No one was more fun to watch in college basketball last season than Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall.

Let’s take a look at the first five picks of Thursday’s 2010 NBA Draft and see what they bring to the table.

1. Washington Wizards – John Wall (6-4, PG, Kentucky).
Strengths: Gifted athete, playmaker and brings size to PG position. Weaknesses: Needs to improve FT (Shot 75.4 percent at Kentucky), inexperience.
Impact on Wizards: Not only will he bring fans to the arena, Wall gives Washington a player they can immediately build around and put past troubles with the franchise.

2. Philadelphia 76ers – Evan Turner (6-7, SG/SF, Ohio State).
Strengths: Clutch, seasoned (played three years in college) and shoots a  high percentage  (shot 51.9 percent from the field last season). Weaknesses: Turnover prone and not as explosive around the rim in terms of finishing in traffic.
Impact on 76ers: Will have to play small forward, but teaming up with Andre Iguodala will give the 76ers two very good perimeter defenders. Has a very competitive edge, which Philadelphia has lacked in recent years.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Curry has answered all the questions about whether he was too slight in stature to shine early in the NBA.

Ya’ll know Stephen Curry is my guy.

Just do a search of his name on my blog to find out.

When making my predictions for the 2009-10 NBA season, I thought the rookie of the year award would come down to Blake Griffin of Oklahoma and Curry, who was the most exciting college player while at Davidson.

Since Griffin, the top pick in the 2009 draft, had a major injury that cost him the season, (Darn L.A. Clippers curse), Curry became my choice by process of elimination.

For months, people have essentially given the award to Sacramento point guard Tyreke Evans out of Memphis, but Curry has been playing better and better as has his team.

The argument against Curry was the Warriors were a bad team. They still are but the Warriors are 5-5 in their last 10 days. The Kings? 1-9. Both teams are 24-54.

Being part of Don Nelson becoming the all-time winningest coach in NBA history will help Curry, but his play should merit enough to take home the honor.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Tulsa 66ers made it official.

High school players are now jumping to the D-League as Latavious Williams became the first player to not only go from high school to the D-League, but the 66ers took him with the 16th and final pick in the first round.

He’ll look to enter the NBA Draft next season as he can’t until his graduating class was out of school a year.

Just for the record, Tulsa doesn’t play the BayHawks in Erie this season. Both games are in Tulsa Jan. 17 and Jan. 19.

Go figure, but I’m intersted to see how the 6-foot, 8-inch youngster does. He’s was supposed to go Memphis, but didn’t qualify academically. Then he was supposed to go overseas in China and didn’t.

So let’s see how this route works for him.

Latavious Williams is jumping from high school to the D-League.

Huh?

In the past, guys went straight from high school to the NBA, but now a player must attend college at least for one year or have their graduating class be out of school a year to enter the NBA draft.

So Williams, who is from Starkville, Miss., is in the D-League draft pool for Thursday’s draft. He’s the first player to go from high school to the D-League. He finished his prep career at Christian Life Center Academy in Humble, Texas.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jarvis Gunter showed flashes of his potential in Erie's 97-94 overtime win against the Los Angeles D-Fenders on Sunday.

Opportunity knocked Sunday and Jarvis Gunter took advantage of it.

Gunter posted his first double-double of the season with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds in Erie’s 97-94 overtime win against the Los Angeles D-Fenders earlier today at Tullio Arena.

“He brought energy,” Erie combo guard Maureece Rice said. “He did a lot of things we needed. Rebounding. Put backs. He came through and made some big shots for us. That’s why he got player of the game because he came off the bench and gave us that spark that we needed.”

When I saw Gunter in training camp, I felt as if he could put up similar numbers in the D-League for the whole season. I also figured he’d play more to let Erik Daniels play more of a natural power forward position than center.

Neither situation has materialized for Gunter.

He came into Sunday’s game averaging only 2.6 points and three rebounds in 33 games. Gunter was averaging just 11.4 minutes a game.

On Sunday, the 6-foot 10-inch, 220-pound Gunter played a season-high 26 minutes and 38 seconds and found himself in the game at its most critical juncture.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pittsburgh. Louisville. North Carolina. Memphis.

That’s President Barack Obama’s Final Four picks for this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Kind of a front runner, huh? Three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed in Memphis, but ESPN is airing an interview today at noon with him discussing his Final Four picks with Andy Katz.

Think Obama is on the money or way off?