Updated: June 27, 2005, 12:57 PM ET
Teams say trade talk complicates draft projections
Chad Ford
"Weird."
That's the word Nets GM Ed Stefanski and a host of other NBA executives have used to describe this year's draft.
While all agree that the draft pool is deep, they also acknowledge that there is unprecedented parity in this draft. By now, about 30 hours before draft night, most teams have narrowed their lists down to the two or three players they want.
This year, many teams still have five or six options on the table. That's partly because of the plethora of talent, and partly because there's so much trade talk that no one is sure what team will be drafting at which spot.
"You have conversations with other teams and you don't really know what is real," Wizards general manager Rod Higgins said.
Here's the latest we've heard – whether any of this is real won't be known for sure until draft night.
Hawks: After weeks of saying they would take Marvin Williams if Andrew Bogut wasn't on the board at No. 2, the Hawks' front office is having second thoughts.
The team doesn't have a strong need for Williams and wasn't particularly blown away with his workout and visit last week. However, the staff loved both Chris Paul and Deron Williams.
Sources say that the front office and coaching staff are split between Paul, Deron Williams and Marvin Williams at this point.
Blazers/Jazz: Every team from New Orleans (No. 4) to the Magic (No. 11) is interested in the Blazers' No. 3 pick. Most sources believe that Portland will trade the pick and stay in the lottery. That means that the Blazers are likely to seriously disrupt the draft on Tuesday.
They've been in trade talks with the Lakers, Bobcats and Jazz for the past few weeks. Sources say that talks with the Lakers have cooled over the past few days, while talks with the Jazz have intensified.
The Jazz are offering to swap Nos. 6 and 27 to Portland for the third pick. They're also willing to include players such as Gordan Giricek and Kirk Snyder to get a deal done.
The Blazers have insisted that any deal must include the problematic Ruben Patterson (and the two years, $13 million left on his contract). The team has also been reluctant to make a trade before draft night because of potential scenarios that have Marvin Williams falling to them at No. 3.
If the Jazz make a deal, they'll select either Deron Williams or Chris Paul. If they don't, and Williams and Paul are off the board, Channing Frye is the likely selection at No. 6.
If the Blazers move to No. 6, they'll take either Gerald Green or Martell Webster. If they stay at No. 3, chances are it will be Green.
Hornets/Raptors: The two teams talked about a swap this weekend that would send Jamaal Magloire to Toronto for the Raptors' seventh and 16th picks. However, by Sunday, one league source said that talks had cooled. The Raptors have been reluctant to include both picks in the deal and have been trying to work out something that includes only the seventh pick in this year's draft. To make their counter offer more palatable, the Raptors have offered to throw Morris Peterson into the deal. The Hornets initially signed Peterson to a restricted free agent offer sheet last summer, but the Raptors matched it.
Both sides are going to have to be patient if that's something they're interested in. As I wrote on Sunday, Magloire's a base-year player, meaning it's unlikely that he could be traded before July 22. Peterson is in a similar boat. He can't be traded until July 30 because of restricted free agency rules that prohibit teams who match offer sheets from trading a player back to the team that offered him the contract for one year.
At No. 4, look for the Hornets to grab Deron Williams if he's not already gone.
At No. 7, the Raptors will choose between Gerald Green, Danny Granger, Martell Webster and Channing Frye if they keep the pick.
Bobcats: They've been trying to move into the top three ever since the ping-pong balls bounced the wrong way on lottery night. However, the way the draft's going right now, they could be in great shape just by standing pat at No. 5.
There are scenarios in which Paul, Deron Williams or even Marvin Williams fall to No. 5. Short of that, the Bobcats would have their choice of Granger or Green at No. 5.
At No. 13, the team has a great shot of landing Raymond Felton. Given how the draft has fluctuated in the past week, the chances of Felton's slipping to Charlotte are pretty good.
