Other candidates for this slot were Baron, Nelson, Mike James and Felton, 3 of which were (somewhat surprisingly) available when things came back around to us.

David West was a safe, consistent pick. I am worried about some of his shots, and scoring, going down because of Peja's arrival. I'm thinking his rebounding will possibly also be lower this year than last, and he might be a bit overrated right now because all the new pieces in NO are going to take away from him. But he still shoots great% from the field and the FT line, will keep improving as a player since last year was only his fifth getting regular minutes, and did too well last year for them to go away from him altogether. I'm still desperate for a PG and some assists, but he'll provide consitent numbers as a role player on my team.

If I wasn't so worried about a guard I might have taken Troy Murphy here, and considered Josh Howard too. In the end, I just needed my first PG too badly and may have stretched for it.

Villanueva could turn out to be a great pick as he helps in all categories except assists. However I am suspicious of why Toronto traded him for Ford. There are rumors that he has an attitude problem.

Ford will help in assists and steals but very damaging in FG%.

My rationale in the end was that, again, somebody was going to need to produce for Portland. Zach was a 5th rounder for most leagues last year and had an off year, but I think it was because it was his first back from microfracture surgery. We've seen that most of the players who try to return from this still aren't really all the way back their first year. While certainly a head case, he's been consistant for producing while he's on the court. 18-20ppg and 8-10 rpg the last three years is solid considering we're almost into the 8th round. Reports are that he is in better shape this year and stronger on his knee than last year, almost back to pre-surgery. I'm conting on that to bounce back from his sliding numbers the last two years and more toward the 48-51% FG from a few years ago than the 44% the last two years. He doesn't get much in the steals/blocks categories, but has shown this preseason a bit more versatility and really solid numbers, and anything gained there would be a bonus. At this point in the draft you almost have to start accepting some imperfections in your players and holes in their games. Randolph I believe can be a player who still adds positives who may not help much in some categories, but doesn't hurt me at all. I might have taken TJ Ford here instead if he were available, but I have to still be pretty excited to get Zach this late.

I still am searching for another PG but felt it was too early for Claxton, Stoudamire, or even Cassell since his minutes are up in the air. It's the tough part waiting 20 players between picks, I could either grab one now too early, or expect they'd all be gone when it got back to me. I felt like Francis had a better chance for contributing across the board this year than either of those three, so I gave up on the PGs again and thought that I had an outside chance Damon Stoudamire would be there for an automatic pick at 9.11 for me (nope).

On the positive side... maybe Isiah Thomas can turn the Knicks around and Marberry will pass the ball. If Curry could get to 16 pts a game and 6.5 rebounds then this pick wouldn't be so bad.

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