NBA Draft

Its the most wonderful time of the year: the NBA Draft. Fresh faces coming to Madison Square Garden, none out of high school, however, because that would be insane.Commisioner David Stern has done a lot of great things for the NBA, but that was a blunder. A player like Greg Oden is just spending a year just lollygagging around at Ohio State just because some old dude doesn't want young athletes bringing in more ticket sales (i.e. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, etc.) And so, contrary to my early claim to the "most wonderful time of the year," this draft has become a complete snore and could possibly produce the least amount of quality NBA players in draft history.Sure, we can have the Micheal Olowakandi and Sam Bowie players that look great but aren't, but this year, none of the players are studs. The projected top picks, Andrea Bargnani from Italy, LaMarcus Aldridge from Texas, Adam Morrison from Gonzaga, and Tyrus Thomas from LSU, could very easily all be complete busts. Bargnani has the offense, but his defense is abysmal and he cant play the post, a problem that poses an issue for many Europeans. Aldridge, maybe the most talented out of the bunch, doesn't hustle or rebound and has moments where he plays as weakly as the Enormous Mormon aka Shawn Bradley. Morrison, a strong offensive player, lacks composure in pressure (see UCLA v. Gonzaga) and defensive skills to handle many of the small forwards in the NBA. And finally Thomas, who might go from tomahawking in ur face to tying his ankles up in a not trying to dribble. They might be all projects, but they might all be out of league in a few years. This draft is weighted heavily towards offense, which is awful for the teams getting these one-tracked youngins, because their offense won't matter if, for example, Kobe is putting up 81 on the Raptors, who have this year's "pleasure" of picking first. 2006 is a great year to trade in your new for some experience, and you might find a diamond in the rough like Randy Foye from Villanova or Mardy Collins from Temple.No team will pull out a King from this year's deck, but those late-first round and early-second teams might just draw that joker (ex. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili) that leads them to a playoff birth.

Smush Parker V.1

William "Smush" Parker
798,112 dollars. That is how much the worst player in the NBA is getting played by one of its most prestigious franchises, the Los Angeles Lakers. Move over Shavlik Randolph, there is a new person to steal the last spot on ever bench in the league.Smush Parker might have been good on the streets of Queens, but he couldn't possibly make it in the NBA. You might have thought that his offense was why the reason the Lakers signed him, but he plays worse defense then Shawn Bradley (see NBA's Biggest Bitches on Youtube.com). He got torched repeatedly by anyone he guarded, and then his offense tanked. He tries to compete with the Big Boys, but he has no shot. He was terribly inconsistent because street ballers only play about once a week.His playoff performance was abysmal, shooting under twenty percent AT HOME. Sure, he made a great lay to steal the ball for Kobe, but if he hadn't blown the game with his awful defense on Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa, and everyone that was near Staples Center on April 30th, the Lakers would'nt need to bail outs by Bryant. He was good at defense throughout the year, but you can not just crumble when it matters most: the playoffs. If Phil Jackson had him in over Sasha Vujacic for offense, he should have been pulled after 2-12, 1-7, and 0-5 performances from the field. If he was in for defense, why was Steve Nash averaging five more points per game than the regular season? There is only one to say to this abysmal playoff performing wannabe:Welcome Back to the NBDL!