Given the success rate of prior Los Angeles Clippers first-round selections, can anyone blame Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin if he’s contemplating continuing his college education? After the Clips managed to win, well, the only thing they ever do manage to win, the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Geoff Calkins hails the end of what he calls “roughly 1,000 years of lottery misery” for the Grizzlies, and suggests his local side might consider wheeling and dealing for Griffin.
Just imagine the scenarios between now and draft day. The Grizzlies could:
1. Take a run at Griffin anyway: The Los Angeles Clippers got the No. 1 pick. They’re one of the few teams that might just as soon have Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio (above). The Baron Davis experiment hasn’t worked out. Rubio is flashy enough for Los Angeles and will appeal to their Hispanic fans. If Wallace can give the Clippers a good reason to take Rubio instead of Griffin, they might just go for it.
2. Trade Rubio for a package of picks and players: Would the Knicks be willing to give up the No. 8 pick and David Lee for Rubio? Put Lee in the power forward slot and draft Davidson’s Stephen Curry to fill it up off the bench.
3. Stay at No. 2 and take Rubio: Yes, take Rubio. The guy can flat play. Before Griffin went crazy this year, the ’09 draft was known as the Rubio draft. What’s wrong with taking an electric prospect at the most important position in the game? Trade Mike Conley to Portland for Travis Outlaw. Trade Rudy Gay and the Grizzlies other No. 1 pick to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire. Next year’s starting lineup: Outlaw, Marc Gasol, Stoudemire, O.J. Mayo and Rubio.
Sure, it’s a dream. But dreams are possible now. The Grizzlies aren’t sitting at No. 7 and wondering if they should take Demar Derozen or Jordan Hill. They’re sitting at No. 2 with everything still in play.
They could do worse than to settle for Demar Derozen. Yeah, European guys who are hyped to death like Toni Kukoc always succeed in the NBA. And he should leave the ridiculous trade proposal to guys calling up WEEI half drunk. Why not just propose that they trade their pick for Kobe and Pau Gasol? You know, so that they could have both Gasols on the same team? Plus, you’d be trading a Spaniard for a Spaniard. That’s usually the type of logic that goes into these kinds of things. Why do sports columnists still have careers?
People who do important things in our society can’t find a job but these jokers still get a regular paycheck for writing this shit.
does it make you feel any better knowing said persons probably aren’t being paid very much? Or that a large percentage of them are likely to be out of work soon, irrespective of the quality of their output?
Not really. I read the first two sentences of a clip recently about how if the Lakers didn’t win Game 7 vs. Houston that Kobe would throw in the towel and opt out. The whole purpose of that clip was to sell lots of ad space the way William Randolph Hearst used to sell newspapers by putting up a crazy headline that was usually b.s. Hey, I worked in print for a long time and I feel everyone’s pain. Still, though, I don’t think this is any better or worse than Mike from Worcester calling ‘EEI at 2am to propose a trade of Julio Lugo for Evan Longoria. Maybe the economic unsustainability of such garbage caught up to the industry, or maybe people really like reading crap. I dunno.
that’s a solid a theory as blaming everything on craigslist, I suppose.