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.