Jun 19, 2013
The 2013 NBA Draft will be very entertaining for basketball fans as there is no clear top pick. Without someone like Tim Duncan or LeBron James as the must-have first overall selection this draft will be unpredictable and while the player with the best NBA career could go with the first pick there is a chance they are taken fifth or tenth. Plus trades always make a draft more fun and in this draft teams will be trading up and down, and out of the draft too. Dick Vitale won’t be the only person yelling a lot during the draft, and Stephen A Smith too, fans will be cheering and booing the picks all night.
With the 2014 NBA Draft expected to provide a lot of superstar players, there is incentive for a bad team to be bad for one more year, hoping for a lottery win next year. That is why Nerlens Noel makes sense for teams picking high in this draft, his knee injury will cause him to miss most or all of season 2013-14 and give his team a great chance at the top pick and Andrew Wiggins. Noel, when healthy, will be an eraser on the defensive end who could lead the NBA in blocks.
“The Admiral” David Robinson is an example of picking first overall and waiting for the player to arrive, and benefiting from a few extra lottery picks. Robinson wasn’t injured when the Spurs drafted him, but they did have to wait two years for him to play and that kept them high in the draft to select Willie Anderson and then Sean Elliott. If everything goes right for the Cavs, for season 2014-15 they could started Zeller, Nerlens Noel, Andrew Wiggins, Waiters and Irving.
Teams can find anything they need in the 2013 NBA Draft, except a guaranteed superstar. Ben McLemore will score a lot, Shabazz Muhammad will shoot a lot. A team that needs a leader on the floor will want Trey Burke. Victor Oladipo can change a team with his hustle. Otto Porter could be the next Jeff Green, which might be a compliment. Kelly Olynyk, could be the next Pau Gasol which is very complimentary, or the next Brad Lohaus which probably isn’t a compliment. Shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr won’t be as good as his father but he is a lot taller and he certainly has “skeels”.
Just like in recent drafts, a team can get a Zeller or Plumlee. If 2014 is about future All-Stars then the 2013 NBA Draft is about height and the six fouls they can contribute. A team that really wanted an injured Noel can still draft injured center Alex Len. Jeff Withey is going to block a lot of shots, he proved himself in the NCAA tournament but prospects like Steven Adams and Lucas Nogueira could be picked ahead of him based on their potential. Dick Vitale won’t like that. As for Cody Zeller and Mason Plumlee, they could be much better than their brothers with Cleveland and Indiana.
The foreign intrigue will once again appear in the first round. While teams can find a player like Dirk Nowitzki they also miss on many others like Saer Sene, Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Frederic Weis. In 2013 it will be Rudy Gobert who will be called the biggest steal by some and others will announce he is the biggest bust of the draft. Whatever team picks Gobert he will be the biggest something, if they did teach height and wingspan then he took extra classes as his standing reach is 9-7. A 7-2 center who can nearly touch the basket without jumping, that can be useful in the NBA. You can expect the word “project” to be used by every basketball analyst when they discuss Gobert and the team that drafted him.
There is so much to watch for in this draft. If a team is sending away their first rounder, maybe Dallas sell their pick for a few million dollars, that means they are clearing space to sign a free agent like Dwight Howard. There will be reaches, like German point guard Dennis Schroeder going top 10, and maybe an unexpected slide out of the lottery from someone like Shabazz Muhammad.
Maybe the biggest story of the draft will be the Thunder and pick 12. Houston are well ahead in the trade for James Harden unless OKC strike gold here. That could happen at 12 but the Thunder could instead look to package picks 12, 29 and 32 and try to move up into the top 5. Below is a first round mock draft, trying to predict the unpredictable.
1 Cleveland Cavaliers Nerlens Noel
2 Orlando Magic Ben McLemore
3 Washington Wizards Otto Porter
4 Charlotte Bobcats Alex Len
5 Phoenix Suns Cody Zeller
6 New Orleans Pelicans Trey Burke
7 Sacramento Kings Anthony Bennett
8 Detroit Pistons Shabazz Muhammad
9 Minnesota Timberwolves Victor Oladipo
10 Portland Trail Blazers CJ McCollum
11 Philadelphia 76ers Steven Adams
12 Oklahoma City Thunder Michael Carter-Williams
13 Dallas Mavericks Dennis Schroeder
14 Utah Jazz Tim Hardaway Jr
15 Milwaukee Bucks Shane Larkin
16 Boston Celtics Kelly Olynyk
17 Atlanta Hawks Jeff Withey
18 Atlanta Hawks Sergey Karasev
19 Cleveland Cavaliers Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
20 Chicago Bulls Mason Plumlee
21 Utah Jazz Rudy Gobert
22 Brooklyn Nets Lucas Nogueira
23 Indiana Pacers Gorgui Dieng
24 New York Knicks Tony Mitchell
25 Los Angeles Clippers Glen Rice Jr
26 Minnesota Timberwolves Giannis Adetokoubo
27 Denver Nuggets Tony Snell
28 San Antonio Spurs Allen Crabbe
29 Oklahoma City Thunder James Ennis
30 Phoenix Suns Reggie Bullock
