Over at NBADraft.net...
There is a great interview with Darko Milicic. Of particular interest to me is his discussion of how coaching is done in Yugoslavia, where all kids, regardless of size, learn guard skills before anything else. They all learn to shoot and dribble, and then they learn the post moves. What a concept. A lot of U.S. players (college or high school or pro) are lucky to be able to do two of those three things. But when do they learn how to dunk?
Check out the countdown clock to the draft. Only 167 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes, and 27 seconds to go till the draft, and counting...
Also at NBADraft.net, you can find their new mock draft. Of course, this is crystal ball prognostication at its worst, because they not only have to guess the order the players will be drafted, but also the order of the draft itself. This obviously is impossible at this point in time. Still, it does give a pretty good indication of what talent is available, and a reasonably informed ranking of that talent. Outside of LeBron James, there is only one other high schooler projected to go, and that is Kendrick Perkins of Beaumont, TX. Since the high schoolers declare a bit later in the year, typically, expect this board to change quite a bit.
Not that I would complain if the Wolves ended up with Ricky Paulding of Missouri...
We Say, They Say...
Time for a new feature here at the Pipeline, where we take a look at the accounts of a particular game through the eyes of each team's home newspaper. Since there were only two games yesterday, our options are limited, but the Spurs did drop a game to the high-flying Blazers last night, so we'll look there. Instead of capitalizing on the Lakers' collapse, the Spurs have been outshone by the likes of the Mavs and Kings, two teams that the Spurs must surely have considered beneath them in the West pecking order. And now, the Blazers are charging hard despite their numerous off-court problems.
I actually do this quite a bit; you'd be surprised how two different media outlets view the same game. You'll get a good read on who's a good quote, which media sources are real homers, which teams and players around the league have universal respect. You won't always get flaming quotes or wars of words; mostly just different views and styles of reporting on the same game. Some days it's better than others, of course, but I'll let you be the judge.
Here's the link to the San Antonio Express.
Guess what? The San Antonio media accounts of the Spurs' games are as boring as the Spurs themselves. It's like they got a technical writer to put their game account together. The only thing I really got out of that article was that the Spurs got spanked (and spit on) by Portland earlier this year.
Now, the Portland link...
You would think the Portland accounts would be more interesting, given the various subplots they have to work with, and that proves to be the case here. Damon Stoudamire has been Portland's pint-sized pot pariah thus far, but he really sparked the team last night.
And there you have it. For the Spurs, it was a case of missed execution at the end. For the Blazers, a continuing revolving door of personnel, where even the plight of the backup point guard can carry an article.
12:13:06 PM 
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