Draft Tonight

The 20th anniversary of the new Lottery Draft airs tonight and I don't know about you guys but I'm kinda excited. Everyone already knows who the first overall draft pick will be this year. I understand that they want Greg Oden ( I mean he's probably one of the best talents to come into the draft since...Lebron James, but you get the point) but is he really ready to play in the league?

ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher reported on Wednesday night that Greg Oden's camp has been notified by the Portland Trail Blazers that they will take him with the No. 1 pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

SN hoops guru Mike DeCourcy stated that there's no question Oden is the best player to choose in the draft. "If the Blazers want to turn their No. 1 overall pick into some kind of marketing game, pretending they might find a reason to choose Durant over Oden, that's up to them."

SN member JTCOWBOY agrees that Portland will pick the Buckeyes' big man. "For those of you who have jumped off the Blazers' bandwagon, there is room for you to jump back on. The ride is going to be sweet."

Though, others believe that Kevin is going to rain bombs in the league, "He should eventually challenge for scoring titles. I see no reason why he won't average 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds within two years."

Kevin Durant has had comparisons with T MAC and other players. But, he's built like a 6'10 Reggie Miller and he looks like Tyshaun Prince. Maybe with 9 hours a day in the weight room this boy can beef himself up. He only weighs the mere weight of 215 pounds. I could spend another day observing these two players. But, I went to rank each player from three to five ( Kevin Durant and Greg have already been covered).

3. Yi Jianlian China - He will be the fourth Chinese Basketball to play in the NBA. The other three are of course Yao Ming, Wang Zhizhi, and Mengke Bateer. "Yi the X-factor in jackpot draft," read a recent headline in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

The reason I decided to put him up this high is because one, he is this good and two I think the Atlanta Hawks would want to take a player like him. Can he play defense, and is he strong enough to play in the NBA? And his age. The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA)has his birthday as Oct. 27, 1987, 19 at draft time. But some believe he's about three years older. Teams might give a 19 year-old time to develop, but a 22-year-old is expected to be a finished product.

"He's definitely a great athlete who can be an NBA project for any team," said Xia Song, an NBA analyst on Beijing's BTV. "The draft is hard to predict unless you are a Yao Ming or LeBron James or Michael Jordan."

He averaged 25 point and 12 rebounds in the Olympics last summer. "Every international player -- every Chinese player -- is going to need time to adjust to the American culture, to the NBA, to the lockerroom," Xia said. "It is going to take time. But he's young, he's a very smart kid and he will be able to handle it very well."

The President of the United States Basketball Academy has been watching the Chinese Product for years now.

"I think he's the least known player in the draft," said O'Neil, who returned this week to the US from China.

"Some teams in the NBA have done their homework on him -- some haven't," O'Neil said. "For me he's a multidimensional talent -- a top-five pick for sure. Of course they play different positions, but he's stronger than Yao was at this point in his career."

His English is also said to be better then Yao's at this point. ;)

4.Al Horford Florida Gators - This guy is going to be good. When I would watch Sportscenter all I would hear about with Noah, Noah this. But when I would actually watch the games, I would look at this game and say, what the heck are they talking about Noah for? He play supreme defense on Greg Oden in the National Championship game as he did during the seasons ( not against oden, other people).

“On Wednesday, sources say one of the Hawks owners vetoed a hypothetical deal for Stoudemire for financial reasons.”

Note, please: “A hypothetical deal.” But wouldn’t a real deal — sorry, Mr. Holyfield — require some input from Stoudemire’s current team? Here, from the Arizona Republic, is this telling paragraph:

” ‘We’ve never spoken with Atlanta about Amare,’ Suns general manager Steve Kerr said Wednesday night, when he also called Stoudemire to assure him all rumors were bogus. ‘We have no idea why anybody would speculate on that.’ “

So, possibly Phoenix will get AH. Dunno.

5. Mike Conley Jr. Ohio State -

"It's not tough. He's a point guard and he can adjust to anything he wants to," Armstrong said Monday. "It's going to be up to him. He can run a team. It's going to be up to him on how fast he can and wants to learn. To me, that always comes down to the player. If you want to be on the floor, you learn as fast as you can.

"I think he's a guy that's hungry. Not a lot of people expected him to do what he did this year. You have to respect what he did for them at Ohio State. It's always up to the individual and how he wants to make his way through the league. Certain guys get satisfied just making the league. I think he's a very good, talented player that can make it happen in the league."

His skills have been compared to Current two time Champ Tony Parker of the San Antino Spurs. He's quick, gritty, and he can pull up for the mid range jumper with ease. Though, some don't think he is quite ready to make an immediate impact in the league.

"There's always an adjustment period," Ash said Monday. "It's tough on a player regardless if he spent one year in college or four years there. A lot depends on the individual coming in, his ability to play and his level of maturity. Conley is very capable handling the adjustment. He has a good court presence and he shows a lot of poise. He's done that at every level he's played at."

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas thinks Conley will be a "great NBA point guard,"

"He's an extraordinary talent," Bilas said. "If he were of age to come out in the 2005 draft that had Chris Paul and Deron Williams, you would still have a heck of a difficult time choosing from those three."

Conley recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer he's more interested in patterning his game after Nash and Parker. "I try to play as closely to them as I can," Conley said. "And they win, so I like to be a winner."

"He doesn't shoot it well," Bilas said.

"He's going to have to improve upon that. If you're a decision-maker, ready to pull the trigger on Conley, you've got to make a decision: 'Do we think he can significantly improve his shooting consistency so he can be the type of player his skills tell us he can be?' Because if he doesn't improve it, people are going to go under screens, sit in a big man's lap, and it's going to be hard for him to reach his full potential."

Conley said at the predraft camp in Orlando, Fla.: "As a freshman, they said I couldn't do a lot of things. I try to prove people wrong a lot. I feel with the right coaches, and the right people around me, they can definitely help me and guide me with my jump shot. And I'm willing to learn and fix things. I definitely have the ability to knock down the shot and be able to prove a lot of people wrong."