Post by jbaer10314 on May 19, 2009 12:17:09 GMT -5
Tonight ESPN will air the draft lottery a half-hour before Game 1 of the Nuggets-Lakers Conference Finals. Some of us will recall our team landing the sixth pick last season, provoking utter hopelessness in the wake of the announcement. Those who moped on the old board were convinced we'd get the fifth pick and an "impact player" as a result. Ans when reality struck, we never heard the end of it.
I'd like to head off anyone who already pulled out the Kleenex.
What exactly do we mean by "impact player"? Judging from the whiners last year, such a person would lead his team to a title in his rookie season. I'm almost certain Bill Russell pulled off that trick, but who else? Chamberlain? Bird? Johnson? Jordan? Robinson? O'Neal? Duncan? James? Wade? Not bloody likely.
And really--how much of an impact did last season's first five draft picks have? Mayo, Westbrook and Love couldn't keep their teams out of the lottery, could they? Sure, Rose and Beasley went to the playoffs, but how far did the Bulls and Heat get?
An "impact player" cannot lift his team out of mediocrity right off the bat. Every rookie still has to fit in with his teammates and adopt the coach's philosophy. The Knicks are trying to recover from the disaster who now coaches at Florida International, but we were mismanaged long before Zeke showed his ugly face. That includes trading young players who could've improved the team if given a real chance. But now we have little choice but to give those young players floor time to see what they can do. They might help us break .500 next season (Gallo might have done so if he was in better health), but becoming impact players will take longer. And as I said before, it makes no sense to determine these players' future--that is, whether they'll be starters or bench players, All-Stars or role players--before David Stern announces their names.
For the last few weeks we bandied about the chance of landing the eight pick. So if the ping-pong balls bounce that way for us, none of us should whine as if he didn't know. And if we end up with Stephen Curry, we need to let him bring his game to the Garden. From what everyone else says, this kid has potential to be an impact player--unless he's traded next off-season because he blew all his shots in the layup line.
I'd like to head off anyone who already pulled out the Kleenex.
What exactly do we mean by "impact player"? Judging from the whiners last year, such a person would lead his team to a title in his rookie season. I'm almost certain Bill Russell pulled off that trick, but who else? Chamberlain? Bird? Johnson? Jordan? Robinson? O'Neal? Duncan? James? Wade? Not bloody likely.
And really--how much of an impact did last season's first five draft picks have? Mayo, Westbrook and Love couldn't keep their teams out of the lottery, could they? Sure, Rose and Beasley went to the playoffs, but how far did the Bulls and Heat get?
An "impact player" cannot lift his team out of mediocrity right off the bat. Every rookie still has to fit in with his teammates and adopt the coach's philosophy. The Knicks are trying to recover from the disaster who now coaches at Florida International, but we were mismanaged long before Zeke showed his ugly face. That includes trading young players who could've improved the team if given a real chance. But now we have little choice but to give those young players floor time to see what they can do. They might help us break .500 next season (Gallo might have done so if he was in better health), but becoming impact players will take longer. And as I said before, it makes no sense to determine these players' future--that is, whether they'll be starters or bench players, All-Stars or role players--before David Stern announces their names.
For the last few weeks we bandied about the chance of landing the eight pick. So if the ping-pong balls bounce that way for us, none of us should whine as if he didn't know. And if we end up with Stephen Curry, we need to let him bring his game to the Garden. From what everyone else says, this kid has potential to be an impact player--unless he's traded next off-season because he blew all his shots in the layup line.
