The NBA Draft

What more can you ask for?


You get great fashion.


You get speculation about the future of human performance (one of America's favorite pastimes).


You get intrigue regarding which teams might make what moves to make them better (another favorite pastime).


You get a few self-important talking heads bloviate as to who might be good, who might not be, what teams might want to do and how they might fare, with zero accountability.  It's not as though anyone does a retrospective as to whether Jay Bilas was right or not. 


You get the agony and ecstasy of the fans in the arena.  The draft is in Brooklyn, which traded its first-round picks this year and next year in the ill-fated trade for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.  So, the Nets are without a first-rounder.  You'll also get some Knicks' fans, and they're frustrated because the drama surrounding the team is better theater than what the team puts on the floor.  And the team is ready to peddle 7'3" Kristaps Porzingis, the fans' favorite, for the right price.  You'll also get a large number of fans making the trek from Philadelphia.  That will be a boisterous group, excited about The Process and willing to put their newfound treasures in the face of New York-area fans who typically talk smack about Philadelphia generally and the 76ers particularly.


What more can the viewing public ask for?  There will be trades.  Someone will slide.  There will be Euro stashes, players who do Euro steps and an inevitable Euro stash (see, e.g., Dario Saric).  There will be rampant speculation about which mid-first rounder will turn out to be the next Kawhi Leonard and which second rounder will turn into the next Isiah Thomas. 


All good fun, but they do play the games for a good reason -- to see who, really, is all that good and can win.  Stock up:  Philadelphia 76ers, seemingly about to abound with talent.  Stock up:  Boston Celtics, because of who they might be adding, and because they get the most out of their talent.  Stock down:  Nets, because they seem hopeless, owned by the one Russian oligarch who seemingly cannot win.  Stock down:  Knicks, because Jim Dolan owns them and does not seem to have a clue.  Stock up:  Kings, so long as they don't blow their picks.  Stock down:  Malik Monk, who has dropped in mock drafts, who is 6'3" and about whom there are questions about whether he can create his own shot well enough at the NBA level.  And then there are those whose stocks rise and fall for no proffered reason. 


Okay, so it's not a game 7, it's not Lakers-Celtics or anything like that.  But for June, it's as good as it gets, and it's pretty darned good.