I just can’t believe in anything that Denver does.  Year after year, regardless of the composition of their roster, they’re the same team; they’ll play well enough to convince themselves and some others that they can make noise in the playoffs.  But they can’t, and they don’t.  This is like their fifth or sixth date now, and they still haven’t even copped a feel.  Me, I need to know what’s what by the end of the second date, or I’m likely to blow up the roster and rebuild around my franchise player (that’s me).  I mean, you can work the trade market, or try to spend your way to the promised land (if you have the cap space), but if the foundation isn’t there, free agency is more likely to give you VD than a championship banner.

Moves like the (swiftly aging) Billups acquisition, picking J.R. Smith off the clearance rack, Linas Kleiza from the end of the first round of the draft, Nene from Sloan Ket… (Umm, can you  make cancer jokes once a guy is totally healthy and finally playing up to his contract?  Yes?  No?  I’ll go with no).  Whatever, these are nips and tucks, injections, the occasional facelift.  But basketball is a top-down business: what happens on the floor is a near-perfect distillation of the organization.  They’ve made some good moves, but too many bad moves, they’re riding a coach whose defensive mastermind/player’s coach reputation was refuted two teams ago.  And their franchise player, Carmelo Anthony, is a star who’s jab-stepped at greatness, but never taken the plunge—it’s been seven years now.

I tell you, if the Nuggets were to win the championship this year (impossible) and I were in Denver to watch the parade, I would probably still stand there in the crowd arms crossed saying, “I don’t believe in this team.  I just don’t see it happening.”  Maybe I’d only be thinking it, though, since I wouldn’t want to offend any pretty Nuggets fans in the mood for like.  But the scenario is only barely conceivable because of my wild imagination; it’s all but implausible.  The Nuggets are not contenders.  They are currently off to the best start at home they’ve ever had.  It’s chimerical, smoke and mirrors.  Talk to me when Kenyon Martin makes the veteran’s minimum.

They decided not to trade Raef Lafrentz’s expiring contract, and I said good show.  If you don’t get the right deal, sit on it, let the contract expire, and take the cap relief to use later.  They did and then they panicked.  The two best moves made by the Trailblazers over the summer were made by the Raptors and the Jazz.  The Raptors saved the Trailblazers from stupidly signing Hedo Turkoglu to a silly contract—by themselves signing Hedo to a silly contract.  Then the Jazz saved the Trailblazers from stupidly signing a really good player, Paul Millsap, who didn’t fit Portland at all—the Jazz signed Millsap instead to a contract that may or may not be silly.  They were saved twice!  And they responded by signing Andre Miller, another good player who doesn’t fit their team at all.

I’ve written about that plenty, so I won’t go on about it, but it’s the panic that bothered me so much.  Why panic for no reason?  Do you HAVE to spend the money?  Can’t you just chill out and hold on to the cap space and bide your time until the right player comes along?  Instead they signed Miller because they had to sign someone.  As it happened, they signed Miller to a perfectly good contract.  So now that the experiment has failed, it seems to me that it shouldn’t be terribly hard to move him—because he will be good, just for some other team.

Finally, with Greg Oden going down for the season, the Trailblazers have reason to panic.  Congratulations!

Without Oden, they’re a second round team at best—and I don’t see them making it that far.  Ironically, Millsap would be a nice fit for this team, now.  Lamarcus Aldridge could play his baby’s-bottom-soft game at center, while Millsap played the manly power-forward, and Joel Przybilla could come in and spell Aldridge when he was…too soft.  I tell you, sometimes I think Aldridge is a bigger taller Charles Smith.  Hopefully I’m wrong.  And hopefully Greg Oden comes back bionic.

Toronto Raptors:

No fans are in worse shape than Raptor fans.  You know Chris Bosh is going to leave.  You know it, don’t you?  Toronto’s management is in an awful position (of their own making,) trying to figure out a way to entice Bosh to stay.  He says he loves it in Toronto, but I can almost hear a sarcastic grin when he says it.  Maybe it’s just history.  I don’t know if it’s just the Raptors’ awful management—really, how many good decisions have they ever made?  Ever?  I think it’s pretty clear that Bryan Colangelo’s father was doing all the heavy lifting in Phoenix—but they’ve never been able to attract big talent.  And if player’s find Toronto aversive, in itself, then the only way to convince a guy of Bosh’s caliber to stay is to put together a serious contender.  I think it’s pretty hard to leave a contender.

