CAA in the NBA Draft

Our buddy Frank, JMUSB’s special CAA Basketball Tournament correspondent, was glued to the t.v. for last week’s NBA draft. Yeah, for the 19th consecutive year, not a single JMU Duke was selected (how Vladimur Cuk slipped below the radar is beyond me). VCU’s Larry Sanders was drafted however and Denzel kind of dominated him last season, so we’re gonna blog about it.  Also this no Dukes in the draft thing has gotta end sooner or later and when it does, Frank is gonna be the guy we rely on to break it down for us. Here’s his take on last week’s draft.

Only 3 of the 275 non-BCS schools had ever had back-to-back first round NBA draft picks entering the 2010 NBA draft. The CAA’s own Virginia Commonwealth University joined Memphis, Utah and UNLV when Larry Sanders was taken with the 15^th pick of the 2010 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Sanders joins Ram great Eric Maynor, who was selected in the first round last year by the Utah Jazz. VCU is the only school in the Commonwealth of Virginia to have back-to-back first round choices (Take that UVA, Virginia Tech and er, ah….JMU).

Sanders will likely join the Bucks rotation immediately replacing Dan Gadzuric. Coach Scott Skiles desperately needed to add a big man and improve the defense. Sanders fills both needs.

Eric Maynor currently plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He backs up one of the best all-around young point guards in the league, Russell Westbrook. Maynor was not a major contributor but he did average over 15 mins a game. It is fairly impressive when you consider the level and depth of perimeter talent on the Thunder.

All of this helps VCU recruiting tremendously. (Ed. Note: It’s gotta help CAA recruiting in general, and therefore JMU’s, right? I mean if Brady can tell recruits that Denzel dominated a NBA draft pick last season it certainly can’t hurt? Please!) The bar has been set. Some other brief takes on the draft after the jump:

The Summer of LeBron James has officially started. LeBron and an impressive class of free agents drove a race for cap space. In essence, they made 2nd round picks more valuable than 1st round picks. (Second round picks do not carry guaranteed contracts.)

The Wizards got the prize of the draft. John Wall will be a star…and soon. Now how do they keep Agent Zero from sinking the ship? Good luck.

A less obvious winner was the Bulls. By trading their #1 pick and arguably their 2nd best player (K.Hinrich) for virtually nothing, they placed themselves firmly in mix for LeBron. They have cap space to sign two top tier free agents.

Another winner, every free agent not named LeBron. When LeBron signs, there will be around 4 teams with plenty of cash and rosters looking like All PAC-10 teams. These teams will incentive to reach for the next star. I suspect within 2 years, several of these teams will regret the decisions they made this summer.

Does Al Davis own the Minnesota Timber Wolves? Nice work by www.nbadraft.net who had Trevor Booker going to the Wolves…..unfortunately, they were 1 round and 29 picks off. They shouldn’t feel bad though, Booker was not even on most mocks.

Why would the Clippers take Al-Farouq Aminu when they drafted Blake Griffin last year? It is because they are still the Clippers.

Kentucky had one more player drafted in the first round (5) than the entire Big East (4). Yet they were bounced from the NCAA tourney by a Big East team with only 2 players drafted (both players were drafted in the 2nd round). Why are NBA teams courting Calipari?

The Jazz received the #9 pick from the NY Knicks in a trade that took place in 2004. I am surprised more GMs don’t trade away successors’ successor’s pick. Seems like a good idea if you are fighting for your job.

With Anthony Randolph, Brandan Wright and Ekpe Udoh, the Warriors have great length and athletic ability at the power forward position. How about some power?

Is Derek Favors the next Kwame Brown? Probably not. Favors is not nearly as articulate or as snappy of a dresser.