The free agent camp continued yesterday but so far no reporter has covered the proceedings. Check Smith’s or Grange’s blog, maybe they got something. Eric Smith tells us of some of the things he saw. There’s also this scrum interview with Marerresse Speights. I know I’m reaching to get the Raptor fill for this post.
How would you feel if the Raptors drafted Kosta Koufos or a player of that caliber? If we don’t have a shot at drafting a decent college player (CDR, Rush, Lopez, Greene, Batum etc.) and are forced to look at he second tier of players, I’m all for re-igniting the TJ Ford + #17 pick for Boris Diaw. The only argument against that trade is giving up the pick but if we’re going to be throwing it away anyway, why not just use it.
There’s a piece on Canada.com which talks about players not showing up for workouts. Donte Greene drops a nice little quote:
“Not to name any names, but I’ve known a couple of guys who have had guarantees and were sitting in Madison Square Garden [on the evening of the draft] looking [stupid] because they didn’t get picked. Guarantees, I’m not too big on guarantees. It’s nice to have one. But I wouldn’t sit on it, that’s for sure.”
The article also brings up an excellent point about Greene’s one-on-one defensive limitations because of Syracuse playing zone defense almost exclusively. It’s a valid point but that’s not a reason to not draft him, if a player is a good athlete, has quick feet and willing to play defense, he’ll end up being a good defender in the NBA. College experience can only help, never hurt.
Very nice read in SF Gate this morning about teams’ “trickery and deceit” leading up to the draft and how everything anyone like Jim Kelly or raptors.com or anyone else associated with the organization says is pretty much all bullshit and smoke screens.
Here’s a sign that newspapers are a dying medium, they’ve having hot or not contests.
That’s all I got.
