NBA Draft 2004 Part 2 - by wongoz

well, this post is a bit late, considering the draft happened on thursday, but my opinion is always valid, so here i go anyways.

i watched, er, followed the draft on espn (disclosure: i am in no way affiliated with espn. i just happen to like their sports coverage.) and believe you me, i just about blew up when the raptors' pick came over the wire. rafael who?

i understand there's a lot of hype going into the draft about "upside" and "potential" and comparisons to current or former players coming out the wazoo, but still. you'd think that the possibility of this pick unfolding the way it did would've been reported by somebody?

i was quite disappointed in the first few picks as the players that were most talked about in toronto - ben gordon, shaun livingston and devin harris - were all scooped up in the first 5 picks. that left us with a plethora of unproven big men with "upside", and swingmen of which the raptors already have an abundance of.

i suppose we should commend raptors GM rob babcock for sticking to what he needed, but wouldn't it have been possible to swing a deal, any deal, that would've prevented us from making the biggest reach in this year's draft? this is aleksandr radojevic all over again.

the obvious pick at the 8th spot would've been andre iguodala, who has drawn comparisons to scottie pippen. now seriously, did we need a big man that bad that we passed up on someone like that?

of course, if comparisons and prognosticators were always correct, then kwame brown would be the best centre in the eastern conference, but alas, we know different. still, i think it's best to err on the side of possibility, no?

well, here's hoping rafael araujo pans out, because stranger things have happened... i mean, greece beating france in the euro 2004 quarterfinals? what the blood?