When an exciting night turns to be the biggest mistake of your life

One way NBA teams try to fill voids in their lineups is the NBA draft. NBA General Managers have a difficult task in deciding whether to draft based on their team’s needs or to select the proverbial “best player available.” Although there is no right or wrong answer, many teams over the history of the NBA draft have made preposterous blunders by passing over future stars or just selecting disappointing players. In the same night, on the contrary, teams with higher picks can make the deal of a lifetime. Here is a list of the Top 10 NBA Draft Busts and the respective Draft Steals throughout the recent years.

1) Sam Bowie, Portland Trail Blazers, No.2, First Round - 1984


Definitely the sickest move of all times! You don’t pick Sam Bowie when Michael Jordan (No.3), Charles Barkley (No.5) and John Stockthon (No.16) are still available. You just DON’T!

2) Darko Milicic, Detroit Pistons, No.2, First Round - 2003


Detroit GMs didn’t learn anything from history and they proved it that draft night; same situation as 1984 NBA Draft, the Pistons literally wasted their second pick selecting Darko Milicic passing on drafting Carmelo Anthony (No.3), Chris Bosh (No. 4) and Dwyane Wade (No.5). Notable Draft Steals that night were the late picks Josh Howard (No.29) and Mo Williams (No.47).

3) Todd Fuller, Golden State warriors, No.11, First Round - 1996


An Academic All-American who couldn’t put two and two together on the court, Fuller was taken ahead of Kobe Bryant (No.13), Peja Stojakovic (No.14), Steve Nash (No.15) and Jermaine O'Neal (No.17). Fuller averaged around four points and three rebounds in five NBA seasons. In this Draft another fatal mistake took place when the Charlotte Hornets picked Kobe Bryant but traded him to Los Angeles Lakers…ouch!

4) Michael Olowokandi, Los Angeles Clippers, No.1, First Round - 1998


Bust-worthy on so many levels. The Kandi Man was taken before five future All-Stars and a host of more suitable selections. Even the final pick of the first round in '98, Nazr Mohammed (No.29), has had a much more distinguished career in the pivot. The five future All-Stars mentioned before are: Antawn Jamison (No.4), Vice Carter (No.5), Dirk Nowitzki (No.9), Paul Pierce (No.10) and Rashard Lewis (No.32), who surprisingly slipped down to the second round. Even the undrafted center Brad Miller did better than Olowokandi. Another notable bust that year was Raef LaFrentz (No.3).

5) Dennis Hopson, New Jersey Nets, No.3, First Round - 1987


The first in a spate of "Next Jordans" that managed to flame out before producing a fraction of what MJ accomplished. Notable Draft Steals that year were Scottie Pippen (No.5) and Reggie Miller (No.11).

6) Kwame Brown, Washington Wizards, No.1, First Round - 2001


When Kwame Brown was picked first overall in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards, expectations were high. After all, the great Michael Jordan was the one who wanted Brown. People were wondering if Brown would be the second coming of Kevin Garnett. As we all know, this couldn't be further from the truth. Brown turned out to be an absolute scrub and one of the biggest busts in NBA history, if not the biggest. That night many better players were selected after him, for instance Pau Gasol (No.3), Richard Jefferson (No.13), Tony Parker (No.28) and Gilbert Arenas (No.31).

7) Jonathan Bender, Toronto Raptors, No.5, First Round - 1999


It seemed like the perfect move at the time. Trade a seemingly superfluous big man (Antonio Davis) for the chance to take a 7-foot Kevin Garnett look-a-like who had just set a McDonald's All-American Game record by scoring 31 points. After a nondescript career, Bender retired at the age 25 due to debilitating chronic knee pain. When healthy, Bender was an exciting yet underachieving player. Shawn Marion (No.9), Ron Artest (No.16) and Manu Ginobili (No.57) were selected after Bender.

