The NBA Draft Preview – A Particular Set of Skills

It seems like we do the same, stupid song and dance every year. We convince ourselves that these young kids are ready to have huge impacts on NBA teams, and forget that “once in a generation” talents are harder to come by than we’d all like to admit. It’s like the NBA Draft is the last bastion of the old school thinking and that totally sucks for us as fans.

The NBA as a whole has moved in a different directions. Every team needs role players. The Warriors needed Andrew Bogut to play big defensive minutes the same way that the Cavaliers needed Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson to break out in the same way. Not every team gets a LeBron James or a Steph Curry. But everyone that’s in the NBA can find a place on a roster as serviceable specialist.

The morons that cover the NBA Draft, however, will tell you otherwise. Tim Legler will scream about wingspan as if America made it a drinking game. Dude, we were making fun of your obsession with arm length not encouraging you to scream louder. The whole process drives me nuts.

There is a better way to watch the whole process. In each draft, there’s usually up to three players who are legitimately franchise altering. Below them there are usually five or six players that can slip on to a decent roster and make a significant difference because they have a particular set of skills.