Let's take our minds off our misery and name the other team losers and winners (at least one each). Draft Winner: Portland Draft Loser: Cleveland I love Portland's picks. Lilliard and Leonard are great pieces to put around LMA and Batum. I dunno what's happening with Cleveland, seems to me like their FO just sucks. Last year they made Irving wait, then they reached big time and got Tristan Thompson at number 4, someone who was ranked below Patterson in some mocks. They follow up that with drafting some dude they never even worked out. Seriously, WTF? I don't know how good Waiters is, nobody knows because he closed off all his workouts. Now, the Cavs FO seemed to have done their due diligence based on this article, however Waiters was ranked so low they could have traded number 4 and probably gotten him in the 5-15 range. Its the same thing with Thompson again, they might like the kid but they could have waited and gotten more for him. http://espn.go.com/nba/draft2012/story/_/id/8111377/2012-nba-draft-cleveland-cavaliers-scenes
They needed a PG and a C, right? Those two pieces are the most important parts to a team, anyway. Unless you have someone like a LeBron or Kevin. I think they could do far worse than Lillard and Leonard, at 6 and 11.
Those hacks on First Take saying that it was mistake to take Leonard that high in draft. Don't get me started on the knocks of him being a white center. Leonard is not a bad pick. Wasn't drafted high, not expected to be a star, and could very well be serviceable starter in the NBA for a team who is in DIRE NEED of a center. I actually LOVED his athleticism, agility, fundamentals, and good feel to his game. If he feel to one of the Rockets picks, I would've liked to seen them grab him. Lillard was a decent pick Barton and Taylor were awesome 2nd round picks, both of which were projected as high as the mid to low 20s. They needed those picks to fill up that roster. I really want to see what they do in free agency. C - Zeller PF - Aldridge SF - Batum (or FA) SG - Chandler (or incoming FA) PG - FA Point guard (I doubt Lillard will start unless Portland just cannot find a point guard).
Lilliard's a dead-eye scorer who has good size for pg and is a good defender. His playmaking skills need a ton of work, but honestly if you already have LMA and Batum who can create their own shot you don't really need a playmaker. Leonard IMHO is the best center prospect outside of Davis. I can definitely see him developing into a Tyson Chandler-type of player.
I honestly think Lillard is there to feel the role of say Jamal Crawford more so than being the feature point guard. They are going to go pretty hard at free agent point guards.