If the Bobcats land a point guard at No. 5, or if Felton isn't on the board when they draft at No. 13, don't be shocked if they trade the pick to the Pacers, who are targeting Charlie Villanueva and don't believe he'll be on the board at No. 17.
Knicks: If the Quentin Richardson-for-Kurt Thomas deal ever goes down (it's been held up because of concerns about Richardson's bad back, which is uninsured), the Knicks will have to get serious about getting a big man who can play center.
As we first reported at the Chicago predraft camp, the team has made a promise to Frye and he shut down his workouts. However with both the Jazz and Raptors eyeing Frye, it's no longer a lock that he's there at No. 8. If he's gone, the team will have to decide between Spanish big man Fran Vazquez and high school big man Andrew Bynum.
The pick might very well be Bynum at this point. Vazquez's stock has been in flux for weeks after teams became concerned that he might not be willing to come to the NBA next season. Vazquez flew to New York this weekend and held two general workouts on Saturday and Sunday to quell some of those fears, but the reviews were very mixed. Teams weren't impressed at all on Saturday, when rustiness and jet lag contributed to a below average workout. Vazquez was better on Sunday, according to NBA sources in the gym, but didn't do much to help his stock.
Bynum, on the other hand, has been the draft's hottest riser in the past few weeks. He looked great in a general workout held before the predraft camp and in private workouts for the Lakers and Blazers. The only reason Isiah Thomas won't take him is because he has a veteran team and Bynum, despite the upside, is probably a couple of years away from being able to help.
Warriors: The growing consensus is that Hakim Warrick will be the Warriors' selection at No. 9 if Frye and Granger are off the board.
But Warrick's a curious fit for their offense. They're loaded at small forward. They need help at the four and have flirted with moving Troy Murphy to the five. But can Warrick guard fours in the NBA right now? I have my doubts. Arizona State's Ike Diogu and Oklahoma State's Joey Graham are also getting a look.
Lakers: Who knows? There have been more rumors concerning the Lakers (most of them bogus) the past few weeks than any other team.
Clearly they've been working the phones, trying to get aggressive, which has generated much of the talk. But nothing appears imminent.
Sources say that while GM Mitch Kupchak has been enamored with Green, head coach Phil Jackson wants to get his hands on Deron Williams, who he believes would be a good fit in the triangle offense. However, talks with the Blazers have cooled and none of the other teams in the top of the lottery would be willing to trade the draft rights to Williams to L.A.
If they stay at No. 10, it's anyone's guess. They'd love it if Granger fell to 10. More realistically, they'll have their choice of Vazquez, Bynum, Sean May and a project like Martynas Andriuskevicius.
Magic: They want to either move up or grab Martell Webster. If Webster isn't there at No. 11, this could be where May goes.
Clippers: All the talk about Yaroslav Korolev's promise is true. But as we reported in Treviso, the promise is a soft one. That means it is conditional on other players being off the board when the Clippers pick at No. 12. Is one of those players Antoine Wright? We keep hearing that head coach Mike Dunleavy is a big Wright fan. Wright can contribute immediately and fill a need. Korolev is a down-the-road prospect. If the Clippers grab Wright, Korolev could really slide.
Timberwolves: No one is sure what they're doing at No. 14. That's partly because they just hired a new GM, Rex Chapman, on Sunday. Villanueva, McCants, Ellis, Diogu, Graham, Francisco Garcia and Roko Ukic have been rumored here.
If Vazquez slides, he's yet another option they'd have to seriously consider.
That's what we're hearing in the lottery. Check back Tuesday morning for our final, two-round mock draft.
Here are a few other tidbits on the rest of the draft.
• This looks like it could be a very bad year for international players. Sure, Andrew Bogut is going No. 1, but he's proven himself at the college level. The direct imports are facing a lot more resistance. Everyone from Vazquez to Andrisukevicius to Ersan Ilyasova to Johan Petro seems to be slipping right now. They'll all get picked up in the 20s if they slide, but it's conceivable this will be the first year since 2000 that an international player coming directly from overseas doesn't go in the lottery.
