Who Will Be Available?

[George O'Brien]

One of the problems with discussing "best player available" picks is to figure out who will be available at the #7 pick.

Right now there is complete agreement that Okafor, Howard, and Deng will be gone - possibly in the first three picks. Of the players who are left, the following are guys who might be gone but might not:

Iguodala
Biedins
Gordon
Livingston
Childress

There is at least a chance that Pavel or Josh Smith will go in the top six, but I would be surprised. Pavel is too much of project to go that early and Josh Smith's workouts have not been going well. Harris has a remote chance but reports are his workouts have not been going well either.

At this point, I would say there is an overwhelming chance that three of the five players I've listed will be taken. For me, the worst case scenerio would be if two who remained were Childress and Livingston.

Childress is a nice player, but I don't see him having that much upside. On a team that is weak at SF, he would be a good pickup. I'm not convinced he is strong enough to be an outstanding defender. He won't embarass the Suns, but I'd like more.

Livingston is a complete project. On a team like the Bobcats he might have time to develop. But he would simply be an IR player on the Suns in the same way Pavel would be.

I can maka case against the other three as well, but I'm more inclined to take them than a total project.

 

[elindholm]

Biedrins is a total project too, but I agree that he'd be a better choice for the Suns than Livingston or Childress.

I think Gordon will be gone, so at this point I'm hoping for Iguodala, Biedrins, or trading the pick.

 

[F-Dog]

I've dealt with "who do I want?" elsewhere, so I'll stick to "who will be gone already?"

This is the way I figure it:

Okafor (100%)
Howard (100%)
Deng (100%)
Some other college swingman, probably Iguodala but possibly Childress (85%/10%)
Probably one of the college PGs will be gone, too (say, 75% on this one).


What that means to me is that only one of the following players will be taken:

Shaun Livingston
Andris Biedrins
Pavel Podkolzine
Josh Smith
Ben Gordon or Devin Harris, but not both

If I were running the Suns' draft room, I would assume that (at worst) my second choice from among that group would be available at #7.

It sounds like the Suns could get Andriuskevicius or Kosta Perovic with a guarantee, so if one of those two players is #2 on the Suns draft board, they will be faced with a difficult decision...

 

[Ryanwb]

What do you guys just recycle the same topics week to week???