A Rough Draft...Part 1 - by Apollo

The spring and summer months are usually the best times in professional sports. Most leagues move towards their playoff drives during these months, and even major league baseball, with its marathon like 162-game schedule, is in full swing, with the promise that all teams are contenders, at least until the end of April. Add to that the marquee Grand Slam events in both golf and tennis, and the major championship games in European football, and these current months are the busiest, most dramatic, and most rewarding for sports fans.

In the midst of playoff games, championship finals and major tournaments, there are other rites of spring and summer that fans look forward to - the annual player drafts and off-season transaction periods, where all teams, including those that are too woeful to participate in the suspense and drama of the playoffs, have an interest. In North America, the player drafts in the National Football League and the National Basketball Association always attract a great deal of media attention and fan speculation, while across the ocean, the summer transfer period for soccer clubs always encourages endless debate over which stars will change uniforms.

The NFL recently held its draft in New York City, with Utah quarterback Alex Smith becoming the fifth straight quarterback drafted first overall in the past five years. Wongoz and I both agreed on a couple points from this draft - our favourite teams, Dallas and Minnesota, both filled needs on their rosters with their picks, the Detroit Lions either have no clue what they are doing in taking another first round wide-receiver in Mike Williams, or have already decided to tank this season to try and get USC quarterback, and Williams' former teammate, Matt Leinart in next year's draft, and there's something wrong when ESPN shows four hours of live television coverage and can't even finish the first round of picks.

Player development in football is a long term prospect. Teams have dozens of roster spots and lots of flexibility to move players around so it really does matter who a team drafts in the fifth round because that player may actually play significant minutes right away. The NBA, by contrast, is a virtual green card lottery, where most teams only select two players in a given draft, with no guarantee that there will even be a roster spot available for either of them. In the NBA, with a few exceptions, a drafted player must be able to produce right away, otherwise, there's no point giving him the guaranteed contract and the three year roster spot that he will occupy.

Which, as usual, brings us to the Toronto Raptors. Months ago, I wrote that general manager Rob Babcock was on the clock, and now, after Vince Carter's incredulous 30 point plus per game average catapulted the New Jersey Nets into the NBA playoffs, Babcock's clock may be attached to a time bomb. With four draft picks in this year's draft, Babcock will essentially determine whether or not he is allowed to see out the balance of his contract with the club, or whether he will be cut loose sometime in the next twelve months. As Rafael Araujo painfully reminds us, the odds are not looking good in Babcock's favour. His record at the draft is horrible, but the fact remains that next season's Raptors could have as many as six players - half the active roster - drafted by Babcock. Considering that Araujo and raw prospect Pape Sow will be two of them, and that some fans still question Babcock's decisions to bring in Rafer Alston and re-sign Morris Peterson, Babcock needs to convert these four draft picks into players that will be able to contribute right away, otherwise he won't be in town long enough to see the results of his labour.

The draft lottery will determine where the Raptors pick, and individual workouts with dozens of college and European players will lead to the ultimate decisions, but at this preliminary stage, the 2 Wise Men suggest Syracuse star Hakim Warrick as one of the draftees. While the number 9 pick may be too high for Warrick, considering his falling stock, a late first round pick or early second round pick would be perfect for a tall, lean, athletic player with a huge wingspan that would compliment Chris Bosh and help to replace the rebounding of Donyell Marshall. Then again, if Warrick showcases his outstanding athletic ability at pre-draft workouts, the Raptors may have to hope he falls to them in the lottery, let alone the first round.

Warrick is exactly the kind of guy that falls out of the lottery, ends up being picked by a perennial contender like San Antonio or Sacramento and turns into a stud player that people point to as evidence of what a great scouting department these teams have. While certainly the hype and attention will be paid to Andrew Bogut, Sean May, and others, Babcock and the Raptors need to make all four of their picks pay off. At this point, it has to be a given that whomever the Raptors draft in the lottery will play, for better or for worse. If the other three players (or whoever comes in via a trade of those picks) does not contribute right away, Babcock won't survive to take a third try at the draft.