Draft Points

Now that the draft order is all set following last night's NBA Draft Lottery, we can finally begin matching up teams and players for this year's draft.
The top two picks in this year's draft will be Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, not specifically in that order. While I am 99% sure that Beasley will be an NBA superstar, I am only 80% sure that Rose will be a superstar a well. There is no doubt in my mind that Rose will be a fantastic NBA player, but the comparisons to Jason Kidd and Chris Paul may be a bit unfounded, but who knows, as I like to say, the draft is a crapshoot.
When drafting in the NBA there are five main categories that teams should be basing their picks upon, in order of importance these categories are: Production, Mental Makeup, Competition, Physical Attributes, and Obvious defficiences.
From the top:
Production: This is obviously where any GM will start the evaluation process - What was the prospect's statistical production?

Mental Makeup: In the NBA, being able to mentally hack it is half the game, if not more. GM's will do extensive research to make sure that the player is mentally prepared....NBA draft busts are often the product of a weak, unprepared or immature mental makeup.

Competition: Has the prospect produced at a big time level against big time competition? There is a reason that the SWAC, MAAC, etc... do not usually produce high profile draftees. 20 ppg in the Big East goes a lot further than 20 ppg in the Sun Belt.

Physical Attributes: This is where GM's often get ahead of themselves. Although a player may have an "NBA Ready" body or a body dripping with athletic ability (See: Swift, Stromile, or Miles, Darius), unless he has has passed the test in the three previously mentioned categories, it means nothing. While this is obviously an extremely important category, it should follow the previous three things on the check list.

Obvious Defficiencies: There are oh so many players that NBA GM's can easily cross off of their lists, even is a prospect has passed the tests above, sometimes it is obvious that he just won't cut it in the NBA.

Now, the draft process is far from fool proof, and there will always be busts, but my humble opinion is that this is a check list that would be beneficial for NBA GM's to take a look at.

Coming soon, we will take a look at the upcoming draft.