So what does Toronto do?  Forget how after years of Bosh playing out of position at center, or playing next to a crap center, the Raptors used a first overall pick to draft Andrea Bargnani, a 7-footer who doesn’t rebound or defend.  What’s unforgivable is paying him huge money when after three years he has only started to show indications that he might develop into a pretty decent scorer (if he can shoot over 45% from three, because the guy can’t do it in the post) who doesn’t rebound or defend.  And this when there was no market competition for Bargnani; and the guy had an effing year to go before being a restricted free agent.  Amazing.  Go ahead and convince Bosh to stay by offering to squander his prime years—and Jose Calderon’s—with expensive mediocrities, like Hedo Turkoglu.  It’s actually codified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that at least one NBA team must sign one player (or more) to a deal so absurd, that’s untradeable from the day it’s signed.  Really, there is no single team in the NBA that has less of a clue right now than Toronto.  Memphis could sign Allen Iverson to a max contract today and hire Chris Wallace to be their GM (oh, wait…) and their future would look vastly better than the Raptors’.  Bill Simmons says the most fanatical fans he hears from are Raptors fans.  If half of them stick it out through post Bosh years with this team, they’ll prove him right.

And the Raptors is a stupid name.  I feel like I need to remind people of this, frequently.

New York Knicks

The biggest joke of this NBA season is how many teams are desperately trying to clear salary cap space for this all-time great free agent class, when this is what they should be doing every year.  Teams should either be contending for a championship, growing into a contender, or clearing the books and restocking their rosters—that’s it.  None of this being competitive (which means being good enough to contend for the second round of the playoffs) or drawing fans crap.  As a fan, I don’t ask that my team contend every year, but just that the roster be composed only of players who I can imagine playing a significant role on a championship team—including the inexpensive ninth guy in the rotation—or guys with contracts short enough to not get in the way of building a contender.  So Knicks fans, chill the f#ck out and be content that your team is doing a terrific job of clearing the books and restocking the roster with talent.

Granted, when I say restocking the roster with talent, I’m talking about one or two guys.  Provided continued health, Danilo Gallinari looks like a real keeper.  Being a 6’10” deadeye shooter gives you a ten year NBA career.  Add Gallinari’s ball handling and passing skills and you’ve got significant upside.  I like Tony Douglas too, at least for the duration of his rookie contract.  He has Rodney Stuckey’s body—they’re the same height when you account for Stuckey’s massive head—and seem to have similar physical skills, but their games are polar.  Douglas can shoot, but doesn’t go to the rim; Stuckey drives but is a terrible shooter.  I’m always skeptical of the prospects of guys who don’t get in the paint, but Douglas a few years on a cheap contract to develop cajones.

After those two guys they’re a mess, but (critically) a mess of short contracts.  David Lee’s situation is the only legitimate conundrum they have on the roster, and it will take a delicate touch to handle.  But it can’t be resolved until the summerfest is underway.  Right now, watching the Knicks consists of rooting for their young players to develop and hoping they realize that Wilson Chandler has peaked.  Well, that may not be the case, but it’s painful to watch a guy play with such alpha confidence in his own very modest abilities.  He can’t dribble or shoot, so dribble and shoot he does.  I don’t see anything there, but maybe I’m wrong (I’m not.)  At least he’s only on a rookie contract.

Even Eddy Curry is only an issue because instead of having tons of cap room this summer, the Knicks wish they could have tons and tons of cap room.  What can you do?  They’re trying like crazy to trade him (and I can only imagine it happening after the season, unless they give away Lee,) but regardless, he’s only on the books for one more year.  If LeBron and co. weren’t on the market, Knicks fans wouldn’t care about one more year of the Knicks effectively having a 14-man roster.  For a team that screwed up on historic levels, hiring not one, but two of the worst GMs in the last twenty years, consecutively, that they’re so well positioned for the future should have every Knicks fan in happy hysterics.

[As for LeBron, the idea that the Knicks don’t have enough talent to woo him is just silly.  I don't mean it's likely they sign him; I'm just saying that any of the teams that will have enough cap room to sign LeBron would easily have a combination of talent and cap space (so they can get other pieces apart from LeBron) to be at least darkhorse contenders next year and serious contenders the year after.

And regarding including Lee in a trade to get Curry's contract off the books this year, I'd do it in a second.  Millions of people would decry the horror of it, sure, but I don't see the Knicks building a strong future with Gallinari and Lee at the PF and C, or as SF and PF.  Nor would second choice Chris Bosh work with either of them.  All three are power forwards.  How much do you want to pay a guy to play out of position?]

