Well, the Draft has come and gone. The NBA one and well, much to discuss. Now, I said I was gonna do this differently and I shall. I'm not handing out "grades" when the only thing folks are going off of is what was done IN COLLEGE and not on the pro court against uh...I guess we may as well say college style defenses since zone's okay now. What I will do is go according to two things...

Did a team fill a need with what they took and who took a want as opposed to a need.

First up...the Bulls. Contrary to what may be said otherwise, Rose was the right pick. They needed a point guard and they got one in D.R. as it were. They didn't need Beasley, they've already got one (an eccentric, possible headcase in...uh...pick a young forward on that team and there ya go) in Noah, Thomas, etc. and they didn't need him. They need someone who can run that offense and Rose can do that. Another team that I felt filled a need, were the Knicks. No, really, if the need was to "further piss of their fanbase"...congratulations. They did so by drafting Galinari. Look people, he might be the greatest thing since French Toast, but being a former Knick fan...I can tell you the last time a Frenchie got taken in the first round, he got the same thing Danilo got. Boos. Not beacuse he's foreign, but because NY fans aren't stupid. They knew there was more talent out there than some foreign guy whose daddy played with the new head coach once upon a time. Knick fans don't want "later", they've had enough of "later". They want "NOW", oh and Jeff Van Gundy, congratulations for reiterating on national television why you're presently out of a job. When you said that "Stephon Marbury can be a good point guard", you lost all basketball cred. How you managed to call the Finals live while Hubie Brown was on the radio, is beyond me. Really. Oh, the Grizzlies. Their need to do something to further irritate their already dwindling fanbase, worked huge by trading for another guard (that they really didn't need) and getting back a whole lot of nothing for it. But the team that filled more needs than I think even I can count...a team I predict will be back in the playoffs next season (Lenstradamus Lock here :P)...

The Portland Trail Blazers. No, seriously. They're gonna be back in the playoffs this upcoming year and within the next three max, they'll be Western Conference Champions. Hell, maybe even NBA Champions. This is probably the youngest, most talented team in the league right now and they're only going to get better with time. They nearly made the playoffs this year without Oden, now you've got Oden and a great rookie crop coming in that will and should by most accounts be better than just about everyone with the exception of the usual suspects. Oh, another team I think could be back in the playoffs next year...the Heat. HOWEVER...three things has to happen first.

1) They cannot trade away Marion. CANNOT.
2) Wade must be healthy...for at least 75% of the season. Anything past that, he should have a nice suit ready cause he'll be back in Secaucus next May.
3) Beasley cannot be the head case everyone's made him out to be.

A threesome of Beasley, Marion and Wade is flat out frightening considering how the game's played now. At least in theory anyway. I like Chalmers in the second round (good Lord there are gonna be some folk talked about years from now taken after the first round) and I think the division is just weak enough for the Heat to rebound after last year.

Things That Made Me Go...WTF?!

Seattle. Look, I get that the change of address form you guys filled out isn't quite done yet. But unless their scouting team saw something the rest of the country didn't...I'm not sold on Russell Westbrook being the 4th pick overall. You've got Durant, you've got...uh...exactly. You've got nada outside of Durant, I'm kinda meh on Westbrook.

Sac-TOE!!! Uhm, what the hell were you guys passing around over there Jason Thompson with the 12th pick overall?! I mean, no, really. What? Colombian Bam Bam? Peyote? What? Then, they take the Son Of Ewing in the second round who as best as I can recall...wasn't anything decent in school. Both, at Georgetown and later at Indiana. Petries, just do me this one favor. Just one.

Trade Artest. Thanks. Okay, I was gonna spend a seperate column on this just cause but funk it.

