now that the Pacers apparently have their PG in Ford (not to mention it will be hard for them to deal Tinsley so he may be stuck on that roster), I doubt they’d draft Augustin. Here comes Portland, desperate for a young PG and who better than the Nash wanna be in DJ to run with Roy, LMA, and Oden? Pritchard has to get this done, or he’ll have to end up dealing Outlaw and/or Webster to get that PG.

The importance of this selection (and the subsequent development and performance of the player selected) cannot be overstated.

source

What an odd move for both teams to make. New Orleans has no bench and doesn’t have the money to add a decent free agent. I figured they could use a late first rounder more than any other top team. Portland has talent that runs 12 deep already, I can’t imagine why they think they can add an impact player that late.

They bitch and moan every year about not having enough depth (and they essentially fired their coach because they thought he didn’t play enough people off the bench), yet they never seem to make the connection between having no depth and giving away their draft picks every year. Maybe their “cash considerations” can guard Duncan in the playoffs.

1 Rose 2 Beasley 3 Mayo 4 Payless 5 Love. Who else thinks were moving Kirk by 9pm et?

what happens to Kirk’s first golf tourney on Monday?

I’m not in a position to watch american TV… :(

Good job Indy. They got their point guard and another pick for a player that they wanted to rid themselves of anyway. Now they can use one pick on potential & still get a solid role player.

Good job Denver. MJ got screwed by Kiki if that protected lottery pick isn’t top 19 protected. Denver wins twice. They don’t have to spend $ on a draft pick this year, and I guarentee the pick coming back is going to be better than 20.

Story

The part that I liked was this:

The trade can’t be completed until July 9, however, because Ford is a base-year compensation player until the first day that next season’s cap rules kick in (July 1), and so the trade won’t work under the cap until then. From then until July 9, the league has a moratorium on trades and signings. Given all that, the trade won’t be official for a fortnight.

Instead, this will be the trade that everybody knows about but nobody acknowledges publicly. There will be no announcements or news conferences and it might mess with some summer-league plans. But the teams are exchanging medical information, and right now everything appears to be a go.

By the way, this delay also means there are still two weeks for other teams to get in on this trade and make it more than a two-way deal.

So worrying about Kirk’s(now the most coveted PG on the market?) BYC in a potential trade is apparently a mute point. And it also means Toronto will be drafting under Indiana’s orders. I think it was discussed in a previous fanpost that I couldn’t find about if this was possible.

as the draft approaches, i can’t help but to wonder how a team can pass on a player that has unanimously been labeled a future superstar in beasley. the trend right now in the nba has moved away from big men in the last few years and shifted towards the importance of uptempo shifty point guards to ignite offenses. the bulls have hinrich, who, although is an above average floor leader, seems to lack the ability to… well… create.

in my own (perhaps not so) crazy scenario, the bulls swap #1 and #2 draft picks this year with miami, and in the process also receive miami’s 2010 #1 draft pick in return. with the #2 pick, the bulls draft michael beasley. the bulls then use a newly redundant big, such as a thomas, noc or a gooden in a package deal to memphis to pick up one of their talented point guards and take some of their poor contracts, such as a cardinal. it doesn’t resolve the glut of guards, but it does resolve the perceived lack of pg ability, and we pick up arguably the best player to come out of college in a long time. the existing frontcourt of thomas/ gooden/ noah, although adequate, will not amount to much if thomas and noah don’t pick up the somewhat important ability to create their own shots.

ok, now i’m just doing some 11th hour rambling.

the pick remains rose.

in the pic-sequence on bulls.com…

I’ll take this as a sign! (until 01:00 my time…)

:D