• The Raptors have been spending most of the week doing serious homework on Croatian point guard Roko Ukic. That may explain their reluctance to trade the 16th pick to the Hornets.
• High school guard Ellis remains one of the biggest mysteries in the draft. His agent, Andy Miller, is telling teams he has a first-round guarantee, but no one seems to have a clue where it is. Denver? Utah? If it exists, whoever made it has done a good job of keeping it secret.
• We don't have a clue where McCants, Andray Blatche and Chris Taft are going. All are likely first-round selections, but no one seems to know where. McCants has been rumored to be going as high as No. 10 and as low as No. 23. Blatche has gotten interest from the Bobcats, Celtics and Knicks. Taft apparently has garnered interest from the Kings at No. 23.
• Who are the Celtics taking on draft night? Their last set of workouts might give you a clue. According to the Boston Herald, Diogu, Ryan Gomes, Villanueva, Graham and Blatche are scheduled for workouts today or tomorrow. Don't count out the possibility of the Celtics' taking a young international player like Korolev or Ilyasova to stash in Europe for a while.
• The Grizzlies remain interested in trading the 19th pick. Same with the Nuggets, at Nos. 20 and 22.
• Don't be surprised if the Spurs go international yet again this year. They have one of the league's best international scouting departments and there's a good chance a top-rated international prospect could slip to them. If no one slides, they could take a chance on France's Mickael Gelebale in the first round.
• The biggest sleeper on draft night could be Brazilian Lucas Tischer, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound big man who has tested off the charts athletically in workouts. Tischer already has an NBA body, is very bouncy and is a real force on the defensive end of the floor. His offense, on the other hand, has a long way to go.
"He was as athletic as anyone we've had in our gym," one NBA scout told Insider. "That includes our own players. He's still very raw and the language barrier [he doesn't speak English] will be a problem, but he might be worth taking a shot on if a team had a pick in the late first round."
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Teams say trade talk complicates draft projections
Chad Ford
"Weird."
That's the word Nets GM Ed Stefanski and a host of other NBA executives have used to describe this year's draft.
While all agree that the draft pool is deep, they also acknowledge that there is unprecedented parity in this draft. By now, about 30 hours before draft night, most teams have narrowed their lists down to the two or three players they want.
This year, many teams still have five or six options on the table. That's partly because of the plethora of talent, and partly because there's so much trade talk that no one is sure what team will be drafting at which spot.
"You have conversations with other teams and you don't really know what is real," Wizards general manager Rod Higgins said.
Here's the latest we've heard – whether any of this is real won't be known for sure until draft night.
Hawks: After weeks of saying they would take Marvin Williams if Andrew Bogut wasn't on the board at No. 2, the Hawks' front office is having second thoughts.
The team doesn't have a strong need for Williams and wasn't particularly blown away with his workout and visit last week. However, the staff loved both Chris Paul and Deron Williams.
Sources say that the front office and coaching staff are split between Paul, Deron Williams and Marvin Williams at this point.
Blazers/Jazz: Every team from New Orleans (No. 4) to the Magic (No. 11) is interested in the Blazers' No. 3 pick. Most sources believe that Portland will trade the pick and stay in the lottery. That means that the Blazers are likely to seriously disrupt the draft on Tuesday.
They've been in trade talks with the Lakers, Bobcats and Jazz for the past few weeks. Sources say that talks with the Lakers have cooled over the past few days, while talks with the Jazz have intensified.
The Jazz are offering to swap Nos. 6 and 27 to Portland for the third pick. They're also willing to include players such as Gordan Giricek and Kirk Snyder to get a deal done.
The Blazers have insisted that any deal must include the problematic Ruben Patterson (and the two years, $13 million left on his contract). The team has also been reluctant to make a trade before draft night because of potential scenarios that have Marvin Williams falling to them at No. 3.
