All those posts were meaningless

Last week I wrote that the best thing we could do with a lottery pick outside of the top two was trade it for a good veteran piece, presumably a center or small forward. This sentiment has been echoed--better said, I was echoing the sentiment from others--all over the internet. Dave at Blazer's Edge has said it (kind of), he's quoted Blazer beat writer Jason Quick saying it, and other people have said it. But while looking at all-things NBA for a while with my brother this morning, I found out that my favorite non-Oderant player for this year's draft is coming out after all. Yes, Julian Wright declared for the draft. And at several sites they project he will be available in the range the Blazers are likely to be picking. Here are several of those sites. There is a good counter-point article at RealGM labeling Wright as something other than a lottery pick, which has some important things to think about. Having said that, this video is one of the reasons I still like him. Watch some of the highlights, but then go forward to the interview (it's around the 3:24 mark). That's the kind of young player I want to continue adding to the stable of young (and GREAT) Portland players.


Kevin Pritchard's strong ties to Kansas lead me to several possible conclusions, all of which might be completely ridiculous:

1. Pritchard will be more likely to take the Kansas guy.
2. Pritchard will have great access to information about the Kansas guy, so that he has even better information than other GMs might.

His strong ties to San Antonio were part of the reason I thought he could work on the Duncan deal, and we all know that they still wouldn't give up Duncan, even if it was in a deal that sent their first round pick (a traded-for higher pick than the one they currently hold) with Duncan to Portland for the rights to Durant (if Portland gets the second pick) and Randolph. I mean, we know that this deal couldn't happen, but I still feel like Pritchard's charisma and strong ties could help him do a deal like this.

Even if we don't end up taking Wright, I like a few other guys in this draft that could fall to us in the non-Oderant position enough to keep the pick. I'll let Steve Kerr tell you about it:

Nate McMillan's reclamation project is going well, with last year's draft netting good young talent at the point (Sergio Rodriguez), the wing (Brandon Roy) and at center (LaMarcus Aldridge). Portland would love to add another versatile scorer/defender at the wing, so Corey Brewer, Jeff Green or Julian Wright make some sense. It appears the Blazers are on the right track. Now it's a matter of adding another high character, good player to the mix and continuing to build the foundation.

That sounds good to me.

Here are a few other links that show how people feel about the young Blazers, and give credence to my confidence in Pritchard on draft day. This one talks about all four of the Blazers' first round picks, Aldridge, R-O-Y, Rodriguez, and Freeland. And this one labels Sergio Rodriguez as a fantasy sleeper for next year.

In other news, my friend Mark shouldn't feel too bad about inviting The Yetis to join our fantasy baseball league. Compton Unified School District, the district I liked best from interviews in Portland last week, sent my contract offer to The Yetis as well. And they had a resumé which had my email address clearly written. That got straightened out today, but I may have to send The Yetis a message in Baseball to apologize for all the mail he's gotten in the last few years that was meant for me.