It's not the most exciting draft in the history of the NBA. But there are always stories coming out of the draft.
Minnesota - The Timberwolves traded away all of their guards before the draft, so it stood to reason that they'd be drafting some guards tonight. Still, it raised more than a few eyebrows when they took Ricky Rubio at five, Jonny Flynn at six, and Ty Lawson at 18 - all point guards. Lawson has already been traded to Denver for a first rounder next season, and they may also be looking at dealing Rubio. If they don't, can Rubio and Flynn play together? Maybe - Rubio can probably defend the two, but it's hard to see how either of them is very effective on offense without the ball. Still, if they actually get a real starting point guard out of this draft, it will be the first time they've had one since they traded Sam Cassell to the Clippers. So it's a start. For Clipper fans, the Wolves machinations are of interest, because they only have to suck for a couple more seasons before the first rounder from the Cassell trade becomes unrestricted... If they keep continually rebuilding, it bodes well for the Clippers.
Rubio slipping to five is a story in and of itself. The Kings were crest-fallen when they didn't have a top two pick after the lottery, because they loved Ricky Rubio as their future point guard. Then, lo and behold Rubio was available at 4, and the Kings took Tyreke Evans instead. I really don't think that Rubio is going to leave an excellent situation in Spain, making a lot of money and being a national hero, to go to Minneapolis. His buyout alone is going to be tough on fifth pick money instead of second pick money. So it will be very interesting to see what happens with Rubio.
The scuttlebutt among the old NBA hands here is that Stephen Curry may not stay in Oakland. Some have him swapping places with Jordan Hill, but if that were happening, it would seem like it would have gone down by now. The other rumor has him being part of a deal with the Suns for Amare Stoudemire. That deal, if it's real, won't happen until July because it involves Andris Biedrins, who is a base year compensation player for another couple of weeks.
From 22 to 30, as we suspected, there were quite a few teams who were looking to avoid the immediate expense of a first round draft pick with a guaranteed contract. So the Lakers sold their pick at 29, and meanwhile four foreign players were drafted in that range - Victor Claver (22, Portland), Omri Casspi (23, Sacramento), Rodrique Beaubois (25, OKC traded to Dallas) and Christian Eyenga (30, Cleveland). Of those four, only Casspi is likely to be in the NBA any time soon.
DaJuan Blair had the biggest drop, but it may work out for him. He ended up with San Antonio in the second round, and the Spurs just traded away most of their front court depth (Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto) in the Richard Jefferson deal. The Spurs will try to add a big in free agency (they'd love Rasheed for the mid-level, and they may make a play for Marcin Gortat as well), but Blair will get a chance to make the team and contribute.
Although the Clippers said that they would be active and try to acquire another pick, it didn't happen. One wonders why not, especially when you look at all the second round picks that did get moved - Houston alone bought three of them! Did DTS veto buying picks? Did Houston just act faster? Are teams not taking MDsr's phone calls? It's more than a little disappointing that with all the trades in the second round, the Clippers did nothing. Sam Young might have been a nice pickup.