Boring Draft Analysis

Obviously, the NBA draft (like all sports drafts) isn't an exact science and picking Greg Oden ahead of Kevin Durant could end up looking foolish in retrospect. Still, I think things like Bill Simmons' effort to turn this into a controversial debate are pretty foolish. Consider, say, Seattle. If you could put Oden in the middle with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis scoring from the perimeter plus a competent Luke Ridnour / Earl Watson platoon at the point, you're in pretty solid shape.

But if -- as seems likely -- you wind up with Durant, what kind of a big man are you going to snag in a sign-and-trade for Rashard Lewis? There's just way, way, way more depth out there in terms of quality perimeter players and it's genuinely rare at this point to see a seven footer in the draft who isn't a "project" (i.e., crapshoot) of some kind.