[NOTE II: My friend wrote me last night about the post: "The big worry with Gallinari isn't talent- it's the track record of guys with back problems at 20. It isn't good, frankly. Let's see him get through an 82-game schedule before we even begin to worry about upside."  Well, two thoughts, I don't know the extent of the injury, the damage, the healing, the prognosis, umm...nothing.  I read what was to read on it, but yeah, but I don't know if this was an isolated injury or if there are no such things as isolated back injuries.  No idea whatsoever.  I will say though, I think my friend is right about something important: Knicks fans do have something to worry about after all!]

Toronto gets Evans: I find this amusing because it’s a deal to help facilitate Andrea Bargnani’s development.  I haven’t seen much of Bargnani and don’t feel like I can opine on his upside, but it does actually seem like he might become a real scorer.  However, he also must be the worst inch-for-inch rebounder in the game.  Evans, on the other hand, is as good a rebounder as anyone in the NBA.  And he can’t do anything else.  I really love mix-n-match trades.

Philly gets Kapono: This deal is entirely about Elton Brand.  I was totally in favor of the Brand signing, and though it doesn’t look good, so far, I think it could still work out.

I didn’t see a lot of the 76ers with Brand, but then, nobody else did either.  The guy played 29 games before his injury, but from all accounts he seemed like an awful fit for the team.  Bill Simmons even named him the least valuable player in the NBA (his contract being a major factor.)  Eh, I think it’s just way too early to call the move a failure.

As for the fit, it’s on the team to create a roster around the qualities of their franchise player, and to get a coach whose system compliments him.  And yet, I’m not suggesting that the roster is unsuited to compliment Brand’s talents.  29 games and a coach who has almost been fired almost every year of his coaching career?  You have to give it a chance to work.  And, well, they will, because Brand is signed for a long, long time.

One thing I’m curious about was hearing that a major conflict was that the 76ers had a lot of runners and jumpers (without jumpers) and Brand was strictly a half-court guy.  This surprised me because Brand used to be plenty capable of running and jumping.  Hell, you have to be pretty damn athletic to block so many shots at his height.  The only other guys (I can think of) his height who block so many shots are super-freaky athletes Josh Smith and Andrei Kirilenko.  But hey, Simmons has a good eye, and he’s had Clippers season tickets for a while, so maybe he’s right; maybe Brand can’t run like he used to.  Or maybe Bill’s just used to seeing him coached by Mike Dunleavy.

Anyway, I still think Brand could work out well.  New coach Eddie Jordan should help, nicely.  In DC, Jordan had a few very talented scorers who weren’t all that into passing or playing defense, and not much else.  With those pieces he eked out a winning record; now he has some serious talent, and I think he’s a solid choice to figure out how to put the pieces together.

Oh, Kapono.  He got traded, right?  He’s there to shoot, what else?  He can shoot the lights out, pass, and nothing else.  But creating space for Brand and pulling up for transition three pointers is really all he has to do to contribute.

“Look at poor Phoenix, which won 46 games in 2008-09 and barely missed the playoffs. If the Suns had the same odds as everyone else to land Blake Griffin in June, and they did, wouldn’t this be good for the league? They’d be an instant contender again!”

Here, Simmons mistakes the Suns for a team worthy of sympathy.  I’ve posted about this before, but below is a concise summary of why the Suns deserve no sympathy whatsoever for their slide from contention.

Immediately after signing Steve Nash, in 2004, new owner Robert Sarver became the stingiest owner in the league.  Consider the 2004 to 2007 stretch.

2004: Drafted Luol Deng 7th overall, but didn’t want to pay his rookie-scale $2.2 million contract, so they traded him to the Bulls for their second round pick (Jackson Vroman) a future first round-pick, and…cash.

2005: Drafted Nate Robinson ($900K) 21st overall and traded him in the package for Kurt Thomas, to replace the injured Amare Stoudemire. (We’ll come back to this.)

2006: Drafted Rajon Rondo ($1.1M) 21st overall, but used him to dump Brian Grant’s salary, trading them for Cleveland’s 2007 first-round pick (via Boston) and…cash.

Six picks after Rondo, they drafted Sergio Rodríguez ($900 thousand) and traded him to the Trailblazers for…cash.

2007: Used the first round-pick, acquired in Rondo deal, to draft Rudy Fernandez ($1M), but used him to dump James Jones’ $2.9 million salary, trading them to the Trailblazers for…cash.

