Ed Weiland

The 2008 draft is a tough one to grade. I had 3 players, Rose, Beasley and Love, head and shoulders above the rest. I felt after the top 3, there were 15-20 players who could have been shaken up and drawn in any order and it wouldn’t have surprised me much. Because the pool of talent from 4-25 was so deep and evenly matched, there were many varied opinions on this draft. I’m guessing there will be more busts than normal and more round 2 and free agent surprises than normal. … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Grades

This is a very strong group. The strongest in the draft and it might rival the SFs of ’03 and ’07 as strongest group in any draft class I’ve seen. Beasley and Love are at the top. I really can’t decide who should go on top either. Love does have better numbers and improved during the season. Beasley had to carry an otherwise weak team. Both are terrific offensively and raise doubts defensively. If I were a GM, I’d be happy with either one, but if forced to choose I’d give Beasley the slightest … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Power Forwards

I like this year's crop of centers. There isn’t the star power we had last year with Oden, but there are enough good prospects that watching this bunch develop over the next few years should be interesting. This year one of the questions will be whether to go for potential or immediate help. Roy Hibbert is available and offers any team a useful defensive presence on the inside immediately. I don’t think there’s a team in the NBA that couldn’t use that. But there are also some young players out … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Centers

This is the other half of the small forwards, or more accurately a 3rd group of forwards. The problem I had ranking these players with the other was I felt they were different types of players. A good example is last year with Al Thornton and Corey Brewer. Both were listed as SFs, but were very different players who offered different skills to prospective teams. Comparing such players to each other seemed a little pointless. So I decided to break off players who fit somewhere between SFs and PFs … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Combo Forwards

I’m doing something a little different this year with the SFs. I’m splitting them into two categories. There will be the SFs, who are the more traditional small forward types who might be more like guards. Then there will be the combo forwards. These are the bigger players who might play either forward position depending on the matchup. The reason for this is these are different types of player and rating them against each other just didn’t seem like the best way of evaluating. I thought about … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Small Forwards

Last year’s crop of SGs was one of the weakest I’ve seen. This year it looks like one of the deeper groups. Most of the depth is of the lower round variety though. There’s very little star power in this group. OJ Mayo and Eric Gordon would seem to be potential stars, but both players have a ways to go before they’re at that level. Below them are a group of juniors and seniors who have developed into pretty decent prospects. They’re not on the level of a Mayo, but they’re certainly good enough … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2008: Shooting Guards