NBA Draft Preview Husky Style

I was sitting in my favorite watering hole last night, the Rockies had an off day and I was wishing that anything was on TV but the NBA. You see I loath the NBA. Not because the Sonics are now wearing Orange and going to the NBA finals with a name like the Lighting or Tornadoes or something to do with Midwest storms. By the way we had some nice ones in Colorado the other night, complete with Tornado sirens. But I digress. So as most of you know I love college basketball but the only part of the NBA I follow is to see what former Husky are doing. From what I knew of the NBA this year I thought IT was going to win the MVP. How did he finish seventh in the rookie of the year voting?

Oh yeah why don't I like the NBA? 1998 finals Michael Jordan throws Byron Russell to the ground, without a call. At that point I had just had it. But there is something about a draft. Any draft. NFL, NBA, UFO (my fantasy football league), and this year I got into the MLB draft because a kid (Kevin Gausman) from my sons HS was drafted number 4 overall. For a school that is only 14 years old it was a big deal. I know my son (and his father) dreams of following in his footsteps.

So now that the lottery has officially been fixed, just like the 1996 finals, we have our draft Order. On June 28th, New Orleans will draft first and take Anthony Davis. Anyone saying otherwise is just trying to make a story. Charlotte, Washington, Cleveland and Sacramento round out the top 5. The Sonics do not have a pick in this year draft.

But I think what we all want to know is where will Terrence Ross and Tony Wroten start their NBA careers. Most mocks have had Ross as the first husky to be drafted. I have looked over several mocks and have seen Ross as high as 14 and as low as 25. Wroten is mocked anywhere from 19 to 30. Yes 30 is the last pick in the first round.

Wroten was quoted soon after declaring that he would have made a mistake if not picked in the first round. I stand by my initial thought, that he had indeed made a mistake. I believe he need to work on his shot and become more of a complete player. I don't blame him for following his dream I would have just advised him to stick around one more year. Here are what some of the mockers and scouts have said about Wroten: worst shot in draft, bad teammate, could be steal of the draft, best potential, not sure if he can blend with a team, rare size, lacks maturity, raw PG, shot broken, and would be a top 10 pick if teams thought he was a better teammate. As you can see the big things mentioned are lack of shot and a bad teammate. If all the teammate stuff is true I guess we should be happy he declared.

This next quote I took from a Dot...Dot... Dawg link that Chad Ford of ESPN wrote:

I wish I could say the same thing about Wroten. He has enormous potential. I think he could be one of the top five players in this draft based on pure talent. He's got uncanny floor vision, has great size for his position, is a terrific athlete and can be a lock-down defender when he wants to be. Scouts that love him see some Gary Payton and some Rajon Rondo in him.

However, he struggles as a shooter and the workout I saw only highlighted those struggles. In the first 15 minutes he missed a lot of shots, and scouts tell me it didn't get much better as the workout went on. Teams also questioned whether he can effectively run a NBA team given his penchant for dominating the ball. The talent is there, but is the desire?

Wow! All these comments about Wroten make me wonder if he will in fact drop to the second round. It really wouldn't surprise me. However, I think someone will fall in love with his raw talent and take a shot on him in the low 20's. Look for Denver at 20 or Atlanta at 23 to pull the trigger.

Ross on the other hand seems to be really impressing scouts and moving up the draft boards. He could sneak into the lottery. The comments from "experts" are much more complementary for Ross and include things like: lottery skills, interesting prospect, best shooter at position, workout will be best of any 2 guard. And from the aforementioned Chad Ford article:

Ross has several advantages that should pop in workouts. First, he's the tallest of any of the shooting guards (he's measuring 6-foot-6 in socks, 6-foot-7 in shoes). He's also the most athletic. Ross is an explosive leaper, a blur up and down the court and has great lateral quickness. He's also the best shooter of the group. Not only did Ross shoot the highest percentage from 3 of any of the four players mentioned, he rarely missed anything in his workouts at 360. He's got a quick release and deep range. For a team looking for a pure shooter, he's by far the best choice in the lottery.

Ross also looked terrific in four-on-four play. His team was matched against Daye and Butler, and Ross more than looked like he belonged playing against and, later, with them. He was much more aggressive than what we saw at Washington, he hit a number of impressive 3s and had several highlight reel dunks in the course of the game. Had Ross played with a more conventional point guard last season (one that didn't dominate the ball as much as Wroten did), he could've put up much bigger numbers.

This is also a big slam at Wroten. We had a lot of posters slamming Wroten most of the year, and I steered clear of it. For one I don't like ripping college athletes, and two I wasn't sure where we would have been without him. I may have been wrong.

I believe Ross will get into the lottery maybe just at 14, but his stock seems to be skyrocketing (rockets pick 14th) at this point. Where do you guys think Ross will get drafted? Is Wroten going to fall out of the first round? Does anyone watch the NBA? When does college football start?

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