For Jason Kidd, I know that an aging PG with recent knee surgery doesn’t seem like a sure thing, but his numbers as the season progressed last year showed increasing strength, and he’s now had a full offseason of rest. The Nets roster has been re-built pretty quickly to go to Kidd’s strengths, and I expect his excitement at all the passing options to translate into a season closer to his numbers of a year or two ago, the last time the Nets had a serious contending team.

For Brad Miller, I am reminded of the old adage that many of our actions are done in reaction to previous mistakes. Each year I’ve played I’ve sworn never to over-reach for a center. But it always made me uncomfortable in a draft, especially when there are 22 picks between mine and the next one and any run on centers could leave me empty. This is definitely high for Miller, and I’ll admit I did have hesitation and regrets about it, I much rather would have traded down and gotten someone like Pierce or Brand a few picks later. But you can’t ask for better-rounded numbers from a center, and it at least leaves me with flexibility later in the draft. I probably would have taken Jermaine if he had C eligibility.

I gave some thought to Paul Pierce here but went with a F since my first pick was a G. Some concerns for him include the number of games he missed last season and the fact he has already been sitting out some this preseason with a thight bruise.

But I like the thought that without Reggie Miller O'Neal may now consider the Pacers his team and step it up.

I like contributions he can make in block and rebs and his FG% will partner with Wade to form a solid base in that category.

With this pick, I wanted to shore up any weaknesses in my first rounder. Looking at TMac's stats, the only areas where he isn't great are FG% and Blocks. I narrowed my selection down to Brad Miller, Elton Brand, and Jerm-O, in that order.

Brad isn't great in blocks, but he is a center and is excellent everywhere else; he's the kind of player I usually avoid, but the numbers speak for themselves, and I was disappointed to see him go before my pick. That left it down to Brand and Jermaine. Jermaine has chronic health issues, and I can't afford for my second rounder to miss substantial time. Brand is always a consistent 20-10 guy and I think his broken foot was a fluke. Also, I read that he added muscle in the offseason (although, doesn't it seem like every player says that?). Finally, I figured with the absence of Bobby Simmons there were about 6 more rebounds per game that were up for grabs, so maybe Elton could grab one of those.

I came into this pick without as much preparation as I’d have liked. I really wanted Artest here but was sure he wouldn’t drop all the way to the bottom of the third with this group. That’s why I tried to trade up in the third. It was painful watching all the next group of guys I was drooling over go one by one right in front of my pick. It seemed like in the second round, we had a run on guards, and in the third, a run on forwards. At this point, I had taken 2 guards in the first 2 rounds so I felt I needed to balance out my roster. I wanted Wallace and Odom with my next 2 picks, and it turns out I would have gotten them had I selected Odom first. However, I really wanted Rasheed- I ultimately decided- so I went ahead and listed him as first to be guaranteed to get him. I probably should have noted that LionPrideGuy already had a Center and was therefore not as likely to pick up a center (meaning Rasheed would get back to me in 3 picks), but since Rasheed is F-C eligible, even that would not have been a guarantee. Plus, having mulitple good Centers in this league is not at all a bad thing.

One of the reasons I really wanted Wallace is that the word on the street (or in my case, the net) is Sheed has come into camp hungry and in shape- 20 lbs. lighter- and promising to be more aggressive this year. I think the Pistons feel they have something to prove as the Central Division has become the best in the NBA, and they feel they’re not getting the respect they deserve. Though they added another big via free agency, I still see Rasheed getting plenty of clock. A big bonus for me was his dual eligibility at F-C. With my lack of depth at these positions so far, the flexibility he offered, esp. to fill the C spot if needed, was too good to pass up. His 80 threes were pretty sweet for a C, even if they hurt his %s.

I did think briefly about Shaq, but not only does Ben shoot less FT and get more reb/blk (in exchange for less points), but I do feel like Shaq is going to sit out 20 or so games this year with some claimed injury, just to save energy for the playoffs. That’s 25% of the season, and his numbers aren’t great enough to make up for that. Z might also have been a close decision had he still been on the board, but Guru solved that for me. Overall, I’m happy to get Ben this late.

4.01 Lamar Odom, F, LAL
With Kidd and two centers, I figured it was time for a F unless there was someone else who really was can’t miss (last year I got Arenas here). Odom’s all-around game helps a roto team in so many ways, and his reb numbers in LA last year were great for a small forward. Phil Jackson has been talking about getting the ball in Odom’s hands more often, even saying he may be the primary ball-handler. His shoulder seems to be fine after surgery, and it hasn’t hampered him in preseason games at all.

With Odom off the board, I really looked hard at a couple of other SF’s, including Melo and Maggette. However, also afraid of what a run on Centers could do to the available players there, esp. considering how many teams at this point still did not have a center, I felt I needed to look at the C spot to see if there was a player available. I felt Camby surprised last year (at least me) and when he was playing, he was putting up some monster numbers. I had been wondering coming into this draft if it might be possible to land him on my squad this year.

