Mr Matt's Sports Blog

With the draft now complete, I examine who did best on Thursday Night. Their was no team that went from bad to contender overnight like in some previous drafts. But several teams especially the Clippers and Thunder took big steps to building a contender in 3-4 years. Here are my Grades: L.A. Clippers- A 1. Blake Griffin-PF-He won't turn around the worst franchise in NBA history overnight. But with Griffin, Eric Gordon, and Al Thorton, the Clippers have a young nucleus to build around. They also have star (when healthy) PG Baron Davis to lead them. I think they should try to trade Zach Randolph, but that will be tough to do. At the very least Griffin can learn some good post up moves from Randolph. Memphis Grizzlies- B+ 2. Hasheem Thabeet-C-Thabeet will be a defensive shutdown center from day one. He will control the paint for many years and should be on the NBA's all-defensive team in a few years. His offense is raw but that's OK. 27. DeMarre Carrol-CF 36. Sam Y...

The 2009-2010 NBA season is going to be crazy. With the blockbuster trades that have gone down before the draft. Shaq to Cleveland and now likely Vince Carter to the Magic. It seems like every team is doing whatever they can to win now in 2010. The funny thing is with all of these moves I still think the two teams to beat will be the defending champion L.A. Lakers (assuming they can re-sign both Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza) and the Boston Celtics with a healthy KG. But 3 of the other 4 top contenders both this year and next year have added stars now to make another championship run. The only other top contender not to make a major move has been the Denver Nuggets. But I am wondering if any of these 3 trades will make the Cavs, Magic, or Spurs that much better. Shaq and Vince have both already played their best basketball. Richard Jefferson is good, but the Spurs still have too many old role players. To me these trades are very interesting and entertaining. Yet they really d...

This is my major crazy no holding back mock draft with some interesting projected trades by me. 1. LAC-Blake Griffin-PF- An absolute no brainer 2. MEM- Hasheem Thabeet-C- I kept thinking and thinking that their would be a trade between the Grizz and the Kings for Ricky Rubio. It would make perfect sense. But it looks highly unlikely that the two teams will be able to work out a trade. Memphis is not likely to make that trade unless they get PF Jason Thompson from the Kings. The Kings don't want to give up their first round pick from last year. 3. OKC- James Harden-SG- With Thabeet gone they get a SG who will start right away with young stars SF-Kevin Durant and PG-Russel Westbrook. I think the Thunder would be idiots to pick PG-Ricky Rubio and then move Russel Westbrook to SG. That would mean all of the growth that Westbrook made last year at the point will have been for nothing. The Thunder would then need a defensive Center. I think they should trade Nick Collison, Earl Watson an...

The Bucks sending Richard Jefferson to the Spurs puts the Spurs back in the title hunt and gives the Bucks more financial freedom to resign PF Charlie Villanueva. The Bucks got 3 over the hill players in Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. The Bucks today traded Oberto to the Pistons for Amir Johnson. The Pistons will likely release Oberto for cap room. This will happen some more on draft night with many teams looking to cut payroll off their roster for whatever reason, some for more cap room for free agency and some to avoid luxury tax issues. The other big trade saw the Wizards deal the #5 pick along with 3 very minor role players to the TWolves for Randy Foye and Mike Miller. This trade will have a huge impact on tomorrow's draft as the TWolves now have 4 first round picks including the #5 and #6 picks. The Wizards should be contenders again in the East with a healthy Gilbert Arenas plus Foye and Miller. I don't think the Wizards are done dealing yet. Th...

My top 75 prospects list: 1. Blake Griffin-PF-Oklahoma-So.- (6-10/248) 2. James Harden-SG-Ariz. St.-So.- (6-5/222) 3. Ricky Rubio-PG-Spain-INT.- (6-4/182) 4. Hasheem Thabeet-C-UConn-Jr.- (7-3/267) 5. Tyreke Evans-PG/SG-Memphis-Fr.- (6-5/221) 6. Stephen Curry-PG-Davidson-Jr.- (6-3/181) 7. Jordan Hill-PF-Arizona-Jr.- (6-10/232) 8. Jonny Flynn-PG-Syracuse-So.- (6-1/196) 9. Demar DeRozan-F/G-USC-Fr.- (6-6/211) 10. Gerald Henderson-SG-Duke-Jr.- (6-5/215) 11. Jrue Holiday-PG/SG-UCLA-Fr.- (6-4/199) 12. Dejuan Blair-PF-Pittsburgh-So.- (6-6/277) 13. Terrence Williams-F/G-Louisville-Sr.- (6-6/213) 14. Brandon Jennings-PG-Italy, originally from Los Angeles-INT.- (6-1/170) 15. Ty Lawson-PG-UNC-Jr.- (6-0/197) 16. James Johnson-PF/SF-Wake Forest-So.- (6-8/257) 17. Earl Clark-SF/PF-Louisville-So.- (6-10/228) 18. Jeff Teague-PG/SG-Wake Forest-So.- (6-2/175) 19. Eric Maynor-PG-VCU-Sr.- (6-3/164) 20. B.J. Mullens-C-Ohio St.-Fr.- (7-1/258) 21. Tyler Hansborough-PF-UNC-Sr.- (6-9/234) 22. Darren Collison-P...