On a side note, I offered Matthew the Clippers pick and Aaron Williams for the 28th pick, the 33rd pick and Beno Udrih, but given that Atlanta was potentially going to take Law at 11, he felt he had to move up to 10, and it cost him the rights to Scola.
This leaves me in a bit of a quandary with the Clippers pick at 14. There's certainly not another point guard worthy of the lottery. I mean, who's next? Gabe Pruitt? However, two outstanding wings are on the board, with only one pick before mine, not to mention a plummeting Joakim Noah, so it looks as if I'll be choosing between Noah, Nick Young and Julian Wright. Can the Clippers, a team with a huge post presence in Brand and Kaman but desperate for outside shooting, afford to take the somewhat offensively challenged Noah if he's there? Can they afford not to? He can defend the three, and let's face it, a front line of Kaman, Brand and Noah would be impossible to match up with, and would block a TON of shots. The point is probably moot - Noah will be taken by the Hornets at 13, and they won't believe their luck that he fell that far. Clipper fans also would rejoice if this were the real draft - both Noah and Wright were projected in the top 10, so to be guaranteed one of them at this point in this mock draft is surprising.
In the 'Great Blogger Mock Draft' (I have not yet determined officially if this is a Mock Draft conducted by Great Bloggers, or a Great Mock Draft conducted by Bloggers), it has gone like this thus far:
1 Portland - Henry Abbott (True Hoop) - Greg Oden
2 Seattle - Chris (Sonics Central) - Kevin Durant
3 Atlanta - Ryan (Hoopsaddict) - Al Horford
4 Memphis - la287 (Daily Basketball) - Brandan Wright
5 Boston - Jeff (Celtics Blog) - Yi Jianlin
6 Milwaukee - Jeff (Celtics Blog) - Mike Conley Jr
7 Minnesota - Sonia (I Heart KG) - Corey Brewer
8 Charlotte - Serena - (Bobcat Bonfire) - Joakim Noah
9 Chicago - Fanatical Pupil (Give Me The Rock) - Spencer Hawes
10 Sacramento - Tom Ziller (SacTown Royalty) - Jeff Green
It's interesting that the first seven picks were the same, with only Brandan Wright and Conley switching places. It's really begun to diverge from there, with the aforementioned rush on point guards in SBNation land.
You can follow the great blogger mock draft on a thread over at BallHype for now. Several blogs are planning to be post pretty versions of it, but I haven't seen any yet.
If you have drafting advice for me in either draft, leave it in a comment. I'm assuming Noah goes next, and I'll take Julian Wright in the SBNation draft. Fingers crossed on Law's availability in the other one.