LAS VEGAS -- Last year's Wake Forest squad had two of the first 19 picks in the NBA Draft -- James Johnson and Jeff Teague -- and another player who would have been a first-rounder had he decided to declare (Al-Farouq Aminu).
Johnson was the 16th pick of the Chicago Bulls and tallied 16 points in the Bulls' 87-72 summer league loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday. Johnson, who left Wake Forest following his sophomore season, is prepared for his next challenge, but he can't help but look back to his days at Winston-Salem, N.C.
The one-time top-ranked Demon Deacons limped into the NCAA Tournament and were soundly beaten by Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a crushing end to a sparkling season. Johnson admitted that he and some of his teammates may have been looking ahead to their NBA Draft prospects.
Jamal Crawford finally has the opportunity to compete with a playoff-caliber team; the oft-traveled guard landed in Atlanta on Thursday in a three-player trade, with Acie Law and Speedy Claxton headed to Golden State.
When reached by FanHouse, Crawford was thrilled about the chance to return to the Eastern Conference and play with a club that has advanced to the playoffs the past two seasons. Crawford said he signed an agreement that he would not opt out of the final two years of his contract, as was his option by June 30.
"This is what I've been searching for, I didn't think it would happen like this or this fast but I am excited," said Crawford, who has played 597 games with no playoff appearances. "My agents called me [Wednesday] and said it was close and it was Atlanta. I was just ecstatic. They are an up-and-coming team, and I want to see if I fit in there."
The day of reckoning has arrived for some 90 or so prospects hoping to be an NBA Draft pick. The day of reckoning has also arrived for some 9,000 mock drafters, who desperately try to get it right even though no one ever could on a consistent basis.
And, if I may, a word about the recent backlash against mock drafts from the key mock draft writers. The major draft experts from ESPN and DraftExpress told the New York Times last week that they hate mock drafts. But the mock draft is like their version of a test. It's too arbitrary, too black and white. It creates an impossible task. But thems the breaks when you're in a field in which performance matters. If Chad Ford didn't have to put out a mock, he could forever avoid criticism, basically. It's his job to analyze and predict the draft. How could we judge his efficacy without looking at his mock the morning after? It's like Amar'e Stoudemire telling everyone he hates to rebound. (Oh wait ...)
I love mock drafts! You'll find my final version after the jump.
We have less than 10 days to go before the 2009 NBA Draft. That means now is the time for all teams and agents to blow as much smoke as possible. Got an iffy first-round prospect on your client list? Pull out of a workout, starting rumors of a promise! Worried about falling to a team with a bad situation? Ankle tweak! Concerned one of the worst general managers of our time is attempting to fleece you? "My, that Swedish power forward is looking pretty good ... maybe we'll just take him."
Of course, the greatest thing about the NBA draft is that there actually is a Swedish power forward this year, lost JoBro Jonas Jerebko. Searching for YouTube videos and scouting reports on improbably bred players you have never heard of is a time-honored tradition. (Miss you, Petteri Koponen!) We know the names who will fill the top end, but do we know where they'll end up? YOU BE THE JUDGE.
* Memphis general manager Chris Wallace allegedly tells Spanish sports page Marca that the Grizzlies won't pass on Ricky Rubio, though there are matters to be worked out. The rumor out there has been that Wallace and the team's scouts love Rubio, but owner Michael Heisley is reluctant to take a risk on the young point guard, given the bad dissolutions with Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro. (And as with all things Ricky, this could very well be posturing.)
* Jrue Holiday can see himself going as high as No. 4 to Sacramento, the point guard tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. (Ignore his fingers. Sam Presti wouldn't dare destroy the galaxy by pairing Holiday and Russell Westbrook.)
All mock drafts are not created equal. And why would you want them to be? That'd be awful boring, just reading lists of names over and over. At FanHouse, we emphasize the commentary -- so in our mocks we'll (try to) explain why we think certain players fit in their theoretical slots. We will also project our own biases (positive and negative), of course.
At this early stage -- and let's be honest, at every stage -- this is 5% homework, 5% supreme divination, 90% guesswork. (A great endorsement, no?) After the jump, a full first-round mock draft for your amusement bemusement.
In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression.
But if you bomb it as badly as Michigan State did in its 98-63 loss to North Carolina in December that was godawful embarrassing even by the standards of a stadium that hosts the Lions, you'll get months, if not a lifetime, to explain exactly what went wrong.
And if you're the Spartans, you get a second chance to make it right.
At least after you explain. And explain. And explain.
Jeff Teague looked one way. James Johnson looked another. And head coach Dino Gaudio spent so much time crouching on the sideline you had to wonder if he was coaching a team or wondering if the crop was about to come in.
What they were thinking was anyone's guess, though you didn't have to be able to read minds to have a good idea it involved a lot of frustration and a whole storm front full of and things that can't be printed on a family Web site.
What everyone else was thinking, though, was so crystal clear it might as well have been plastered over the midcourt logo: "Again."
If Maryland coach Gary Williams earned a nickel for every time he's been left for dead, he'd be able to solve this economic mess with the walk-around change in his left pocket and pay the legal defense fund of the Dallas Cowboys with the money in his right. Pay the man by check, and you'd burn through enough paper that the rain forests would be more aptly known as the rain bushes.
In the seven years since he won Maryland's only national basketball championship, Williams has been fitted for more pine boxes than suits, and yet he's still come back more times than a has-been boxer.
Poor Dave Neal. He never stood a chance. Sure, it was senior night in College Park, Mary. And sure, Neal was white hot and having the best night of his career when he decided to try and defend the moving freight train that is Jeff Teague. Teague goes baseline, hops about 30 feet in the air and plants his unmentionables on Neal's face. At least it wasn't Neal's final home game or anything though, right?
LAS VEGAS -- Last year's Wake Forest squad had two of the first 19 picks in the NBA Draft -- James Johnson and Jeff Teague -- and another player who would have been a first-rounder had he decided to declare (Al-Farouq Aminu).
The day of reckoning has arrived for some 90 or so prospects hoping to be an 
We have less than 10 days to go before the 
* Memphis general manager Chris Wallace allegedly tells Spanish sports page Marca that 
FanHouse covers the 
In life, you may never get a second chance to make a first impression. 
If 