A few weeks later, the Suns dumped Kurt Thomas’ salary by trading him and TWO FIRST-ROUND PICKS to the Sonics, for a FUTURE CONDITIONAL SECOND-ROUND PICK.

2008: Fittingly, Thomas helped the Spurs whup the Suns in the First Round, in 5 games.

To summarize, poor Phoenix had an owner worth $550 million who wouldn’t put a few more bucks into a contending team to put them over the top. By the time Steve Kerr hypnotized Sarver into spending some dough (trading for Shaq) the Suns’ window had already closed.

Look, at least Clippers fans know their team is going to disappoint them, year after year.  The 7-seconds-or-less Suns, on the other hand, flirting with greatness, were ultimately just a big tease.

That people go to Portland for its own sake isn’t unique among the cities I’ve visited. People go to Miami because it’s Miami, Asheville because it’s Asheville, even Atlanta, to a certain extent, because it’s Atlanta. In each case, there’s something inherent to the city’s ethos, it’s ineffable “vibe”, that draws people. And it’s a positive feedback cycle; when a bunch of people go to the same place, looking for the same vibe, they find it, and that vibe becomes ever more robust by virtue of their additions—which in turn makes the place even more attractive to the like-minded. But unlike Miami and Atlanta, who struggle to create an NBA basketball culture, the Portland vibe draws Portlanders to the Rose Garden Arena and fuels their enthusiasm for the Trailblazers.

I was an exception, by the way. I didn’t move to Portland because it’s Portland. I lived in Portland last year because that’s where I was when I ran out of money; I think this is largely why I remained a visitor. Even now, the irony that I am couchsurfing in a city in which I have an apartment—sublet through the NBA season—is appropriate, given my relationship with Portland. It’s a queer relationship, I think, being an unintentional resident (seemingly the only one) in a place so many people long to inhabit. It isn’t that I don’t like the Portland; I do, but I found it a might difficult to truly integrate myself in a place the primary attraction of which is drawing together people who want to be there. Instead, I was a visitor in a city that has nothing for visitors. Indeed, my father came to visit me a month after I arrived and the first day he asked me where we should go. What was there to see in Portland? I started, “Well, there’s…” but I couldn’t think of anything; I still can’t. Save the roses, when in bloom, there’s almost nothing must-see in Portland. It’s the inverse of New York City: a great place to live, but not to visit.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask any Portlander what there is to see in the city, and 90% of them will list Powell’s in the top five. That’s Powell’s, the small chain of large bookstores. “Well, have you been to Powell’s yet?” Powell’s? I should go to…buy a book? Indeed, Powell’s is the answer to many questions, in Portland. Just go on Citysearch and look for a great inexpensive place to take a date in PDX. That’s right: Powell’s, because nothing says romance like loitering in a bookstore.

Of course I don’t make a practice of telling locals I feel this way, or even saying it aloud, because any time I’ve said anything remotely ungushing about Portland, someone looks at me with terrible hurt in their face, as though I had just said their newborn baby looks like an embryo chicken. They shouldn’t feel that way. Being a great place to live, but not visit, is a boon to everyone in the city who doesn’t work in the tourism sector. Trust me, I’m a Newyorker who loathes the subway and walks everywhere. But even I find it necessary to take the subway from West 59^th street to West 23^rd street, to avoid the gridlock of tourism hell that is Midtown Manhattan.

Oh, I have affection for Portland, as well. Decent Ethiopian cuisine within an hour’s drive of great hiking and skiing, and under two hours from the pacific ocean? Gotta respect that. In general, I find Portland to be a nice place to spend one’s time when not luxuriating in the Oregon outdoors. Also, it’s hard not to find Portland’s earnestness charming—and highly amusing. I’ve never been to a place more desirous of distinctness; and that need spills into every conversation you’ll have with a Portlander about their city. It spills into the stands at the Rose Garden, too.

Some Portlanders speak of an all-but-imaginary tension between neophytes and natives, but I don’t see it. Or if it’s there, the locals certainly aren’t helping to keep newbies away—not even dreaded Californians. Whenever a local tells me about how things have changed, aren’t what they were, all these new people, they conclude by giving me a sales pitch for the city. That’s why I feel comfortable anthropomorphizing Portland: every last person here gives the impression of being something more than a shareholder in their city. In fact, Portland would best be defined as a city in which Portlanders live. And I feel that watching the Blazers, whether at the Rose Garden or Claudia’s, is even more about celebrating Portland than basketball.