If the Jazz make a deal, they'll select either Deron Williams or Chris Paul. If they don't, and Williams and Paul are off the board, Channing Frye is the likely selection at No. 6.
If the Blazers move to No. 6, they'll take either Gerald Green or Martell Webster. If they stay at No. 3, chances are it will be Green.
Hornets/Raptors: The two teams talked about a swap this weekend that would send Jamaal Magloire to Toronto for the Raptors' seventh and 16th picks. However, by Sunday, one league source said that talks had cooled. The Raptors have been reluctant to include both picks in the deal and have been trying to work out something that includes only the seventh pick in this year's draft. To make their counter offer more palatable, the Raptors have offered to throw Morris Peterson into the deal. The Hornets initially signed Peterson to a restricted free agent offer sheet last summer, but the Raptors matched it.
Both sides are going to have to be patient if that's something they're interested in. As I wrote on Sunday, Magloire's a base-year player, meaning it's unlikely that he could be traded before July 22. Peterson is in a similar boat. He can't be traded until July 30 because of restricted free agency rules that prohibit teams who match offer sheets from trading a player back to the team that offered him the contract for one year.
At No. 4, look for the Hornets to grab Deron Williams if he's not already gone.
At No. 7, the Raptors will choose between Gerald Green, Danny Granger, Martell Webster and Channing Frye if they keep the pick.
Bobcats: They've been trying to move into the top three ever since the ping-pong balls bounced the wrong way on lottery night. However, the way the draft's going right now, they could be in great shape just by standing pat at No. 5.
There are scenarios in which Paul, Deron Williams or even Marvin Williams fall to No. 5. Short of that, the Bobcats would have their choice of Granger or Green at No. 5.
At No. 13, the team has a great shot of landing Raymond Felton. Given how the draft has fluctuated in the past week, the chances of Felton's slipping to Charlotte are pretty good.
If the Bobcats land a point guard at No. 5, or if Felton isn't on the board when they draft at No. 13, don't be shocked if they trade the pick to the Pacers, who are targeting Charlie Villanueva and don't believe he'll be on the board at No. 17.
Knicks: If the Quentin Richardson-for-Kurt Thomas deal ever goes down (it's been held up because of concerns about Richardson's bad back, which is uninsured), the Knicks will have to get serious about getting a big man who can play center.
As we first reported at the Chicago predraft camp, the team has made a promise to Frye and he shut down his workouts. However with both the Jazz and Raptors eyeing Frye, it's no longer a lock that he's there at No. 8. If he's gone, the team will have to decide between Spanish big man Fran Vazquez and high school big man Andrew Bynum.
The pick might very well be Bynum at this point. Vazquez's stock has been in flux for weeks after teams became concerned that he might not be willing to come to the NBA next season. Vazquez flew to New York this weekend and held two general workouts on Saturday and Sunday to quell some of those fears, but the reviews were very mixed. Teams weren't impressed at all on Saturday, when rustiness and jet lag contributed to a below average workout. Vazquez was better on Sunday, according to NBA sources in the gym, but didn't do much to help his stock.
Bynum, on the other hand, has been the draft's hottest riser in the past few weeks. He looked great in a general workout held before the predraft camp and in private workouts for the Lakers and Blazers. The only reason Isiah Thomas won't take him is because he has a veteran team and Bynum, despite the upside, is probably a couple of years away from being able to help.
Warriors: The growing consensus is that Hakim Warrick will be the Warriors' selection at No. 9 if Frye and Granger are off the board.
But Warrick's a curious fit for their offense. They're loaded at small forward. They need help at the four and have flirted with moving Troy Murphy to the five. But can Warrick guard fours in the NBA right now? I have my doubts. Arizona State's Ike Diogu and Oklahoma State's Joey Graham are also getting a look.
Lakers: Who knows? There have been more rumors concerning the Lakers (most of them bogus) the past few weeks than any other team.
