Post-Draft Miscellany

Some admittedly disjointed notes and thoughts the morning after:

• Maurice Evans has went to the dark side. There, he joins Jordan Farmar, who might not play much immediately according to Mitch Kupchak in the Los Angeles Times. Friend-of-Sactown-Royalty Kurt at Forum Blue and Gold has some thoughts.
• Best quote on the Douby pick? It's from his agent, Keith Glass: "He's 6-2 1/2 barefoot and weights 175ish, but I've watched a lot of games in the playoffs in past several years, and if Rip Hamilton made a three, they did not deduct a point because he's skinny."
• Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for the Portland Trailblazers. ESPN owes that franchise some ad revenue. Holy crap.
• Grant Napear was absolutely killing Chris Webber on the radio last night. And I don't know how I feel about it. Napear wasn't saying anything false - it was mostly about work ethic and defense. But it didn't seem like the time or the place. I don't know.
• We know/assume Douby is a hell of a player. He's also a hell of a kid.
• My heart stopped when Seattle picked Saer Sene. It stopped again when Phoenix selected Sergio Rodriguez. I had myself believing that Phoenix was going to end up with both the players I coveted so highly over the past few weeks. I still wouldn't bet against Sene going to the Suns, but at least Sergio won't be a Pacific division rival for years to come. Again, thank you Portland. You've been great.
• It doesn't appear to be up yet, but Bill Simmons' annual NBA draft running diary is easily one of the top pieces of infotainment journalism of the year. Be sure to read it.
• Henry Abbott at True Hoop went the distance and might be in a coma. I wouldn't blame him for not looking at a computer for a month. He seriously blogged like 12 straight hours (if not more) yesterday.
• Alright, here goes: Chad Ford gets a bad rap. Yeah, he gets a lot of picks wrong. He's still the best predictor out there, by far. Whether it's his sources, his intuition, or whatever, he still typically comes through better than most on Draft Day. HOWEVAH, I don't think he watches the NBA. I really think he spends little time actually watching NBA teams. Almost understandable, considering he probably watches more college and international ball than anyone on the planet. But he really needs to understand NBA teams and their needs better. He gives the Kings a C+ for their draft - fair enough, I guess. My problem is his reasoning: that the Kings have drafted skinny swingmen the past two years as well. In that same timespan, of course, the Kings have lost Maurice Evans and Cuttino Mobley to free agency, and are about to lose Bonzi Wells. So it's kind of an ongoing need. Ford neglects to mention that Douby will likely be asked to play some point guard, and neglects to realize Francisco Garcia served mostly as a point guard during the second half of last season (before the injury). He ignores that Jason Hart is still on the roster and is still likely untradeable by himself. He ignores that Ronnie Price is locked in for another season and could be an answer at the backup PG position. He ignores the best center left on the board at that point was probably freaking Ryan Hollins. He ignores the three power forwards on the roster. He ignores that either Garcia or Kevin Martin can play small forward just as easily as they can play shooting guard. He ignores that the by-far biggest problem for this team last season was bench scoring (followed by interior defense). If I'm Chad Ford, I think I defer to Geoff Petrie just a little more. He might know what he's doing.
• I'm as much in shock about Isiah Thomas as everyone else. I'm convinced this is some sort of late 1980s vengeance ploy against the city of New York.
• Can we open a Squeeze Burger franchise at the practice facility? It's off-limits to Vitaly Potapenko, though.