| “With
the first pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls
select Derrick Rose,” and with that sentence the
draft was underway for another year. The Bulls decided
to select the Chicago native, who has all of the skills
to be a hall of fame point guard. With an incredible
combination of speed and strength, look for Rose to
be among the league’s top point guards along with
Deron Williams and Chris Paul for the foreseeable future.
Rose will be the most popular Bulls player since a certain
no. 23 was lacing them up.
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Despite speculation that
Miami preferred O.J mayo over Michael Beasley, the Heat
made the wise decision to draft Beasley second overall,
who shattered all sorts of freshmen records during his
one season at Kansas State University. The lefty will
most likely turn into a 20-10 guy, filling up the box
score on regularity. His defense has been questioned,
but with his athletic ability and long wingspan, he
should be able to prove the doubters wrong if he puts
his mind to it. The selection of Beasley shows that
tanking does pay off (shhh, don’t tell David Stern!).
O.J Mayo, who has been touted as a future
NBA star since he was basically wearing diapers was
selected third by the Minnesota Timberwolves, who need
all the help they can get. The kid who once had an associated
press article written about him when he was in the sixth
grade, can play either guard position, and should provide
lock-down defense. The inside-outside combination of
Mayo and Al Jefferson is a great building block for
the Timberwolves, who are looking to rebuild after KG
left town in search of a ring-which he got.
Other highlights of the first round
included the Knicks drafting Italian forward Danilo
Gallinari, who was booed by the New York crowd, as he
is more unknown than other draftees. Welcome to New
York kid. But my biggest highlight was discovering that
new Grizzlies forward Kevin Love’s uncle is the
lead singer for the Beach Boys. Try topping that Kevin!
From an Australian perspective, Nathan
Jawai was drafted at number 41 by the Indiana Pacers,
but will head to Toronto as Indiana was only making
the selection on Toronto’s behalf as part of the
recent Jermaine O’Neal trade- by the way, for
those of you who don’t know, yes, Jermaine O’Neal
just got traded. No. 41 was a little lower than where
Jawai was projected to get drafted, but the rest is
up to him, as he now has a foot in the door of basketball’s
holy land. He will be able to learn from the likes of
Chris Bosh and Jermaine O’Neal.
I personally would’ve preferred
Jawai going to another team, as he will be hard-pressed
to find playing- time behind Bosh and J.O. However,
with O’neal’s terrible injury history, he
may just get more playing- time than expected. Jawai
has a lot of raw talent, which he has yet to fully develop.
If he realises his full potential, he can become a very
solid player in the NBA, and would provide the Raptors
with a draft-day steal. What Jawai has on his side is
his impressive athleticism, which will enable him to
match it with the seemingly superhuman NBA ballplayers.
Well that’s it for another
year, as dreams were made for both the young men and
their families. I’m off to listen to the Beach
Boys.
Words
by Greg. S
Trade Update:
Minnesota and Memphis just traded Kevin Love and OJ
Mayo for each other. Memphis now has a very solid young
foundation with Mayo and Gay, and Minnesota has a very
talented frontcourt with Jefferson and Love.
Note: The opinions expressed in
this article are not neccessarily the same as those
of Hoopcity magazine
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