FanHouse David Lee

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

The 2005 NBA Draft would change the course of the future of two teams -- the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks. There was no clear-cut No. 1 pick, but Utah's Andrew Bogut was big, skilled and NBA ready. He wasn't the most convincing or dominant No. 1 pick, especially with Dwight Howard averaging a double-double in his rookie season, but he appeared to be the best choice for the Bucks.

Meanwhile, the Hawks decided on a player who was a sixth man of his college team. Marvin Williams had all the physical tools to be a star but played just one season at North Carolina. He fed off the Tar Heels' national title run and opted for the draft. It sounded like a good idea, although he was only 19. It's not that these were poor choices. Neither Bogut nor Williams are busts. They are productive NBA players, but when compared with the next two drafted, they are disappointments.

David Lee has always been a productive energy player but he's flourished in Mike D'Antoni's system, leading the league in double-doubles while posting career numbers across the board. But does that mean he's a permanent piece of New York's future?

Maybe not. According to HOOPSWORLD's Travis Heath, the Knicks not only listened to offers for him at the trade deadline but also nearly dealt him to the Nuggets. In fact, the potential trade was so close to being consummated that several members of the Nuggets actually spoke to him about it before the Knicks played the Nuggets in Denver on Tuesday.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.



-- David Lee recently appeared on PBS's The Electric Company, apparently co-starring with the GEICO gecko's less successful brother. If this NBA thing doesn't pan out, maybe Lee fall back on acting? I'm dubious about that.

Appreciate all the feedback, even if harsh. Keep 'em coming ...

MIKE PAYNE SAID: You were hired by AOL to write controversial pieces. Got it. However, controversy is much more compelling when it is grounded in fact (in this case, statistics). Your brand of controversy has shown to be reflective of your opinion alone, which makes you more of a "sports pundit" than a "sports reporter". There's a place in the world for that, but lists like this aren't gonna earn you the following needed to get you there.

First of all, we're going to start out by saying that the mere fact you're on this list means you're a hell of a player. And just because you rank near the bottom, it doesn't necessarily mean it's your fault. No, it's on your GM.

Everyone knows you've got to have a star to win in the NBA, and the teams without one -- or with a lesser one -- usually don't fare very well.

With that in mind, here's one guy's ranking of the each NBA team's best player. The goal: Find the "worst" best player in the league, and unfortunately, for David Lee, it's him.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Amid a fantastic slate top to bottom, Boston at Orlando stood out as the must-watch. And the teams delivered: the Magic ended up with a rollicking two-point victory on the back of Dwight Howard's deft post play and some lovely outside shooting from everyone else. (Which is to say they won this game how they win every other game.)

The 52-point, 10 rebound, 11 assist show that LeBron James put on for the fine people of New York on Wednesday was spectacular any way you slice it -- even if he really finished one rebound shy of that elusive triple double after all. While the MSG scorekeeper did indeed credit LeBron with 10 rebounds, check out this clip of number nine, which actually was hauled in by Ben Wallace.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Yeah, every night there are some stupendous lines. Thursday night, they were just stupendously bad! On an night when the BCS Championship game took over most of America's televisions, the NBA made sure to only have two very underwhelming games schedule. Knicks v. Mavs and Clippers v. Spurs. Yep, they might have been better off not having any games.

Gator Tribute Falls Short: David Lee tried to pay tribute to his Florida Gators with a 13 point, 15 rebound night. However, his team didn't hold up their end of the bargain, as they lost to the Mavs 99-94. In that game, Eddy Curry also saw his first action of the season, scoring 2 points and grabbing 2 points in 3 minutes of action. Yipee!

All-Stars Underwhelm: How bad were last nights games? Well the two best players playing last night both had off nights. Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan combined to score 18 points on 7-24 shooting. Gross! It was as if the two of them realized no one was watching and figured it would be okay to take a night off. Not cool guys...not cool at all. UPDATE: Nowitzki gets a pass, since he played through a fever. Although Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant would laugh at such an excuse (even in the regular season). But still, you get my point.

Don't worry, the league will make up for Thursday's irrelevance with a few gems and a full slate of games tonight. Check the NBA Guide later today for the details.

As Tom Ziller pointed out over the weekend, rumblings of a three-way deal between the Knicks, Blazers and Clippers surfaced a few days ago. Exact details of the alleged trade were never clear, but it seemed to hinge on David Lee (and potentially Eddy Curry) heading to Portland, Marcus Camby returning to New York and, well, someone going to the Clippers.

Now that a couple of days have passed without movement, the trade appears to be dead in the water -- and if you believe the parties involved, it may not have ever been alive in the first place.

FanHouse was all credentialed up for Saturday night's Wizards-Knicks game in New York. Here's a report from Madison Square Garden.

They dressed eight players, but only played seven. Their five starters put in more than 40 minutes of work apiece, while their $20 million man declined an offer to suit up and play for his team. At times they looked gassed, and they nearly squandered a sizeable lead late in the game.

Yet the scrappy New York Knicks still somehow managed to pull off a very surprising -- and very inspiring -- 122-117 home win against the Washington Wizards Saturday night.

In fact, the only unsurprising thing about the Knicks' triumph was the fact that, despite a selfless and energized team effort, the talk in the locker room after the game was ultimately about New York's next game: a visit from the King of 2010, LeBron James, next Tuesday.