8) Jay Williams, Chicago Bulls (No.2), Nickoloz Tskitishvili, Denver Nuggets (No.5), Dajuan Wagner, Cleveland Cavaliers (No.6), First Round - 2002

Jay Williams was just unlucky. After a solid rookie season in which he put up solid numbers and showed signs of a promising future, he had a terrible motorcycle accident that prematurely ended up his career.














When picking Nickoloz Tskitishvili, Then Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe tried to ride the foreign wave of talent coming into the NBA. Problem was, he picked a player that wasn't good. Tskitishvili played parts of four seasons in the NBA, never averaging more than four points per contest.














Dajuan Wagner became a basketball legend in high school when he scored 100 points in a game. He had NBA stars going to watch him play before he ever joined the league. However, once he joined the NBA, Wagner was never able to live up to the hype. Over the last couple seasons, he's also battled health problems; he ended up his 4 years career averaging 9.4 points in 103 games.














The most notable Draft Steals that year were Amare Stoudemire (No.9), Tayshaun Prince (No.23) and Carlos Boozer (No.35) slipped inexplicably down to the second round.


The last two spots of this Top 10 NBA Draft Busts are filled with two players that are more like “soon-to-be” Busts, because they are still pretty young and with an ongoing career but, honestly, they actually have all the requirements to become big Busts in a couple of year. Let’s see who I am talking about.

9) Adam Morrison, Charlotte Bobcats, No.3, First Round - 2006


After a solid debut season, a severe injury to his left knee in a pre-season exhibition game made him miss the whole 2007-08 NBA season. After recovery from the injury he just wasn’t the same as before anymore and was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers where actually plays garbage time.
Notable Draft Steals were Brandon Roy (No.6), Rudy Gay (No.8) and Rajon Rondo (No.21).

10) Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers, No.1, First Round - 2007


In this case the situation is even worse than Adam Morrison’s, in fact Greg Oden didn’t even play his rookie season. He got a severe injury to his right knee and missed the entire season. Nowadays he keeps on getting injured and he is actually out for the rest of the 2009-2010 season. He had the potential to become one of the most dominant centers of all time and now, after 2 seasons and a never ending list of problems he just has the potential to become one of the biggest NBA Draft Busts of all time. Especially considering the fact that, with the No.2 pick, the Seattle Sonics (now Oklahoma City Thunders) drafted Kevin Durant, a future hall of famer.

NBA night results, Thursday December 10

Three interesting games took place tonight. Let’s have a look at the results:

Orlando Magic @ Utah Jazz 111 - 120
This was a big match, Orlando is the 2nd force in the Eastern Conference behind Boston and the phenomenal NBA Finalist of last season; Utah is the 6th force in the Western Conference and has a 10-3 record at home. Orlando started strong and dominated the first half and closed the halftime with a 8-point advantage. The Jazz took control early in the third quarter. Utah completely erased what was an 8-point first-half deficit with two 11-1 runs in the third quarter; The Jazz took their biggest lead of the game when Miles hit a jumper with 5:57 left to put Utah up 105-89
The men of match:
• Deron Williams: 32 points, 15 assists, 8 rebounds. Almost a triple double for the Illinois kid, maybe the best playmaker of the league;
• Carlos boozer: 20 points, 14 rebounds and the 6th double double in the last 7 matches;
• CJ Miles: 22 points in 27 minutes for CJ, at the 5th match after the recovery from the injury which burnt the first month and a half of his season.
With such a team, coach Jerry Sloan can look at the future with confidence.
Notable players for Orlando:
• Vince Carter: 34 points and 6 rebounds, but a pretty poor 9-23 shooting;
• Matt Barnes, Ryan Anderson, JJ Redick: they came off the bench to score 43 points combined.


Boston Celtics @ Washington Wizards 104 – 102
Boston’s ninth straight victory and Orlando’s defeat at the same time has given to Garnett and teammates the best record in the Eastern Conference. The game was really balanced and the final was uncertain until the end; Washington physical predominance was a real nightmare for Boston, and the victory came up just in the last minutes of the game. The Celtics used their best weapon to get the match: just as they have done for the better part of the season, the Celtics took their defense to another level.
"We had opportunities. We can't shoot 63 percent from the free throw line against great teams," Washington coach Flip Saunders said of his team. "We can't give up layups. We played good defense in the second half that put us in position, but you can't give up a dunk with the score tied 98-98."
Notable players:
• Rajon Rondo: double double for the quick playmaker, 21 points and 11 assists
• Kevin Garnett: 17 points and a terrific defensive intensity
• Gilbert Arenas: 25 points and 8 assists. Agent 0 is back!


