NBA Draft

NBA Draft 2013: Trey Burke

May 3, 2013 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

I’m going to start the 2013 draft previews with the PGs and work my way from the perimeter to the bigs. Burke is the Wooden award winner and possibly the top PG available, so he seems like a good player to start the 2013 analyses with. With Marcus Smart going back to school Burke is generally considered the top PG out there. He led Michigan into the championship game and that boosted him from the fringes of the lottery into the top 5 in most mocks. David Thorpe at ESPN (insider) made the case … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Trey Burke

NBA Draft 2013: Top 60 Post Tournament

April 11, 2013 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

Normally the Post-tournament Top 60 is pretty close to what my final top 60 will look like. This year I’m not sure that will be the case. Things have changed so much during the year and look like they’ll continue to do so. The tournament was a good one that provided a lot of surprises. The strength of the draft remains the center position. There are a lot of promising centers in this draft. It’s a diverse group of young, veteran, defensive-minded and offensive-minded. None are perfect, but … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Top 60 Post Tournament

Draft 2013: Top 60 Pre-Tournament Edition

March 10, 2013 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

The passing of Jerry Buss last month brought to mind one of the things that made the Lakers great during his reign. Great teams draft potential superstars. I can think of three examples where the Buss Lakers went outside the box during the draft. The Lakers drafted Vlade Divac at #26 in 1989 when foreign players were viewed skeptically. Kobe Bryant was one of the great bargains ever at #13 in 1996 when drafting HS players was a new thing. In 2005 the Lakers drafted Andrew Bynum at #10, because … [Read more...] about Draft 2013: Top 60 Pre-Tournament Edition

NBA Draft 2013: Top 60

February 7, 2013 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

The 2013 draft is shaping up as a pretty good draft overall. The strength is centers, which is a great thing as the NBA is in a perpetual shortage of quality big men. It also means the draft is going to be top heavy in big men, because they’re more valuable players. The draft will be similar to 2012 in that there is one guy who stands out, followed by a muddled group starting at #2. Like last year the top guy is a freshman center playing for Kentucky. The important thing is that while Anthony … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Top 60

NBA Draft 2013: Top 60 or so Prospects as of 12/31

January 5, 2013 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

At this point I like the 2013 draft. There are a lot of promising players, which is a welcome development following two very dry drafts. That makes this year much more fun for us draft geeks. The problem is there isn’t any one player who looks like a sure fire star. While the drafts of 2011 and 2012 were historically weak, at least there was Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. No such star has emerged as the class of the 2013 crop. There are enough good prospects out there, that I suspect a few will … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Top 60 or so Prospects as of 12/31

NBA Draft 2013: Sniper/Defenders

December 23, 2012 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

It’s still early in the draft process and rather than rank the players, I like to let things play out at least through December. Two months is enough time for hot streaks will fade and cold starts to heat up and we’ll just have a more accurate view of what exactly is here in the class of 2013. I’ll start with the rankings in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I wanted to stay somewhat engaged by looking at recent draft success stories and try to determine if there would be any similar stories in … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Sniper/Defenders