FanHouse RichardHendrix

No, silly Europeans, Andris Biedrins is for Nellie!

The Warriors shored up their remaining free agent quandary today, according to the infinitely reliable Marc Stein over at the WWL. Stein says the Dubs have given Biedrins a 6 year, $63 million contract, with a player option for the fifth year. Tim Kawakami respectfully disagrees with Stein's report on the amount, putting the number at $54 million. Six years, $54 million seems a little more reasonable for the top big man on a team that was, you know, kind of terrible at both defense and rebounding. Still, Don Nelson is big on Biedrins, and after Baron Davis absconded to LA, the Warriors needed to shore up their roster in-house.

It's unknown at this point what effect Biedrins' position on the NBA Overseas Defection Watch had on the urgency for the Warriors to get the deal done, if any, but anyway, go ahead and cross him off the list. And, barring injury or a team losing their mind in a trade (we're looking at you, Atlanta), this should pretty much lock up the Warriors roster next year, with both Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix signed. So for better or worse, it's Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike, and Andris Biedrins resigned, Mickael Pietrus and Baron Davis gone with the wind, and Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf newly acquired. Your guess is as good as ours as far as next season goes.

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

Larry Bird's got sole possession of the reins. Larry Bird does not have the best record of personnel decisions. Larry Bird seeks to completely rebuild in the Indiana roster, and that starts with the #11 pick in Thursday's draft. What could possibly go wrong?!

Picks: #11, #41.

Needs: The point guard position is currently manned by Jamaal Tinsley and Travis Diener. That tells you almost everything you need to know ... but we'll add that assuming Jermaine O'Neal gets traded this century, another big to augment the terrifying Jeff Foster-Troy Murphy gauntlet could be in order.

Best case scenario: Everyone thinks D.J. Augustin would be beautiful in Pacers yellow (?), and the conventional wisdom appears to be correct: Augustin would be the best replacement possibly available. A second-rounder who could contribute immediately (J.J. Hickson, Richard Hendrix) would be great as well.

Bullets Forever has a great little look at a type of player they dub "Senor Propolo" -- second-round productive low-post players. This has been a pet cause of mine since last summer, when I spent half my free time building support for the Paul Millsap Doctrine, which argued that per-minute production in the NBA was a good indicator of talent level.

BF's championing of Senor Propolo takes a slightly different tact, looking specifically at short but strong college post players who end up producing just fine thankyouverymuch at the pro level. There have been big successes in each of the past three drafts, including Leon Powe, Ronny Turiaf, Brandon Bass and Millsap (yeah!). Carl Landry's the one who sticks out to me -- in Houston's run of almost two dozen straight W's, Landry sat right up there with McGrady and Scola in terms of importance. It's easy for us to ignore the garbage-can production of the Landry sort, but when offered consistently (that's the key), it's extremely valuable.

So who are the Propolos this year? BF argues for Richard Hendrix of Alabama and D.J. White of Indiana. Joey Dorsey misses the cut because his lack of offense, but in my view, even if he lacks a key Propolo attribute, he'd be a good pick in the second round based on his defense and rebounding.

In unsurprising news, Gonzaga's Jeremy Pargo and Alabama's Ronald Steele have taken their names out of the NBA draft and will return to school.

Today is the deadline for underclassmen who still have their eligibility to pull their names out of the draft. UAB's Robert Vaden already has, Joe Alexander, Mario Chalmers and Bill Walker are staying in the draft. Reports also have UNC's Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green returning to school.

Neither Pargo or Steele were looked at as first round locks ... but were entering into their final collegiate seasons and had nothing to lose by testing the waters. Pargo was projected to be a second round pick had he stayed and got a long of feedback on his game during this process.

Gonzaga should be a top 10-15 team next season.

Steele is a bit more interesting. He is a redshirt senior who missed all of last season with a knee injury and really wanted to just get his name out there. He even worked out for the Charlotte Bobcats this morning before filing the paperwork that took his name out of the draft.

Now Alabama is waiting on work from Richard Hendrix, a junior forward, and his intentions. He, like Steele, has not signed with an agent and has until 5 p.m. ET today to pull his name out of the draft.

Trying to figure out what a 20, 21 year old is going to do with his life is tough. Especially when these guys are agentless and are told different things by different people with different interests.

Still, with the 5 p.m. ET deadline for NBA Draft prospects who still have college eligibility and not signed with an agent looming, let's take a look at who has to make the big decisions today.

Chase Budinger (Arizona): He says he could come back to school, but even his coach says he'd be nuts to. He'll be a midround pick and the kind of guy who a team late in the first round won't be able to pass up.

Ty Lawson (North Carolina): I think Lawson is in. He seemed as if he was trying to find a reason to leave Carolina and he seems to have a lock on getting picked in the first round (Nuggets, Spurs). This isn't an elite point guard draft and Lawson would fit certain teams.

Bill Walker (Kansas State): This is a tough one. Even before his injury, no one really knew where Walker's value was. He was the perfect example of a guy who someone could take a chance in the 20s ... or he could fall out of the first round altogether. Initial reports say he tore his meniscus which means his pre-draft workouts are over. I think Walker comes back to school if he doesn't get any better news on his knee.