While we have all been glued to the drama that is the NBA in June, the Suns have been playing the role of kids in the candy store as they worked out players in advance of the upcoming draft. You can catch some video, interviews and the like at the ever awesome suns.com site.
So far, the Suns have had in some potential PG's DJ Augustin and Mario Chalmers and some interesting bigs such as Javale McGee, Nathan Jawai, Marreese Speights and Robin Lopez (who looks exactly like Andy Verajao in all ways imaginable).
Today Joe Alexander, Chase Buddinger and a few others are scheduled .
I have to tip my hat to all of you that can make any sense out of this. I watch these guys in video clips and interviews, read all the little recaps and occasionally listen to their interviews and I am left feeling I would like 8 out of 10 of the guys I am seeing. They all seem so great at this stage in the process until next season when you put them on the court and ask them to score against Tim Duncan or stop Monta Ellis.
To sit on the sidelines of this process and make any sense at all about what separates the upside potential of JaVale McGee from the court IQ of Robin Lopez is beyond me.
The more I try and sort this all out, the more appreciation I have for the incredible task guys like Dave Griffin are faced with. You get one pick in this high stakes game and you are faced with a tremendous amount of information that we fans will never see. The numbers, The skill set. The intangibles. The fit.
I have hired a lot of people for a lot of jobs but I am glad the stakes were never this high.
What we fans do know is our team and our needs and we know some numbers. And from that and reading between the lines of what Griffin said in his interviews, here's what I am willing to predict right now:
- The Suns will pick someone and not sell or trade the pick away. I know - I am really out there on this one given that Kerr literally guaranteed as much.
- The Suns will pick a big at the 15th spot. They seem impressed with several including McGee and Lopez and seem inclined to believe that you aren't going to get an NBA backup PG as a rookie at the 15th spot. I agree (as if that matters)
- They feel a need at the 3 which means that they aren't set on the idea of Diaw starting there, with Hill and possibly Giricek backing him up. Still, its hard to imagine that they will pick a wing player this year over a backup center which they so desperately need. Unless perhaps Joe Alexander falls to 15 because he apparently floats above the guys that walk on water.
- Of course, its also worth noting that both Chad Ford and the experts at Draft Express have the Suns picking Brandon Rush with the 15th. What do those guys know that I don't? Pretty much everything including I imagine that picking Rush makes Tucker very expendable.
- Based on the guys the Suns are looking at, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up with another pick late in the first or early in the second round. Perhaps if the Suns do take Rush or Joe-A (how's that for a nickname!) then they package their 2nd round pick (the 18th) with Tucker and try and get another 1st rounder. If it happens, just remember you heard it here first. If it doesn't - you didn't hear it anywhere so what's the difference...
- You don't get the sense that they are looking at top 10 guys which would seem to imply that they have no thoughts of trying to move up. Then again, you had no real thoughts they would trade Marion for Shaq until they did. That's how wild and crazy these guys are.