Bucks On Top

The Milwaukee Bucks have won the NBA Draft Lottery and will pick number 1 when the NBA Draft takes place on June 28th. Milwaukee only had a 6 percent chance of winning the lottery, but they did it. Some people may think this is a no brainer pick and some would say that the number 1 pick in this draft is going to be the toughest.

Many will say just take the national player of the year in Utah center Andrew Bogut, but that would be wrong. Let me tell you right now, if the Bucks select Bogut number one, I will never watch another Bucks game as long as I live. Let me repeat that, never watch another Bucks game again. Bogut did well during the season and led surprising Utah to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2005 NCAA Basketball Tournament, but he didn't dominate the tourney like the biggest guy in the field should have.

In his three games against UTEP, Oklahoma, and Kentucky (respectively); Bogut went 21-39 from the field including 2-5 from three point land, 10-24 from the free-throw line, for a total of 54 points, had 34 rebounds, 8 assists, and 12 turnovers. Sure the 18 and 11 he gave in every game was nice, but being 7 foot and no one on any of those teams being close to his size, he should have been putting up 25-14 numbers each game and the team should have made it to at least the Final Four. He shot only 41% from the free throw line and just under 54% from the field. Not bad from the field, but a big guy who will get fouled often needs to hit better than 41% of his shots from the charity stripe. I do not feel that Andrew Bogut is going to be a good pro at all. He will be almost as good as Arvydas Sabonis was for the Portland TrailBlazers, not exactly number 1 overall material.

The Bucks should take North Carolina freshman, Marvin Williams with the number one pick. The guy goes 6'9" 230 and is just an athletic freak. In the six games the Tar Heels played en route to the championship, Williams was their number one player off the bench as he put up these numbers: 26-52 from the field, 5-12 from 3 point land, 15-18 from the free throw line, 44 rebounds, 3 blocks, 7 steals, 6 turnovers, and 72 points. I know, I know, only 12 and 7 per game, but when you consider he only played 23.5 minutes per game, those are excellent numbers. In fact, he didn't play more than 26 minutes in any one game during the title run. Marvin would have been a top pick in last year's draft but decided to go to school instead. He proved why he would have been a top pick last year and why he should be the top pick this year when he played at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time. Playing at Duke is one of the toughest things a freshman in the ACC will experience, but Williams took it in stride. In the 1 point loss on February 2nd, he played an excellent game finishing with 12 points and 5 boards in just 25 minutes, but it was the way he played and hit baskets in key situations that made him seem like such a great prospect.

Williams may not be NBA ready yet, but Amare Stoudamire wasn't either. This kid is going to be a force in 2-3 years while Andrew Bogut will be thinking, "Man am I glad no one knew what a fraud I was before the draft!"

Larry, hear me and hear me well, you will never hear the end of it if you select Andrew Bogut over Marvin Williams, for the love of God don't do it.

-Until next time...