Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 8 by wongoz

You know, it's really saying something when you draft a good swingman like Joey Graham and get what ESPN's Chad Ford describes as possibly "the steal of the second round" in point guard Roko Ukic, and college basketball guru Dick Vitale still lists you as the biggest loser. That's how big a shock it was for Raptors GM Rob Babcock to take Charlie Villanueva with the 7th selection. Why are we always stuck with crazy GMs in this town?

Well, apparently other teams had concerns with the players that were passed up... but come on, you can't tell me that there wasn't an opportunity to trade down if the big man you wanted was Villanueva... rage. The jury's definitely still out on Babcock.

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?...Part 7 - by Apollo

Months ago, when former Toronto Raptors superstar Vince Carter was traded, the 2 Wise Men stated that Raptor GM Rob Babcock was on the clock for the 2005 NBA Draft. The clock that Babcock now hears ticking away could be his career as an NBA general manager.

By selecting UConn forward Charlie Villanueva, Babcock may have gotten the rebounder and inside compliment to Chris Bosh that the Raptors so desperately need, but using the 7th pick to land him will certainly draw the ire and criticism of Raptor fans and Toronto media. Babcock did salvage the draft by taking athletic forward Joey Graham at 16, and stealing point guard Roko Ukic in the second round. The Raptors did accomplish a lot in this draft by landing an inside presence to improve the NBA's worst rebounding team, adding an explosive perimeter scorer and defender and a 6'6" point guard with international experience who should be a steady back-up to the mercurial Rafer Alston. In any other year, this would be considered a great draft for the Raps and their second-year general manager. Unfortunately, coming off a horrible season where the team did not make the playoffs again, traded their franchise player for virtually nothing and with the terrible memory of the Rafael Araujo draft fiasco from last year still fresh in the minds of fans, Babcock needed to blast a grand slam with his 4 picks, rather than put up two base hits and a double. Final pick Uros Slokar cannot realistically be evaluated because A) nobody knows who he is; and B) it isn't clear if his European team, Benetton Treviso of Italy will release him. However, at 58th overall, don't expect another Manu Ginobli just yet.

Villanueva was a highly touted prospect out of high school in 2003 and was slated to enter the draft along with a certain high schooler named LeBron James. Instead, he chose UConn and won a national championship with Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon in 2004. He's a solid player with an NBA sized body and gives the Raptors another big man who hopefully can improve over Loren Woods and help fill the void that Donyell Marshall will leave when he is lost in free agency. However, the 7th overall pick Villanueva most certainly should not have been, particularly when Gerald Green and Danny Granger were still on the board. Odds are good that Graham will be even better than Villanueva, and both are almost guaranteed to be better players than Araujo. Babcock overall did a decent job, however he would have been lauded as a mastermind if he had landed Green or Granger at 7, and Graham or Villanueva at 16, rather than the way he chose to go about it. One of Villanueva, Graham, or Ukic will be legitimate starters for Toronto this season, if only out of necessity, however should Green, Granger or even Hakim Warrick turn out to be the Andre Iguodala of this year's draft class, Babcock may not be around to try and draft another one.

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 6 by wongoz

Wow. Seriously. Gerald Green and Danny Granger are both available at 16, not to mention Joey Graham and Hakim Warrick. But just as I've discussed with Apollo, there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Babcock will make the right pick this time around either.

Well, the pick's in... it's Joey Graham. Not bad, not bad. More athletic than Granger, ready to play before Green, better shooter than Warrick... sorta a compromise though. Not as versatile as Granger, not as high an upside as Green, not as explosive as Warrick... well, Babcock might still be certifiable, but at least he's got something on his track record that generally meshes with the draft gurus...

Ok, that's it, I'm not posting again until tomorrow morning, when all the picks are in and we can see how Babcock messed up the second round...

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 5 by wongoz

This draft is turning all the mock drafts on their heads. Seriously. After the surprise pick of Villanueva, there was a massive run on big men... Channing Frye, Ike Diogu, Andrew Bynum and Fran Vazquez, all 4s or 5s. And now, the Russian kid Yaroslav Korolev...

Unreal. The free-fall of swingmen like Green, Granger, Hakim Warrick, Joey Graham... wow, there might actually be someone good at 16. But of course, Babcock will screw this up too and draft some other bum. Ugh, I can just feel it.

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 4 by wongoz

WHAT?!? Charlie Villanueva?!? Is Babcock insane? This had better be part of some deal... that's it, we're going to see all the good players we could've had disappear before the 16th pick we still have... Bye-bye Gerald Green. Thanks for the workout Danny Granger. Best wishes Hakim Warrick.

Thank God Babcock doesn't run Real Madrid... I'd be tempted to jump out of my window now.

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 3 by wongoz

Wow, it's point guard time at the draft... Deron Williams to Utah, Chris Paul to New Orleans and Raymond Felton to Charlotte... that means Toronto will definitely get to choose either Gerald Green or Danny Granger... only need to find out who Portland will take... And the Blazers took another high schooler, two guard Martell Webster!

That means Toronto should have its ideal pick ready here, unless they're planning to deal it... Argh, Babcock, you better not screw this up!

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me?... Part 2 by wongoz

So it's the big day... the 2005 NBA draft is upon us, and the future of the Toronto Raptors franchise is on the line. How well does GM Rob Babcock need to do tonight? Well, let's look at it this way: ESPN did a series of articles re-doing the last 10 drafts and then grading each team... Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall, but the opening paragraphs are available and it's all you need to know. San Antonio is held up as the standard bearer for good drafting while Toronto is the usual suspect for the worst. Never mind whether we are or aren't; just the fact that we're mentioned means it's been bad news since 1995.

