Draft Day

Jet here,

I've got a Brandon Roy jersey on. The last day I wore it was May 22nd! Anyway, a lot has gone down since I did my mock draft on Monday. It seems like Conley's draft stock as rebounded a bit, and I have no idea why. I think that a lot of teams were trying to trade into the lottery in order to get Yi Jianlian or Joakim Noah. By all accounts, they've failed (who knows though, the dominos might start falling when the draft kicks off this evening).

The other major wildcard has been the KG trade talks that have been swirling around the league for the past few days. How about this most recent three-way trade rumor with the Hawks dealing their #3, #11 pick, and contract space for Amare Stoudemire, and the Wolves sending KG to Phoenix? Wow! And the most surprising part is, it's the Hawks that reportedly shot the deal down when ownership couldn't come to a consensus on trading for Amare. Unbelievable. Steve Kerr, Phoenix's new GM, has since denied being involved in the talks at all. He could just be on damage control, but I'm inclined to believe him. I never really bought Phoenix's end of this deal, as they hold Atlanta's 1st rounder next year and that pick would be seriously devalued if they gave the Hawks Amare Stoudemire (that's probably a playoff team in the East... Joe Johnson and Amare? Yeah... that team would do something in the East...).

ESPN's Rich Bucher reported last night that Greg Oden's camp was informed that he'll be the top pick today. Since then, Portland's GM Pritchard and Oden's agent Mike Conley Sr. have both come out and denied the report. What's going on?

Honesty, I have no idea. I believe that Greg Oden has known for days that he'll be the top pick. When he was interviewed Monday on ESPN's popular sports digest, "Pardon the Interruption," he was asked how he felt about Portland. He answered with "I'm just looking forward to getting in there and developing some chemistry with my teammates Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach and the boys." His demeanor was confident and casual. I think the information was leaked yesterday, and that Pritchard is just doing his best to keep up his pre-draft, "we're undecided" charade. Frankly, as a Blazer fan I'm getting annoyed. What's the point? Everyone in Portland is going to be paying attention to this draft anyway, there's no need to run the smoke machine another day for the sake of the rest of the nation (and amongst basketball purists, there's never really been a debate on this one...).

Looking over my mock, I still think that Atlanta is going to be dealing that #11 pick if Conley Jr. and Acie Law are off the draft board. Milwaukee strikes me as the other team most likely to deal their pick. Look for that to happen if Conley is gone at spot #4 to the Grizzlies. That brings us to the Memphis pick, which is still the muddiest part of the draft. I think it's going to be Noah or Conley. Should be interesting!

-Jet out

(Images - Amare Stoudemire, Mike Conley, Jr. : AP)