Clearly they've been working the phones, trying to get aggressive, which has generated much of the talk. But nothing appears imminent.
Sources say that while GM Mitch Kupchak has been enamored with Green, head coach Phil Jackson wants to get his hands on Deron Williams, who he believes would be a good fit in the triangle offense. However, talks with the Blazers have cooled and none of the other teams in the top of the lottery would be willing to trade the draft rights to Williams to L.A.
If they stay at No. 10, it's anyone's guess. They'd love it if Granger fell to 10. More realistically, they'll have their choice of Vazquez, Bynum, Sean May and a project like Martynas Andriuskevicius.
Magic: They want to either move up or grab Martell Webster. If Webster isn't there at No. 11, this could be where May goes.
Clippers: All the talk about Yaroslav Korolev's promise is true. But as we reported in Treviso, the promise is a soft one. That means it is conditional on other players being off the board when the Clippers pick at No. 12. Is one of those players Antoine Wright? We keep hearing that head coach Mike Dunleavy is a big Wright fan. Wright can contribute immediately and fill a need. Korolev is a down-the-road prospect. If the Clippers grab Wright, Korolev could really slide.
Timberwolves: No one is sure what they're doing at No. 14. That's partly because they just hired a new GM, Rex Chapman, on Sunday. Villanueva, McCants, Ellis, Diogu, Graham, Francisco Garcia and Roko Ukic have been rumored here.
If Vazquez slides, he's yet another option they'd have to seriously consider.
That's what we're hearing in the lottery. Check back Tuesday morning for our final, two-round mock draft.
Here are a few other tidbits on the rest of the draft.
• This looks like it could be a very bad year for international players. Sure, Andrew Bogut is going No. 1, but he's proven himself at the college level. The direct imports are facing a lot more resistance. Everyone from Vazquez to Andrisukevicius to Ersan Ilyasova to Johan Petro seems to be slipping right now. They'll all get picked up in the 20s if they slide, but it's conceivable this will be the first year since 2000 that an international player coming directly from overseas doesn't go in the lottery.
• The Raptors have been spending most of the week doing serious homework on Croatian point guard Roko Ukic. That may explain their reluctance to trade the 16th pick to the Hornets.
• High school guard Ellis remains one of the biggest mysteries in the draft. His agent, Andy Miller, is telling teams he has a first-round guarantee, but no one seems to have a clue where it is. Denver? Utah? If it exists, whoever made it has done a good job of keeping it secret.
• We don't have a clue where McCants, Andray Blatche and Chris Taft are going. All are likely first-round selections, but no one seems to know where. McCants has been rumored to be going as high as No. 10 and as low as No. 23. Blatche has gotten interest from the Bobcats, Celtics and Knicks. Taft apparently has garnered interest from the Kings at No. 23.
• Who are the Celtics taking on draft night? Their last set of workouts might give you a clue. According to the Boston Herald, Diogu, Ryan Gomes, Villanueva, Graham and Blatche are scheduled for workouts today or tomorrow. Don't count out the possibility of the Celtics' taking a young international player like Korolev or Ilyasova to stash in Europe for a while.
• The Grizzlies remain interested in trading the 19th pick. Same with the Nuggets, at Nos. 20 and 22.
• Don't be surprised if the Spurs go international yet again this year. They have one of the league's best international scouting departments and there's a good chance a top-rated international prospect could slip to them. If no one slides, they could take a chance on France's Mickael Gelebale in the first round.
• The biggest sleeper on draft night could be Brazilian Lucas Tischer, a 6-foot-10, 270-pound big man who has tested off the charts athletically in workouts. Tischer already has an NBA body, is very bouncy and is a real force on the defensive end of the floor. His offense, on the other hand, has a long way to go.
"He was as athletic as anyone we've had in our gym," one NBA scout told Insider. "That includes our own players. He's still very raw and the language barrier [he doesn't speak English] will be a problem, but he might be worth taking a shot on if a team had a pick in the late first round."
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