FanHouse Eric Gordon

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

It's almost unfair to judge a draft after one year, but this is what we're going to do. The final edition of our Revisiting the Draft series examines the 2008 Draft and believe or not, there are teams already harboring regrets from their picks.

Despite the extensive scouting, workouts and interviews involved in the draft, teams still make major mistakes and these days, prospects don't get three years to develop. Of the 14 lottery picks in 2006, six have already changed teams and players such as Patrick O'Bryant and Mouhamed Sene are not guaranteed jobs next season.

The NBA waits for no one, especially if they are taking too long to make an impact. So while teams won't freely admit they made mistakes 12 months after draft night, they will privately admit they overestimated talent and heart, and sooner or later, that will cost front-office jobs.

It's trophy time in the NBA, and the FanHouse crew has submitted its ballots. Find out which players deserve to take home the hardware and which ones don't, in our NBA Awards series. Next up: Rookie of the Year.

Coming into the season, most projected the rookie of the Year race to be fairly hotly contested between Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, the top two picks in the NBA draft. But it wasn't: while Beasley spent time learning to contribute coming off the bench, Rose became one of the leaders on a team that made its way back to the playoffs. As such, the young Bull was our unanimous choice for Rookie of the Year honors.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

No team has been as disappointing in 2008-09 as the L.A. Clippers. At least one or two teams have been worse in quality, but the phenomenal ability to fail with this much talent seems unprecedented. An All-Star level point guard, a D.P.O.Y. level center, two strong big men, a R.O.Y. candidate, an experienced coach ... what happened to the playoff hopes? What happened to 2008-09?

You could listen to me toss out some jokes, or you could read a completely sober(ing) dispatch from a guy who has watched it all, ClipperSteve of Clips Nation. I think you'd prefer the latter. ClipperSteve's words, after the jump.

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.

The Grizzlies lost to the 76ers, and that's to be expected. Memphis falls to 16-45, a welcome visitor in the Dungeon of Doom populated by your Kings and Thunder and Clippers. But things got a little weird Saturday night in Memphis.

Two Grizz scored at least 30 points. O.J. Mayo? No, he had only 11. Rudy Gay? Nope, just eight. How about ... Marc Gasol and Mike Conley? Baby Gasol finished with 30 points (and 13 boards and three blocks) and Conley racked up 31 points and nine assists. WHAT.

The Los Angeles Clippers are having another one of their horrendous seasons. The annual ills of injuries and poor roster management have once again caused the Clips to fall to the NBA cellar.

However, one bright spot for the Clippers this season has been the development of Eric Gordon. After having a so-so start, Gordon has taken off the last few weeks, averaging 22.3 points per game through his six games this month. Of course he's only shooting 41.2% over that span and 43.5% for the year, but he's a rookie guard, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Many people across the globe will be ringing in 2009 in style, and naturally that includes NBA players. In this video we talk to Marcus Camby, Al Thornton, Eric Gordon, Paul Davis and more about what they have planned for the new year. But most importantly, find out which player's plans for 2009 include some salty fish, a shot of Jack, and starting a new clothing line.

Check out the video after the jump.

Ricky Davis no longer plays for the Heat; he's been a member of the Clippers since the beginning of the season. But in any uniform, Ricky can now be categorized with a single word: victim.

That's one way to look at it I suppose, as we received word that Davis has been suspended by the NBA for five games for violating terms of the league's drug program.

It's not like Ricky has had anything better to do lately, so you can hardly blame him. Since November 22nd, Davis has been out with a knee injury, and his return was slated for sometime in January. The suspension won't begin until Davis has been declared "physically able to play," so once it begins, it might last until February. Which would probably be just fine with the Clippers.

Despite L.A.'s obvious lack of depth, they have plenty of people to fill in at the guard spot, and it's not like Ricky was much help when he was playing for the Clips earlier in the season anyway. Davis averaged only four points per game, while shooting just 28 percent from the field.

Davis' absence has allowed rookie Eric Gordon to find his way into the starting lineup, where he's been performing far better than Ricky was. There isn't a team in the league that would look at a suspension like this as a positive, but where Ricky Davis is concerned, it's certainly not going to have a more negative impact on the club than his play on the court ultimately did.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Like the election itself, it's one of those topics where everyone has an opinion, where everyone's right and no one's wrong: Who is the best player in the NBA? In an effort to find out, we polled the experts themselves and talked to NBA players from around the league, including Amare Stoudemire, Eric Gordon, Steve Blake, Al Thornton, Ricky Davis (who had a surprising, yet smart, choice) and more. Some of the picks are expected, and some are sort of out of nowhere. But they're all worth checking out.

Watch the full video, chock full of "expert" opinions, after the jump.

Interesting times in Clipper-land, these days. The team's newest star is on the Jenny Craig diet plan (no, I won't let it go, but thanks for asking). The team's other new star worked out with them for the first time today after fighting "flu-like symptoms." First round draft pick Eric Gordon is sidelined for a couple weeks with an ankle injury. And oh yeah, Elgin Baylor appears to no longer be performing his duties as the team's General Manager. Wait, what?

According to the OC Register (via Baller Blogger), Elgin Baylor is out as GM, and the only details we have is that there is a dispute between Baylor and and the Clippers, which Baylor won't speak about because his attorney advised him not to. What we do know is, this has been going on for at least a few weeks, because Baylor wasn't present at the team's practice facility when training camp began, and he was conveniently left out of the club's pre-season media guide -- entirely. No mention or picture of him anywhere.

Baylor has been the Clippers' GM since 1986, and besides being a fixture at the NBA's Draft Lottery proceedings, has done a mostly thankless job over the last 22 years. He did have a few achievements though, including winning the Executive of the Year award in 2006, drafting Chris Kaman, and pulling the trigger on the trade that brought Elton Brand to town. During the offseason though, it was coach Mike Dunleavy who seemed to be the spokesperson for the team's dealings, and sure sounded an awful lot like the real GM while doing so.

It'll be interesting to see what the dispute is all about; hopefully Donald Sterling isn't trying to go all Al Davis on Baylor after 22 years of service.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Gus Ruelas]

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

It's almost sad that, with the NBA Draft in New York, we won't get to see Knicks fans freak out and boo whoever they take simply because Isiah Thomas is in charge. They still might boo, but it will likely be a force of habit thing rather than because they think Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni will screw this thing up. But to think that the Knicks will be a quick rebuild seems a bit too much to ask.

Picks: #6

Needs: They're gonna need a new point guard (Stephon Marbury "might" not use that option, but he's still gone sooner than later), they need a tough inside presence (Zach Randolph/Eddy Curry = notsomuch) and they need players that fit D'Antoni's system. Good thing they have so many picks.

Best case scenario: Jerryd Bayless falls into their laps at six, which is looking more and more likely as word seems to slip out that Seattle is interested in Russell Westbrook. On the other hand, there wouldn't be anything wrong with getting someone to take #6 and Zach Randolph (contract that lasts past the two year window they're clearly eying) in exchange for a move down the board.

More likely scenario: Zeke calls Donnie and offers him Marbury and the number six for Randolph. Things get awkward. Then, the Knicks take Bayless or Eric Gordon, depending on how the top five shakes out.