Coach Karl seems high on Camby, saying recently that he could be a ‘special’ player for the Nuggets this year. Camby has not been as injury prone in the last couple years, but this fear is what causes him to slip in drafts. If he can stay healthy this year, he will be a blocking and boarding machine. He also gives double figure scoring, a couple assists and a steal to round out his contributions. His FT % is decent for a C, though his FG% is not impressive. Fortunately, I was able to address team FG% in rounds 5 and 6.

Probably one of the best things about Camby is that he's such a stud in blocks. If he goes down, I will probably get hurt in this cat, since I'm counting on him for a boatload. Of course, news about his sore foot broke after I picked him. Hopefully this will not be a big deal. Realistically though, this is the type of 'little' injury that seems to always be plaguing him. He misses more games for such a vast variety of seemingly small injuries.

I may have jumped the gun a bit on Dalembert. As I said in my last rationale, I felt vulnerable without a center that a run of any sorts would leave me sifting through the dregs... I half thought either Dave R or the Euros (or both) might take a center with their previous picks as they were both centerless at this point. Neither did, but I felt I still needed one. Of the guys I was considering (Okur, Magloire, Bogut,...), I thought Dalembert had the biggest chance of exploding this year. With a big new contract, he's the big man now for Philly, and has the potential to average a double-double with a couple blocks a game.

Of course, now this injury he's been suffering through has me more concerned. He has yet to play in preseason and barely practiced - he could very well be due for another slow start this year.

This is definitely where the draft options started to be much more wide open for me and things get a little less well-defined. I could start making cases for all kinds of players at this spot and considered 2-3 times as many names as I had in the past. Those included Webber, Josh Smith, and Rafer Alston. The two that I really thought about were Josh Howard and Stromile Swift. Howard seems to be stepping up his numbers again this year in Dallas and continuing to grow in multiple categories. He should get more playing time this year with changes in the team's roster, and his solid defense will keep him on the court. I also really liked Stromile Swift, and came very close to drafting him here. We've all been waiting for him to get a starting spot and consistant minutes with a team where his numbers can break out. Going from 21 mpg to 35 or so in Houston (hopefully), he can become among the league leaders in blocks, as well as getting good rebounding numbers. I can see him running the floor with Alston and McGrady, getting all kinds of all-oop and putback dunks, floating on defense with Yao behind him to get all kinds of help-side blocks, shooting a high FG%, and as a bonus he even qualifies as a center.

So why didn't I draft Swift? Almost for exactly that reason, because I wanted to so much! The last two years in these RIHC drafts, I had done okay in the early and late rounds, but had just horrible mid-round draft picks. I look back and think that my mid-round draft picks the last few years included Darius Miles in the 7th for the year he was in Cleveland, Al Harrington in the 5th last year, and so on. Each time I got excited about potential and went with best-case projections on their numbers, and got myself killed in the middle rounds.

I felt I needed to take somewhat of a risk here - you don't win these leagues without taking someone who really exceeds expectations. Bogut has the ability to come in and make an immediate impact. I checked last year's draft, and I chose Okafor with the same pick last year (6.10 is now the designated rookie of the year slot in all RIHC drafts).

Time to take another chance - for all his troubles the last few years, Eddy Curry is actually pretty talented. His heart is a concern of course, but he's been checked out and cleared with no restrictions multiple times now. He's only 22, and is (obviously) still maturing, but that's about the age that things really start to break out for many players straight from high school. This pick is made somewhat on the hope and faith of Larry Brown instilling some discipline and work ethic into Curry, which certainly isn't a sure thing. But Curry sounds rather offended at Chicago's trade of him, and I think will be looking to prove some people wrong. He does already have his contract, but the good side of that is that with the money they're paying him, New York is going to be playing him more than the 29 mpg he had in Chicago the last two years. The Knicks are also so thin up front that there's not as much risk of him being benched, he's going to have to play more minutes. Last year he was being taken in the 4-5 rounds and he didn't really have that bad a season, just not the breakout people hoped for and risk/reward for that is better this late. Curry is very talented offensively, shoots a great FG%, and although he's a terrible rebounder for a center, the increase in minutes - plus the large amount of bricks that NY's guards are going to throw up - should raise that at least a little.

I better start taking notes when I make the pick because I am forgetting why I took my players now. As I recall Hamilton was at the top of the depth chart but I was still considering another player of whom I forget now - I think...Well reason for not taking Hamilton include the fact I had him last year and since he does not give much in steals and treys for a guard. What I like about him though, and a likely driving force at the time, was his progress in the assist categories. I also notice that his scoring dropped dramatically when Larry Brown arrived two years ago and now I am hoping it goes back up.