Denver Nuggets @ Detroit Pistons 99 – 101
On paper, the injury-depleted Pistons seem to be overmatched every game. On the court, Detroit keeps receiving unlikely contributions and blindsiding unsuspecting opponents. And also this night, without four key players, the Pistons stretched their winning streak to four games by knocking off Western Conference power Denver 101-99. Carmelo Anthony scored 40 points, 16 in the 4th quarter, but that was not enough to beat the Motown team, with the unbelievable Villanueva and the strong rebounding performance of Big Ben Wallace. Denver play was approximate and inaccurate (15 turnovers), maybe the team was tired due to the long road trip they’ve been on. However, we will see a better Denver for sure.
Notable players:
• Charlie Villanueva: 27 points starting off the bench;
• Ben Wallace: 16 rebounds (6 offensive) and a strong presence in the paint;
• Jonas Jerebko: the rookie from Sweden is showing off some skills and he is filling the hole left by Prince with dignity;
Carmelo Anthony: 40 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists. Nothing new, he is a hell of a player and a solid candidate to the NBA MVP award.

Basket NBA - Why Toronto struggles

Let’s see the 2009-2010 roster:

The starters:
Andrea Bargnani (C)
Chris Bosh (PF)
Hedo Turkoglu (SF)
Demar Derozan (SG)
Jose Calderon (PG)

The bench:
Marcus Banks (PG)
Marco Belinelli (SG)
Reggie Evans (PF)
Jarrett Jack (PG)
Amir Johnson (SF)
Pops Mensah-Bonsu (PF)
Rasho Nesterovic (C)
Patrick O’Bryant (C)
Sonny Weems (SG)
Antoine Wright (SF)

Toronto has a real good roster, a deep bench and a lot of talented players. During last summer the team management did an incredible job, we rarely could see a better job in only one summer. At the beginning of the regular season Toronto had the potential to do better than what has been done so fare…so much better! Turkoglu impressed everybody during the playoffs and Toronto literally “stole” him to Portland, Bosh put 25 lbs of muscles on and he was willing to become more and more dominant on the field, Bargnani and Calderon were happy and full of enthusiasm (and 50 million dollars each…ouch!).
The main goal of the new Raptors was obviously to improve the poor defensive side of their game, and coach Jay Triano apparently worked on it.
Everyone in Toronto was ready to become relevant in the Eastern Coast.

It’s almost two month into the season, and it’s seems this was all talk. Nothing more. So far, the team has played little or no defense, allowing opponents to score 108.7 points per game (146 to Atlanta – definitely a good team, but not the Lakers), which is the second worse record in the entire league .
The problem is simple and I tell you straight: Calderon's defensive inadequacy!
And this is enough for the moment.
Now let’s have a look at the attack team play: Turkoglu seems the ghost of the terrific player we saw against Cleveland in the Conference Finals, but this is comprehensible (new team, new coach, new teammates…new life) and it's just a matter of time. The real problem is Chris “I never pass the ball” Bosh; alright he scores 30 points, but to put up these big numbers he takes 30 shots…30 SHOTS! Come on, you can’t do that, boy!

So, what now? What could the Raptors do to improve on both sides, attack and difense?
• GM Brian Colangelo could try to trade Bosh or Bargnani to get a real defensive player in the paint. A dream lumberjack-style player could be Carlos Boozer. I would suggest to trade Bosh instead of Bargnani because CB4 will likely go away at the end of the season anyway. But Colangelo won’t do anything like that;
• Colangelo could try to trade Calderon too, or better, he should try to trade him. I repeat, it’s a real pain to see Calderon defend. This option is still improbable, but less improbable than the previous one;
• The third option could be firing Jay Triano for some defense-addicted coach. And that’s probably what is going to happen before the end of the season. There were rumors about the Italian coach Ettore Messina, 4 times Euroleague winner as a coach, now at Real Madrid, but at the end nothing happened.
I would hire Messina right now, I would definitely give him a shot.

