View Full Version : NBA 2004 Draft [R]
microbrew
15 Mar 2004, 12:04 PM
It's tournament time, and time to speculate on the NBA 2004 Draft. The [R] is for NCAA Tournament games, since it a good showing can influence NBA draft position.
Mark Heisler of the LA Times has a list:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/la-sp-nbacol14mar14,1,1669744.column?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba
slipknotter
15 Mar 2004, 11:54 PM
Thank you to whomever created the bigsoccer/bigsoccer account on the L.A. Times' website
skipshady
16 Mar 2004, 12:01 AM
So how many, if any (and that's including Jameer Nelson), college seniors will go in the first round?
Metros Striker10
16 Mar 2004, 08:25 PM
Is this draft supposed to be anywhere near as good as the 2003 draft? Okafor is really good player. Gomes is good too. I don't know much after that.
What happened to that one player named Micheal Jordan? He played for Temple I think.
microbrew
17 Mar 2004, 01:31 AM
Number of college seniors in the first round? Well, the LA Times article lists four possibilities. I'd say two.
The 2004 draft is supposed to be decent, with the talent mostly highschoolers and international players. The only college players who are definite lottery picks are Emeka Okafor and Luol Deng. See
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/dmoore/stories/031403dnspomoore.9c9e6.html (yes, the bigsoccer account works for this paper).
As an aside, Danny Ainge is apparently betting on this draft, because the draft picks he got aren't very high.
I'll share more speculation, as I read more of ESPN Insider's Chad Ford and others.
microbrew
17 Mar 2004, 01:46 AM
Another draft list:
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/boysbasketball/cs-0403140341mar14,1,7233064.story?coll=cs-highschool-print (bigsoccer account works here too)
Minnesota still doesn't have a draft pick, from the Joe Smith fiasco.
skipshady
17 Mar 2004, 08:36 AM
Interesting how Sebastian Telfair didn't show up in the mock draft - is it because he hasn't officially declared yet? Anyway, I think he' smaking a mistake coming out. A year (or more) of college would do him a lot of good.
TheSlipperyOne
17 Mar 2004, 02:33 PM
Originally posted by microbrew
The only college players who are definite lottery picks are Emeka Okafor and Luol Deng.
And Deng probably won't come out until after his sophomore year.
Originally posted by skipshady
Interesting how Sebastian Telfair didn't show up in the mock draft - is it because he hasn't officially declared yet? Anyway, I think he' smaking a mistake coming out. A year (or more) of college would do him a lot of good.
I definitely agree with that. Telfair could be awesome in the future, but it's not like he's 6-11/7-0 like Chandler, Curry, Kwame or KG or 6-8 with a man's body like LeBron or Melo. He's a 6-0 PG with not much of a jump shot from what I've read.
mellon002
18 Mar 2004, 12:06 AM
www.nbadraft.net is usually a great site with some good information.
microbrew
23 Mar 2004, 01:23 PM
This, um, confident high schooler declares for the draft. A possible seven figure shoe deal may have something to do with it.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Sports/2004/03/23/392171.html
ESPN Insider Chad Ford's list of twelve highschoolers possibly taken in the first round:
Dwight Howard (possible top pick)
Josh Smith
Shaun Livingston
Sebastian Telfair
Dorell Wright
LaMarcus Aldridge
Marvin Williams
Al Jefferson
Juan Diego Tello Palacio
Randolph Morris
Robert Swift
Rudy Gay
skipshady
23 Mar 2004, 01:32 PM
This, um, confident high schooler declares for the draft. A possible seven figure shoe deal may have something to do with it.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Sports/2004/03/23/392171.html
I like this guy. He also reminds me of this guy.
http://sportsmed.starwave.com/i/magazine/new/ivan_drago.jpg
TheSlipperyOne
23 Mar 2004, 01:47 PM
"The NBA wants and needs Ivan Chiriaev," said Chiriaev.
microbrew
24 Mar 2004, 12:06 PM
Profile of possible top pick: Dwight Howard
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/sports/basketball/24SKOL.html
What happened to that one player named Micheal Jordan? He played for Temple I think.
I think the guy you're thinking of played for Penn...he plays in the German league now.
microbrew
29 Mar 2004, 11:46 AM
NBA Wants a Minimum Age of 20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24970-2004Mar25.html
"keep them from missing out on a college education"
er, okay...
The union is against this, as it sees it as a way fo the league to slash payroll, and also it hurts the earning ability of players.
Meanwhile, the possibility of this rule will, ironically, probably cause even more teenagers to declare for the draft this year.
skipshady
29 Mar 2004, 11:44 PM
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1769153
You know, I'm sure Dwight Howard means well, evangelism is part of Christianity and I certainly prefer a solid citizen over a thug, but this might get really annoying: "I want to be able to speak to non-Christians so that I can get them saved or change their lives around"
TheSlipperyOne
31 Mar 2004, 01:32 PM
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1769153
but this might get really annoying: "I want to be able to speak to non-Christians so that I can get them saved or change their lives around"
Might? I've never seen the kid play or speak, but just reading that is annoying me already because I'm sure we'll be seeing him saying that all over the place soon enough.
microbrew
05 Apr 2004, 07:05 PM
For the high school bunch, two games of note have been played:
Last Wednesday, the McDonald's All-American game
http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/la-sp-nbacol4apr04,1,3263341.column?coll=la-headlines-sports-nba-lakers
And the Nike Hoop Summit
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjsports/news2004/04/05/E4-ford0405-8695.html Apparently, what annoyed the NBA scouts about the summit was that none of the top foreign prospects showed up.
afgrijselijkheid
06 Apr 2004, 08:06 AM
i want the suns to get okeafor
skipshady
07 Apr 2004, 12:40 PM
So the consensus seems to be Okafor and Howard going 1-2, not necessarily in that order.
I can't see anyone other than Atlanta taking Howard at 1. Considering how high schoolers from the last few drafts have done (Lebron and Amare being the notable exceptions), I think it's crazy to use a #1 pick on one. You look at the 2001 draft (http://www.nba.com/draft2001/draft_board.html?nav=TextNavBar), and see the players that went in the top 10 (DeSagana Diop, Tyson Chandler, Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry) and the players who went later - Richard Jefferson (13), Zach Randolph (19), Tony Parker (28), Trenton Hassel (29), Gilbert Arenas (30), Mehmet Okur (38).
I wouldn't be surprised to see a change in philosophy - teams will still gamble on Europeans, but they'll hesitate before taking teenage Americans.