Oh, that isn’t to say they don’t love their hoops here; 814 straight sellouts attest to that. I am curious about the reasons for the end of the streak and ebbing attendance, following it. You might figure it was because the Rose Garden has 8,000 more seats than the Memorial Coliseum, but they remained close to capacity in the new arena those first few years, despite the team’s decline. But I still recall reading about empty seats. Maybe there were a bunch of new corporate seats that weren’t regularly filled, when they stopped winning? I’m not sure. If it was difficult to get new Portlanders interested in the team, it may well have had a lot to do with them not winning, and the whole Jail Blazers thing—but I don’t think that quite covers it. Every single Portland immigrant I’ve met in the last year-and-a-half is so excited to be here. Finding a job—any job—friends, a place to live, a place in the community, for them just being here is destiny manifested; it’s winning. It seems perfectly understandable then, that those new Portlanders, without any Blazers roots, weren’t filling the stadium for a losing team. Losing was incongruous with their Portland experience. They couldn’t identify with something that wasn’t on the way up.

They do now. But I don’t think they’re fair-weather fans; they’re new fans, discovering something. The Trailblazers marketing department knows it. Their Rise with Us slogan is canny, but longtime fans don’t need it. Rather, it’s a message that resonates with the transplants and their desire to immerse themselves in the local culture of the city.  They all want to be Portlanders.  And Blazerness, the team encourages, is synonymous with Portlander-ness. The Blazers’ attendance figures indicate that it’s working, and so do other indicators of popularity. I have no idea what the Blazers television ratings look like, but I’m told the Blazers Edge is the most popular NBA team blog around, and my Portlander friends who couldn’t care less about basketball, when I met them, are talking Blazers. And I think the new fans will stick, long after Brandon “Beaver Cleaver” Roy retires. [Seriously, is there an NBA player more likely to say, “gee, shucks”? I think that's why they didn't trade for Richard Jefferson. An NBA locker room can only sustain a certain number of non-cussing players before what's endearing corrupts the warrior spirit. Those two and Greg Oden would have taken it over the edge.]

The combination of old faithfuls and new fans certainly makes for a great arena experience, a cacophony rivaled only by Oklahoma City and Utah, among the teams I’ve seen on this trek. It’s a significant component of my holding on to my Portland apartment. I’ll certainly never be a Blazer fan—I have a team—but it’s plenty fun to be in the thick of the movement.

“We think he could fit in well here and contribute,” added Morey. “He’s a very good defender and rebounder on both ends. He is one of the top ten guys in the league in getting to the line and can kick it out to shooters. He knows his role and will know he needs to get the ball to Yao. He is really going to do what coach Adelman asks.”

That sounds A-OK to me.

Brian Cook Isn’t Nothing

And he might be something.  On the one hand, he looked awfully slow when I saw him a few weeks ago, against Atlanta.  Cook played a role in the most serious basketball ass-whooping I’ve ever seen, on any level, but  it wasn’t a huge.  He only got garbage minutes, and even against the Hawks bench-enders, he was a step slower than anyone on the court, and looked soft, as in pudgy.  Still, he has an arsenal of skills, his three-point shooting the most significant, by far.  If he gets back the minimal athletic prowess he needs to utilize his skills on an NBA-rotation level, he could be a real asset to the Rockets.  He may not, but he might.  And adding a distance shooting rotation-worthy big man is a nice addition to a trade for an everything-but-shooting PG.  Furthermore, the Rockets only risk $3.5 million in cap-room, next year, if Cook takes his player option.  If he sucks, he’ll take it.  On the other hand, if he does well with the rest of this season, I think he probably still takes the player option, since everyone portends a very tough market for free agents, even those who don’t suck.  Regardless, he won’t get the minutes necessary, this season, to miraculously play himself to a higher salary bracket.  But maybe he can get in shape enough to do just that for next season .  All in all, a very solid addition to the trade, with upside and no downside.

Aaron Brooks is Small, but Who Cares?

This promotion for Brooks also gives me an opportunity to discuss, ever-so-briefly, something I’ve been thinking about lately, regarding small point-guards.  You always hear in scouting reports for Brooks how his size makes him vulnerable to post-ups from bigger guards.  In fact, you hear that about all small guards.  Even Chris Paul’s scouting reports sometimes say something like, about his only weakness is his size which can allow bigger guards to post-up on him.  I find this logic suspect.

