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Posted 06/29/2007 at 12:06 AM
Portland- Could it be that the team who took the draft's best player and made the right choice by taking Greg Oden made the biggest mistake by picking up Steve Francis and Channing Frye from the New York Knicks. They gave up their current best player in Zake Randolph. Maybe they didn't want Oden to be influenced by Randolph, but if Oden has the character that everyone says he has the Trailblazers wouldn't have to be concerned. Later the Blazers picked up guard Rudy Frenandez from Spain and next they selected F/C Josh McRoberts from Duke. At pick #42 they took Derrick Byars and sent his rights to the 76ers for the rights to Swedish guard Petteri Koponen. (I liked Byars) Portland had four second round picks. The fifth Florida Gator selected guard Taurean Green was taken with their 52 pick and with their final pick they took Demetris Nichols of Syracuse..
Boston- The Celtics who 'played old' during the season and went into the tank the final 20 games to insure one of the top two picks in the draft got older by trading their fifth pick from Georgetown Jeff Green to Seattle for Veteran All-Star Ray Allen. I like Jeff Green, but maybe, they thought that he looked too much like a former Georgetown star Ed Pinkney. The Celtics then took a gurad from USC, Gabe Pruitt a young player that can shoot but do they need another guard? Then Celtics then completed their trade with the Sonics by getting Glenn Davis of LSU.
New York Knicks- The Knicks got better before they even made a pick. Trading for Zach Randolph and Dan Dickau along with Fred Jones and giving up project Channing Frye and Steve Francis. Then of all things Spike Lee tells ESPN that the Knicks might take the 'brother from DePaul', Wilson Chandler as scoring guard.
Seattle- Not only did they get Kevin Durant they unloaded All-Star Ray Allen to Boston and then they picked up Wally Szczerbiak and forward Jeff Green from the Celtics. With the first pick of the Second Round they picked-up All-Big 10 foward Carl Landry from Purdue and then with the 35th overall pick they took C-F Glenn (Big Baby) Davis from LSU and sent him to the Celtics.
San Antonio- The Spurs continued their scouting of foreign players by taking a 21 year old Center Tiago Splitter from Brazil with their round 1 pick and then with an early second round selection they took Marcus Williams a forward from Arizona. (The rich get richer) finally they selected Giorgos Printezis from Greece. (Is there a European or South American they have passed on?)
Miami Heat- End up with Ohio State guard Daequan Cook who was the taken by the Philadelphia 76ers. Will this move take touches away from Dwayne Wade? After trading Center Jason Smith (Their 1st pick) to the 76ers they end up with Center Stanko Barac from Bosnia. (At least a year away)
Golden State- Sent Jason Richerson to the Hornets and ended up with three quality players in guard Marco Belinelli from Italy, Stephane Lasme from UMass who had Julius Irving numbers for the Minutemen and Brandon Wright of North Carolina, the 8th pick from the Hornets.
Chicago Bulls- Last year the Bulls signed free agent center Ben Wallace and this year they took two Centers with their picks, first was Joakim Noah of Florida and then Aaron Gary of Pittsbugh a Kent Benson type player.
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