Draft Strength - One word that many basketball fans constantly heard leading up the 2011 draft was 'weak'. Experts and analysts typically label a draft weak when there seems to be a lack of 'high end' star power at the top of the draft. And we guess that tag kind of made some sense with this particular draft...Kyrie Irving & Derrick Williams were the only guys out of the lottery who were projected as franchise type of impact players whom teams would want to build around. (And Irving only played eleven collegiate games at Duke (foot injury)...Williams really didn't emerge as a national star until the last NCAA tournament.)
What made the lottery even more weak was that some college stars such as Harrison Barnes & Jared opted to not enter the draft. Yet, we wouldn't be surprised to some of those other guys step up and play at all-star or near all-star levels at some point in their careers...most notably Brandon Night & Enes Kanter. JuJaun Johnson out of Purdue was a late first round steal for Boston as well.
Cavs - Regarding the #1 pick Irving, as Cleveland fans we definitely thought that was the right pick. Kyrie is a versatile player who possesses all the skills you want in a lead guard..he can pass, shoot, penetrate, and plays at a great tempo. The Lithuanian kid Jonas Valanciunas is universally tabbed as a better player than the Cavs' other lottery pick Tristian Thompson, but we think Thompson vs Valanciunas made end up being a wash in the end. Thompson's rep is that of a good, long defender who reportedly already has chemistry with Irving which could make him a great fit.
Lighty Undrafted - The farce that was the 2nd round..Buckeye Nation waited & waited..we waited to hear David Lighty's name called out as 2011 draft pick, but it never happened. For all the joy we had for Jon Diebler getting drafted by Portland, there was honestly just as much disappointment, anger, and bewilderment at the thought of one of Ohio State's best player's of the 2000's going undrafted. We don't care what those teams saw in the workouts..David Lighty is better than half of those guys in he 2nd round. Nobody can tell us that he isn't worthy of an NBA roster spot, and it really sucked to see his hometown Cavs draft a Serbian (who isn't even coming over) player over Lighty late in the 2nd.
And that brings us to the next point or quibble, and we're not just saying this because one of our favs didn't get picked..the drafts become almost unwatchable when teams draft all of these no name international guys who for the most part will never step foot on an NBA floor. We know teams are making these types of picks for strategic/financial reasons, but heck make a supplemental draft for those players or something. As big time fans, we follow these college players for years throughout their careers. Every player's dream is to hear his name called at the NBA draft, and to not see some of these NCAA guys like Lighty & Ben Hansbrough not get drafted in favor player X from overseas is definitely not cool..and one can only imagine how those four year undrafted guys feel. (By the way David Lighty was all class on the social media platform twitter on the night of the draft..the man has amazing character) More on Lighty in the next post.
Twitter destroyed ESPN - We love twitter but this social media program pretty much made watching the draft on ESPN obsolete. You had some guys on twitter who were scooping every pick and trade some three or four minutes before the announcement! Twitter took all the suspense out of the draft..guess we could have just avoided twitter during the draft, but we still had fun live tweeting and conversing with other folks during the even..so there was really no chance at avoiding those tweets that were scooping every tweet. Oh well...it was just another aspect of the night that made the 2011 draft weak!
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