Anyways, there's been lots of trade talk around the Raptors in the last week or so, involving Torontonian Jamaal Magloire of the New Orleans Hornets... he's easily better than any of the big men available in this draft, but the Hornets are asking for the moon, so I doubt this trade goes through.

After going on about a lack of swingmen being worked out, it turns out that they were being saved for last... Toronto seems to be leaning towards high schooler Gerald Green (if he drops that far) or New Mexico small forward Danny Granger, who appears to be a jack-of-all-trades type of player.

Well, don't want to drag this post on too much... I'll probably post again after the draft is done and we can see how Toronto did... Andrew Bogut has already been selected as the first pick by Milwaukee, followed by Marvin Williams to Atlanta... coolz. Bring it on!

Is it drafty in here, or is it just me? by wongoz

Wow, it's been over 2 months since I posted something. My bad, didn't realize it had been that long. Well, Apollo has done a commendable job holding down the fort, but I should pick up some of the slack again, so here goes nothing.

I won't rehash the conclusion of the European football season, other than to say I think it's pretty stupid that the English FA had been lobbying for UEFA to allow Liverpool to defend its Champions League win instead of following the rules and substituting one of the qualified teams (in this case, Everton). A fantastic article on this whole issue can be found here. The summer offseason for European football has yet to begin in earnest, so we'll leave that topic for another time.

No, what we'll deal with today is the upcoming NBA draft, due in about 2 weeks time. That is, in less than a fortnight, we'll see whether last year's abomination of a draft was just an anomaly, or whether Toronto Raptors GM Rob Babcock really is a tool. With 4 selections in this year's draft, 2 in the top 16, Babcock knows he has to deliver. Otherwise, Toronto as a successful basketball franchise is sunk.

Thanks to the miracles of the Internet, we can see just who the Raptors have been working out. Those more knowledgeable than the 2 Wise Men (difficult to fathom, but go along with me on this one) on such things are saying that this draft holds no superstars, no LeBron's or D-Wade's, but is deep in solid NBA talent. This bodes well for Babcock, as he can ill afford another project like last year's 8th-overall selection, Rafael "Hoffa" Araujo, who is only marginally better than and slightly less stiff than Jimmy.

It's not inconceivable to see the Raptors package their picks in order to land a higher pick or a proven player, but no rumours to that effect have been circulating, and it's not like the Raptors are just that single piece away from contending, no matter what lamebrain Larry Tanenbaum says. This team needs help, and a lot of it. Starting with a core of burgeoning star forward Chris Bosh and the mercurial Jalen Rose, Babcock needs to add another star talent and some good supporting pieces. Keeping Donyell Marshall, if available at a reasonable price, would be a good start.

The problem is, of course, there are no star talents in this draft (if one is to believe the pundits), so Babcock will have to concentrate on bringing in solid guys who will step up and contribute. We've previously sung the praises of Syracuse jumping jack Hakim Warrick, but all signs (that is, pre-draft hype and unnamed workout observers) point to a free-fall into the lower part of the first round, due to his inability to do anything besides explode out of his shoes. While the Raptors could use someone with his energy, they also need someone with real basketball skills, so perhaps Warrick doesn't warrant such a high selection.

Other big names that have worked out for Toronto include Kansas bruiser Wayne Simien, Pittsburgh power forward Chris Taft, North Carolina 2-guard Rashad McCants, Connecticut power forward Charlie Villanueva, Warrick, point guards Raymond Felton (North Carolina) and Jarrett Jack (Georgia Tech - think Bosh is rooting for his old teammate?) and Arizona shooter Salim Stoudamire. Notice a trend here? No swingmen or true small forwards in the bunch, in a draft full of them (in fact, most mock drafts I've seen have the Raptors taking New Mexico small forward Danny Granger).

What that says to me is that the Raptors management is confident that Bosh can make a transition to the 3, like Kevin Garnett, out-quicking big guys or posting up shorter small forwards. Bosh's shooting range has extended out towards the 20-foot range, leaving a huge void in the middle, where incumbents Loren Wood and Araujo aren't cutting it. Without any decent centres worth selecting after Utah's Andrew Bogut, that leaves Babcock the only possibility of drafting a power forward, to get inside for easy lay-ins, and to pound the backboards to push the tempo up as coach Sam Mitchell is wont to do.

So any prognostications from this Wise Man on the Raptors picks? Well, I won't be so bold as to venture a guess, seeing as how Babcock hasn't established anything resembling reasonable basketball IQ, so I'll go out and say who I'd like the Raptors to draft. With picks 7 and 16, the Raptors really need to find some big pieces of their puzzle, and since the talent level seems to be solid at most positions, we should be drafting according to need.

After a true centre (which isn't available in this draft), what the Raptors could use are a traditional power forward and a point guard so Rafer Alston can stay nailed to the bench like the crybaby deserves (just like how Vince Carter and Alonzo Mourning should have been treated, but that's another story). So that means one of the foreign big men like Tiago Splitter or Fran Vazquez (though Splitter may not even stay in the draft due to the high buyout clause from his Spanish club team) and Felton (who should be gone by then, but stranger things have happened). Will it work out that way? We'll find out soon enough.