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Here we are, folks, just 11 days from the actual, real live 2013 NBA Draft!
To add a little intrigue to the waiting period, SBNation.com decided to have each blog participate in a FIRST ROUND MOCK DRAFT. The Draft was conducted via email, texting and whatever other communication technology each team wanted to use, over the course of 7 days, from June 3-10.
RidiculousUpside.com is posting a few picks per day, starting today, over the course of the week before the draft.
The Skinny
Each NBA blog picked a designated General Manager and most of them used their entire blogger core as their de facto Front Office.
The most fun part of the mock draft was the ability to execute trades with each other. As long as the trade involved at least one team's first round pick, any trade that fits in the salary cap would count. We also decided that trade "promises" could be made, to finalize the trade once the new league year began in early July, if that was necessary to complete the trade under the cap rules. These trades have been promised for years in real life, so why not in the blogosphere?
The Front Office
On the Bright Side, the whole writing staff participated in the selection and trades process. We got offers to consider, as well as proposing trades of our own. Just as I suspect is true in real life, some GMs were interested in making trades while others had no interest at all. And the longer the draft went, the more interested were the later teams in making a trade.
We didn't play parts, like in a movie, or draw straws on who was who in the Suns real front office.
But what did play out was quite similar to the Suns actual front office today:
Seth Pollack, NBA league manager for SBNation.com and former editor of the Suns blog, happened to play the part of Robert Sarver. He participated in trade and pick discussions and even proposed one trade to another team without consulting the rest of us! But overall, he let the day-to-day guys run the show, so props to Seth!
Jim Coughenour offered advice and suggestions but went out of his way to remind people that he wasn't a prospect talent evaluator. He weighed in more on trades and cap rules than anything else. Yep, sounds like Lon Babby to me too.
Kris Habbas, our resident NBA Draft Insider who scouts in real life all year long, played a part that I imagine mirrors John Treloar (Suns' Director of Player Personnel and draft guru) in real life. Kris ended up being the guy who offered the most insight on each prospect but did not participate much in trade discussions. When we couldn't decide on which prospect to draft, Kris often helped us break the tie by giving us an on-the-spot scouting report and recommendation.
Sean Sullivan acted as a scout on draft prospects and weighed in on trade suggestions and discussions. He was a jack of all trades that appears to mirror the contributions Ronnie Lester was hired to perform in real life for the Suns.
Jacob Padilla was also a scout and confidant for the GM, providing insight in all areas of the draft. Let's call him our very own Bubba Burrage, who remains a scout for the Suns after the front office shakeup. Jacob has been around BSotS for years and still provides great insight into the current team and where the team should be headed.
Brand new blogger Richard Parker played an active role in the discussions on all levels, from capology to data analysis to trade offers and prospect evaluation. He played a key role in many decisions, so let's call him our Pat Connelly (Suns new Asst. GM) - new to the scene but with a high level title.
That leaves one major role left, and I appointed myself the perfect guy to fill that role. Acting as the team's General Manager, the loudest voice in the room, I initiated and ended all discussions when the time came. I made all the final picks, good or bad. I was our Ryan McDonough.
The only problem is that I haven't watched a whole lot of anything on these prospects, while McD watches everything and has been watching and evaluating for years, I fully expect that I made dumb decisions (at least one that the rest of the FO disliked, that's for sure). But that's what happens when you put bloggers in charge of the draft: dumb decisions.
So I used as much input as I could handle from the guys, and I made the best decisions I felt I could make.
The Plan
First up, I had to decide the course of action for the Suns this season.
My first issue was that the Suns were one of the oldest lottery teams in the league (second to Dallas), and yet the Suns collection of veterans had still only won 25 of 82 games. Let's not forget that. The Suns won only 25 games all season - the second worst winning percentage in the history of the franchise.
That winning percentage was consistent all season, with the first 41 games at 13-28 and the final 41 games at 12-29. In the first half, Gentry played the veterans the most minutes and enjoyed almost perfect health. The second half had Gortat missing most of the games, and O'Neal missing many. But otherwise, no more injuries. Stlll, the Suns nearly matched their first-half totals.
In short, this roster as constituted is "old" and unlikely to significantly improve to contender status with time. So, I decided it was time to shake things up with the draft.
First order of business: getting the best possible talent with the first selection.
Did we draft Alex Len? Or Ben McLemore? Or Victor Oladipo? Or someone else? Did we move up from 5? Did we drop down?
Coming later today, ridiculousupside.com will reveal the Suns' first pick in the MOCK 2013 NBA Draft. Once that pick is made, I will post my diary of how that pick came about.
Watch ridiculousupside.com all week for who picked who, who traded who and how it all affected the Phoenix Suns.