How many point-guards have post games?  Players don’t succeed in the post merely because they have size; they succeed because they know how to utilize their size.  Point-guards generally don’t have experience exploiting size-advantages in the post.  Most of the time I see a bigger PG take a smaller one in the low post, they mostly just try turn around jumpers; these guys don’t have drop steps and jump hooks.  It’s the same at any position.  Sammuel Dalembert is much faster than Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but it certainly it isn’t advantageous for Dalembert to try and take ZI off the dribble on the perimeter, because he doesn’t have the ball-handling ability to leverage his speed advantage.

Sure, there are a tiny handful of pointguards, like Jason Kidd, who have very effective post games, but it’s probably because they’ve always had a physical advantage, over virtually any opponent.  So I don’t know if it’s a big deal that they have an even bigger size advantage over Brooks.  Furthermore, I say “they” of PGs with post games, but I can’t really think of almost any, other than Kidd.  Well, Baron Davis seems to know what to do in the post, but Deron Williams and Chauncy Billups don’t seem to gain much by posting up.  Generally speaking, I suspect PGs’ size advantage in the post is largely irrelevant.  And I think Aaron Brooks is therefore far from a defensive liability.  I have only my eyes to go on, not being privy to any defensive data I trust, but I see a guy who moves well laterally, and is quite adept at staying in front of his man.

I don’t see bigtime upside for Brooks, but I think if he can become a better finisher (a reasonable if not certain expectation/hope) he can be a better-than-average NBA starter.  Yeah, I think it’s reasonable to expect a skill-based ability to improve with time, but how much, I don’t know.  But I would pretty much say that his upside is defined by his ability to finish in the lane, and isn’t limited by defensive liabilities.

Anyway, I don’t have a strong opinion yet, as I haven’t seen him play this season.  I’m going to try to get a Miami game into my schedule on the East Coast.  I love watching Wade, of course, and I really want a look at Michael Beasley, who seems a lot more impressive to me than he does to a lot of other people.  I’ll get back to that in a sec.

As I’ve previously written, I’m a big fan of O’Neal, not just for the play, but because of the way he backed up the prep-to-pro kids, when almost no one else did.  Barring high schoolers going directly to the NBA was terribly wrong, violated their rights to work, and O’Neal said just that in various interviews the NBA and Players Association colluded to prevent high school basketball players from jumping directly to the NBA.

The issue is simple enough for me.  If teams are willing to draft players that means those players are ready to go pro ipso facto.  It’s age descrimination to prevent players from competing for employment in the NBA, and it’s done partially to protect owners’ investments.  High school players may take a while to develop and owners don’t want to spend the players’ rookie-scale contracts developing them just in time to see them hit free agency when they ripen.  Tough sh*t.  Owner coddling has always pissed me off; condescendy nonsense about players getting an education in college pisses me off; holding high school players resposible for the NCAA’s deterioration is absurd.  And the most ludicrous argument that you still hear sometimes, “Sure, there’s Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant, but what about all of those players who don’t succeed?  What about them?” Players who have gone directly from high school to the NBA have been phenomenally successful.

Consider: Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O’Neal, Tracy McGrady, Al Harrington, Rashard Lewis, Darius Miles, LeBron James, Josh Smith, Dwight Howard, Amare Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, Andrew Bynum,  Al Jefferson, Monta Ellis, Louis Williams, Amir Johnson, C.J. Miles, Kendrick Perkins, Shaun Livingston, Tyson Chandler, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster, DeShawn Stevenson, Desagana Diop.  Are you kidding me?  25 out of 39 high school draftees, since 1995, are/were major contributors, according to my quick look judgement (which is impeccable).  These successful players include a plethora of Allstar-caliber players, a few perennial MVP candidates, a bunch of rotation players (some still young enough to make big strides), and Shaun Livingston and Miles, who were promising until severely injured.  Sure, Eddy Curry and Kwame Brown were huge busts.  Tough sh*t.  There are too many college players for me to calculate their success rate, but I’ll bet they don’t come close to matching the high schoolers’ 64% success rate.  Considering the upside you also find in high school players, there’s no question which group gives you favorable odds, on draft day.

Finally, what happens if a high school player gets injured in his mandated year away from the NBA?  It’s going to happen someday, and I hope the player/players sue the NBA and Players Association for a max contract.  The MLB has an Anti-Trust exemption.  The NBA doesn’t, and I look forward to the day they get rudely spanked, in court.

Look, I’m as big a fan of the game as you’ll find, but I’m not going to let my principles go to sh*t (after all, I have so few) because Leon Smith was nuts and Kevin McHale drafted an undersized high school point-guard who can’t pass, shoot, or defend.

There, I’ve said my piece, how’s your mother?