Champions League - Bella Italia

Let’s go with the italian teams first:

• ACF Fiorentina. There’s no question it’s a good team and Cesare Prandelli is one of the best coaches in Italian A League; very smart and skilled coach, he knows well his team and can always find out the opponents’ flaws. The team is composed of very good players…but that’s it. I mean they are good players, but none of them is a real champion, there’s no Messi in Florence. However, in the Champions League Tournament the key of success has always been team play, so never say die.

PRO & CON:

PRO: no individuality and selfishness but strong and concrete team play
CON: first time at this stage, high emotional risk. Could players keep the pressure?

CAPTAIN SB’s prediction: against a weaker team (Stuttgart or Olympiacos) Fiorentina will be fine; otherwise it doesn’t have a chance. Sorry Cesare!


• AC Milan. A New Era has begun: new coach, new formation, OLD players. Probably the team with the highest average age, the key players Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo, Filippo Inzaghi, Massimo Ambrosini , Clarence Seedorf and Gennaro Gattuso were there when AC Milan won the Champions League back in 2006-2007 and – oh my God – they were there in 2002-2003 victory too! Ok that experience is important and so on…but come on, retirement time arrives for everyone sooner or later.
However, among the Italian teams, AC Milan is the one that will probably stay longer in this tournament.

PRO & CON:

PRO: high talent rate; Ronaldinho and Pato can make the difference against anybody. Good team play has been shown in crucial moments
CON: enigmatic team: how can you win against Real Madrid and lose against Zurich? YES MAN…ZURICH!!
Defensively modest

CAPTAIN SB’s prediction: the same as for Fiorentina. AC Milan finds Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester UTD or Arsenal = Bye Bye Champions!


• FC Inter. The team is looking for the “big ears Cup” since 1965; every year Inter tries to get it…every year it fails badly. This year the team is much more solid than two or three years ago, the roster is full of talent, there is the technique and also the physical power. FC Inter is one of the European Top team and is a solid candidate for the final victory.

PRO & CON:

PRO: with a great advantage in the national league, FC Inter can focus on the Champions League.
CON: complete lack of the winning mentality (the players has never won anything important)

CAPTAIN SB’s prediction: FC Inter will pass the first turn; after that, Inter has no chance. The matter of fact is there are too many stronger teams. Sorry guys, maybe next year!

Champions League - Playtime is over

It’s big boys time now, here we go. With yesterday matches the situation is clear, we have the 16 best European football teams competing to win the 55th edition of UEFA Champions League, the most important - or better - the most glorious European football tournament.
The draw for the First knockout round will take place in Nyon, Switzerland, on 18 December 2009, one week after the final round of UEFA Champions League group stage matches, and will feature the top two teams from each group in the group stage. The 16 qualified teams are:

• Group winners:

FC Bordeaux, FRA (group A)
Manchester United FC, ENG (group B)
Real Madrid CF, SPA (group C)
Chelsea FC, ENG (group D)
ACF Fiorentina, ITA (group E)
FC Barcelona, SPA (group F)
Sevilla FC, SPA (group G)
Arsenal FC, ING (group H)

• Group runners-up:

FC Bayern Munich, GER (group A)
PFC CSKA Moskow, RUS (group B)
AC Milan, ITA (group C)
FC Porto, POR (group D)
Olympique Lyon, FRA (group E)
FC Inter, ITA (group F)
VfB Stuttgart, GER (group G)
Olympiacos FC, GRE (group H)

That’s it for now; during the next week I’ll try to write down a little description of each team, stressing strengths and weaknesses out; I’ll talk about interesting matchups and players to keep an eye on. Check it out!