Daily Fix: What To Do When It’s A One-Man Draft

The one thing that it seems like every hoophead with a mic or keyboard has been saying about the 2008 NBA draft is that after Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, it’s a crapshoot. If Howard Beck’s column in the Times on Tuesday, where he quoted a Western Conference GM as saying “it’s a one-man draft,” is accurate then Thursday’s draft could very well end up yielding but a single impact player. What does that mean if you’re an NBA GM on Thursday?

It should mean that, unless you’re Chicago picking first and doing the no-brainer by taking Rose, you draft the best basketball player on the board when it’s time for your pick. And, I don’t mean the guy with the most potential or tools, but the player with the best hoops IQ that’s most ready to contribute now. Sure, as Andy Katz points out, there are tons of talented frosh that are draft-eligible. And many of them will go in the first round. But, if the GMs and scouts are right, the best of them will end up being solid NBA players. Why waste a three-year contract just to find out that a kid will end up being a career backup or complementary player? Why not take the player that’s proven himself over a college career that lasted more than one season?

A smart or lucky GM is going to end up with a Roy Hibbert, J.R. Giddens, or Courtney Lee towards the end of the first round or in the second round and look like a genius when they end up being more productive and having longer careers than the likes of Kevin Love — being taken 5th overall by Memphis according to NBADraft.Net —- or Eric Gordon going to the Nets at 10 in Draft Express’s mock draft.

It happens every year (see Granger, Danny and West, David for recent examples) and 2008 will be no different.