NBA Draft all about the kids
The weariness on the other end of the phone was unmistakable. Oh, there are those who say Donnie Walsh always sounds that way. But considering that the president of the Indiana Pacers watched his team race to the top of the Eastern Conference the first half of the season and crash on the way to a first-round playoff exit, it's understandable.
So when you ask him about sitting out the first round of Thursday's NBA Draft, considering the pick was dealt two years ago to get point guard Jamaal Tinsley, don't expect to hear him panting to get in.
 | |
| Amare Stoudemire went from high school to NBA rookie of the year for the Suns.(Getty Images) |
This draft will be no different. It will begin with 18-year-olds LeBron James and Darko Milicic, followed by 19-year-olds Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh before we likely will have a shot at the old man of the group, 20-year-old point guard T.J. Ford.
But that's only if the Miami Heat don't take 19-year-old Maciej Lampe, a multilingual 7-footer from Poland.
Out of the likely top 10 picks, only Chris Kaman, Kirk Hinrich and Dwyane Wade are 22. French swingman Mickael Pietrus is 21. All of that considered, this is beginning to look a lot like 2001, when five of the first eight players taken were teen-agers.
Walsh knows all about dealing with teens considering three of his players -- Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender -- went directly from high school to the NBA.
O'Neal, like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady, is now an All-Star. He is an unrestricted free agent this summer following his second contract, and is expected to re-sign with the Pacers. But it has not been an easy road for him or the teams that have developed him. He wallowed on the bench in Portland for four seasons because coach Mike Dunleavy wouldn't play him.
With both O'Neal and Blazers president Bob Whitsitt frustrated, Whitsitt dealt him to Indiana for veteran big man Dale Davis, and O'Neal rapidly became a star on the young Pacers.
"You are taking a chance with any player you pick," Whitsitt said. "We wanted him to play more, but he didn't. So we agreed to do a deal. The margin of error when you draft players now is greater and greater because they keep getting younger. But this is the world we live in now."
Last year, the only prep star to go in the top 10 was Amare Stoudemire, who went on to become rookie of the year for the Phoenix Suns.
The Blazers tried to leapfrog the Suns at nine, but couldn't get past them to get Stoudemire.
Instead, he helped lead Phoenix to a surprise run into the playoffs, and the Suns scared eventual champion San Antonio more than anyone imagined before losing in the first round.
"It wasn't that difficult because we felt pretty strongly about Amare's prospects," Suns president Bryan Colangelo said. "Would any of us have imagined he would have affected us as quickly as he did? No Way. He had an amazing year and it's a testament to how hard he works and how coachable he is. The key now is to keep him going on the right path. Nobody knows where he will peak, but our hope is once he peaks, we do everything we can to keep him at that level for 10-12 years."
At 6-10, 245, Stoudemire hardly was built like your typical 19-year-old. James is another youngster, who at a shade less than 6-8 is an amazing physical specimen at 245 pounds. Some of it is genetic makeup; other parts are based on the dedication to be great.
 | |
| The Blazers ran out of patience for Jermaine O'Neal, but he's become a star for the Pacers.(Getty Images) |
Hilario, already physically mature, got plenty of minutes in the wake of Marcus Camby's hip problems and was named to the all-rookie first team. Tskitishvili, meanwhile, played just 16.3 minutes a game and his fine shooting touch suffered through a nightmarish field goal percentage as his slim 7-0, 220-pound frame was battered all season.
Vandeweghe considers himself fortunate to have gotten 10.5 points and 6.1 rebounds out of Hilario. He has blown up the entire roster of a team that was far over the salary cap with aging unproductive players, to start from scratch.
He will add Anthony with the third pick overall to the Hilario, Tskitishvili youth movement, hopefully sign young free agent point guard Gilbert Arenas and perhaps a couple of others with the $18 million worth of cap space.
And yet, if he listens closely, he can hear the impatient foot tapping of owner Stan Kroenke, despite the way coach Jeff Bzdelik had his team playing hard all the way to 17 wins.
"All I promised anyone was that we were going to play hard every night and we did," Vandeweghe said. "Jeff, his staff and the players did a great job. Things have changed over the past five years, and if you want a super-talent, you're going to have to go very young and wait on him. And even then, you don't really know until you get him.
"Tskita was physically immature and we knew that. But 10 games into the season, everyone is screaming he's a bust. I was in Dallas when they drafted (Dirk) Nowitzki and everybody was ready to give up on him his first year and by the end of his second year, he was good, third year he was better and now he's arguably one of the five best players in the league. I'm not comparing Tskita to him -- that's not fair -- but it gives you an idea of how you have to be patient. The American public is into instant gratification. Heck, I'm into instant gratification and want him to be great now, but it's just not realistic."
It's the nature of the NBA now. Commissioner David Stern would like to limit the draft to nobody younger than 20. The National Basketball Developmental League does not allow for anyone less than 20 unless they've played in the NBA. But the players association will not listen to any talk of limiting the age of players.
Garnett, Bryant, McGrady and Nowitzki were four of the top six vote-getters in the All-NBA team this season, and Jermaine O'Neal was 11th -- which translates into five of the top 11 players not having gone to college at all.
"It remains our position that we think it would be a good idea for there to be a 20-year-old minimum," Stern said. "Not because we don't think that LeBron James is going to make a great impact; I think he already has. ... We think that we really do have a concern that as we get more popular and as jobs actually become scarcer, competition is harder for those positions, that there are kids now that think they are going to be LeBron and everyone in this room and most of the world knows they are not going to be the next LeBron. They are going to now focus themselves on the NBA and not have anything to do with their lives."
It's not going to happen. Instead, the NBA will stay young. All the hand wringing, whining and complaining by the adults won't do any good at this point.
This is the NBA. With declining television ratings and all the rule changes apparent to all, the future is in the hands of the kids. Last year it was Stoudemire, and this year, there is little doubt about James.
But what about the likes of Ndubi Ebi and Kendrick Perkins -- two more high school kids testing the limits? At least the international kids have had the opportunity to be a little more worldly.
The reality is none of the 29 teams really know what's going to happen, so they play this little game that can be termed Weapons of Mass Distraction.
"It's a big chess game that everybody's trying to win," Colangelo said. "As close as we all are in terms of relationship, you really do have to protect the best interest of your organization. Our philosophy is to do it with as much integrity as possible, rather than mislead people and float absolute lies. You confuse with more information than needs to be out there, all we can do is do as much homework as possible on each player.
"Then hope we're right."