JAY. JAY. HICKSON. The one word that's synonymous with any draft, is upside. As I've gotten older I've attributed that word to mean, one thing. He won't be ready for prime time until a few years after the fact, when like, half the guys picked ahead of him have since blossomed and hit their stride. Cleveland, maybe you guys didn't get the memo, but LeBron's not staying forever. In fact, if your GM keeps making moves like these (thanks for letting CDR drop to the second round!!!), it's all but a certainty that LeBron will bounce in two years time without giving it a second thought. See in and of itself, it's simple. The Cavs need NOW, not "later". If you can tell me the last first rounder the Cavs selected not named James in the past eight years that has been anything remotely worthy of good, you get a cookie. Or a doodle from SAS. :-P

"But Len, we're getting Michael Redd from Milwaukee, so shut up."

Uhm, no, you're not. The Bucks traded to get RJ which pretty much gives the Bucks a serious team to run with for next season. Even if that didn't happen, I don't think the Cavs have enough to make the Bucks' GM (or pseudo GM Bill Simmons) pick up the phone just to say "we're not interested". The division around Cleveland's getting better while they stay put, or for lack of a better term...get worse. Know what? I'll cut this short here because this is another column of and within itself. But the other MAJOR WTF I wanna get to...

The Raptors. Look, hasn't your fanbase been through enough already? They had T-Mac bounce for Orlando, they had Vince quit on them and basically force his way out of town. They get Bosh more or less dropped in their lap and there's hope...BUT...the following things have happened since then.

- You make the playoffs, winning the division a year ago because the Nets cared to the sum of zero.
- Consequently, running into those Nets in the playoffs gets you sent packing expeditiously.
- You waste the first overall pick on Andrea Bargnani who hasn't exactly lit the league on fire since his arrival.
- Now, they give away a really good point guard in Ford (when healthy) and SAS's favorite player aside from Vladimir Radmonovic (RA-SHOW NES-TEAR-O-VICK) to get Jermaine O'Neal. Like the Cavaliers move in February, this would've been a steal...about four years ago. Four years later, it looks like Indiana fleeced the Raptors something awful. Same way New Jersey fleeced Dallas to get a first round exit out of the playoffs for the forseeable future.

Remember the point I made about Beasley a bit ago, why it doesn't make sense to have too many of the same thing on one team? Here's your epic case in point. Not only do you have a player in O'Neal who's almost the same as Bosh only much less and a bit more than Bargnani (which isn't a flattering thing unto itself)...you've got a real clusterfuck in the front court. Roy Hibbert will most likely be the starting center at some point next year for the Raptors. He's too good not to be on that roster. But after that, what? Move Bosh to the 3 and put O'Neal at power? O'Neal doesn't have the range needed to be an effective small forward so that only works in theory and on paper, which even then doesn't translate that great. For the life of me, considering the upside the Raptors had as a team the past few years and the progress it was making, why make a move like this?

Moves I did like...

- Koufos to the Jazz. Utah's faithful would like to thank Danny Ferry for allowing Ohio State's Koufos to be the next in a long line of tall, white guys to run with the Jazz. Mark Eaton would be proud.

- Portland. Kevin Pritchard's making every GM in the league look like they just fell off the short bus. Not hopped off, fell off. At a very high rate of speed. With Kevin driving the 18 wheeler that's more or less pushing that short bus just cause.

- San Antonio...just cause these guys don't make bad picks. I dont even know who George Hill from Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), but these are the Spurs folks. I think they've almost hit a transcendent point where nothing they do can be questioned because in the end...it'll work.

- Cleveland. Thank you for ensuring that the 2010 prophecy of LeBron to Brooklyn will come to fruition with your selection of J.J. Hickson. Love ya, mean it! :-) (Not to worry, I've got something on this in a bit.)

- New Jersey. I'm not so sure about Anderson, especially in an already crowded frontcourt but I guess if he does a reasonably decent KVH impersonation...he's cool. I really like Brook in this spot because there's no way of knowing if Krstic will bounce back completely from those injuries and I'm reading that Dallas wants their flop...er, Diop back. (Again, more on these folk in a bit.)

Yeah, way to cap a reasonably good year in the NBA. Now, to look forward to Team USA's redemption in Beijing next month.