Here's the deal two days before the draft: Almost everything you read and hear between now and then is pure conjecture and separating real news from informed speculation is virtually impossible. We try to ferret out all the good stuff from myriad sources but what's right this afternoon may not be right tomorrow morning, or even tonight. In such a wide open draft – everyone knows Greg Oden and Kevin Durant go 1-2, no one knows what happens after that – there is even more room for rumours and fantasy and posturing than usual.
Does Atlanta move out of No. 3 or No. 11 or can they get a power forward and a point guard?
Will Philly use all its picks? 5 like so many people are telling me? The one thing that amazes me every year at this time is how all of a sudden everyone's an expert and one piece of speculation can become faster than you can say, 'With the No.
8 pick in the 2005 draft, the Toronto Raptors chose Rafael Araujo of Brigham Young University.' All this talk you hear about 'the Raptors need to have this guy' or 'that guy is exactly what Toronto needs' is blather, pure and simple. No one knows, because no one has seen any of these draft kids play against men and in the NBA.
Drafting is an inexact science most of the time so all the know-it-alls who come of the woodwork in the next 48 hours should be taken as entertainers, not information sources. Someone needs to explain to me why all the fuss over Mickael Pietrus and why anyone in the world thinks the Raptors should give him a contract that starts at the mid-level salary exception of about $5.8 million per year?
This is Mickeal Pietrus, right? Dude made about $2.5 million last year and is going to more than double his salary?
Dude who played 27 minutes a game on a team that barely snuck into the playoffs last year? Dude who's a 66 per cent free throw shooter in his career and a 35 per cent shooter from three-point range? They're supposed to pay this guy more than twice as much as he made last year?
I know I talked to one guy in the organization on the weekend who vowed the team would not overpay just to get a free agent and that leads me to believe that someone with a brain in their head will realize that $5.8 million a year to start for Mickael Pietrus is overpaying like crazy. I've got a feeling the best thing Pietrus has going for him right now is an agent with good connections.
If you pick up your favourite paper on Friday morning and see a different name on a Raptors story or tune into a television station or radio network and the voices are different, I may have a reason. The Raptors, bless their little hearts, are putting on some kind of media three-on-three thing Thursday afternoon before we all cover the draft, at least those who aren't in the hospital or otherwise laid up. I, of course, am sitting it out.
There is no way I trust the defibrillators well enough to risk this aging ticker. Oh, and it's more fun to coach. No, not mock.
A few predictions: If Stumpy plays, there will be an altercation of unknown severity. Frick and Frack will lead their respective teams in scoring. Arthur, will chat during the whole game.
Paul Jones will be the most accomplished player on the court. At least once, someone will be knocked down inadvertently and be angry about it. Those of us on the sidelines, me and the Lady Of The Beat, will have plenty to laugh about.
At least once, there will be some goofy talk between newspaper people and radio-TV types that will invoke all the stereotypes. One muscle will be torn or stretched and I don't like the odds of every tendon and ligament leaving the gym in the same shape that it entered it. Wanna be a scout?
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