2015 NBA Draft: It's Not Worth Trying

This is essentially what college has become & it's a joke.

This year's NBA Draft may be one of the most interesting as it could potentially be one of the weakest draft classes in NBA history. Don't get me wrong, there are a few kids that stand out with Duke's center Jahlil Okafor and Wisconsin's center Frank Kaminsky that really stood out above and beyond the rest in their skills, but after them, I just can not seem to find anyone that really catches my eye. It's mostly from the perspective that my Chicago Bulls will more than likely have a low first round pick in the early to mid 20s potentially. But is it even worth the use? I don't think so. In fact, I think it would be much more beneficial to the Bulls and other franchises outside the Top 10 or even Top 5 to start trading away their first round picks and try to acquire some well established veteran players.

Devin Booker

And that is the key to why this draft is going to be historically very weak: lack of experience. The big push for this comes from the fact that the Kentucky Wildcats are sending seven players from their roster and bench to the NBA Draft. The oldest in junior center Willie Cauley-Stein, whose numbers are no where near what they should be for a 7'0" big man in the SEC with 8.9 PPG and 6.4 RPG. Then there are the twin sophomore guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison and sophomore center Dakari Johnson. Aaron Harrison was the better of the two with 11.0 PPG while his brother posted just 9.3 PPG. Dakari Johnson meanwhile had numbers very close to that of Cauley-Stein with 6.4 PPG and 4.6 RPG. But at least I give these guys credit for staying another year (or two in Cauley-Stein's case) in order to improve there game (though it was not by much).

Trey Lyles

Then of course, we have three of the team's freshman that decided that they were good enough this year to become NBA superstars. The best of the bunch was Karl-Anthony Towns, who averaged 10.6 PPG and 6.7 RPG, which is not bad but could become better had he stayed another year at Kentucky. Then comes Devin Booker, who averaged 10.0 PPG, 2.0 RPG, and 1.1 APG, which says that he can [somewhat] score but has still a lot to develop in his game. The last one is Trey Lyles, who averaged 8.7 PPG and 5.7 RPG, which again is not bad but no where near what a first round pick should be.

Karl-Anthony Towns

So far, there has been a lot of talk about if Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor should be the No. 1 pick. Somehow, these so called "experts" continue to try and make us believe that this will be a tough choice. In my opinion, it shouldn't be such a contest because Okafor is clearly much better, more powerful, better crafted to be able to handle the NBA style of play. I mean, I honestly believe Frank Kaminsky is the actual No. 1 pick for this year, but out of Towns or Okafor, I will have to say that it is Okafor. And, if Towns does [somehow] become the No.1 pick this year then I just do not know what to say about the NBA except it's turning into high school basketball and getting so much weaker than it once was.

This year's draft is definitely not worth watching or putting the time into listen to because what names are there that actually ring of some type of relevance in basketball. The reason why guys like Milwaukee forward Jabari Parker and Minnesota guard Andrew Wiggins were able to be the Top 2 picks in the 2014 NBA Draft was because of the fact that they had built a name for themselves in high school that echoed across the country as the No.1 recruits in the country, which was then topped off with a stunning performance by Parker at Duke and a pretty good one from Wiggins at Kansas. These year's freshmen have yet to show me anything close to that of NBA talent except Okafor and even Oho State guard D'Angelo Russell.

Kwame Brown: one of the biggest
 reasons why coming out
 early is a bad idea.

I never had the chance, but when the 1980s were going on, you had some of the greatest college basketball players and some unknowns that eventually became NBA Hall of Famers. But how did they become so great? I think the biggest reason is they all stayed at their schools for the long run. I mean, would we think about men like Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, and so many others if they did not stay in school for ore than one year? it's possible, but highly unlikely as well. Now you may come at me with the stories of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett coming out of high school, however, those men were the special case "gods among boys" type of players that were pro ready in high school. You want an example of a failed high school "prodigy" in the NBA? Well has anyone heard of the name Kwame Brown in quite some time? If not, it's probably he's sitting at home and waiting for a call to get out of free agency or he's retired. Either way, he was once the No.1 pick in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards. Since then, Brown has played for six other teams and has a career average of 6.6 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 0.6 BPG. Some have even considered Brown to be the biggest bust in NBA history as he was built up to be the next KG and then some in the NBA.

Although he won an NCAA Title in
1982 as a freshman, Michael Jordan stayed in
school till his senior year & look at him now.

Not too long ago, NBA Hall of Fame center Alonzo Mourning made a statement that Michael Jordan could have easily dropped around 50 points a game in today's NBA games. He even said that he would've loved to see someone like LeBron James play in the late 1980s to early 1990s NBA era. Honestly, I have to agree. I grew up in the '90s and was able to watch Jordan work his magic in his last two championship seasons for the Chicago Bulls. It was so impressive that even at that time in his career when it seemed that he should have slowed down, that he almost seemed to actually get better, like if he was fine wine or something or that nature. So if Mourning would be right about Jordan scoring 50 points in today's games, then how much would Kobe Bryant score in his prime as a man who once dropped 81 points in a single game. Or even worse, if the Big Dipper Wilt Chamberlain, who is the only man to ever score 100 points in a single game, were still alive and in the prime of his career. You can only imagine the destruction that would be had on teams today.

His comment of LeBron James playing back in the day has been one of discussion some times before, especially when you try to compare the "who's better?" argument between James and Michael Jordan. First off, they played different positions on the court. Second, I think Mourning's saying was meant to say that James would not be able to hang in the '80/'90s era, but I think that a 26-29 years old James would be able to, however, I think he would find himself as just a very good player and not the most amazing player in the NBA. More than likely, James would find it hard to drive to the basket against guys like Ewing, Olajuwon, Malone, Mutombo, and even Mourning himself. His career maybe would have finished with around 20.0-21.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and about 3.0 APG. But hey, all we can do is speculate what could have been if he would have been there.

So I know this write-up has seemingly become a way for me to vent out my anger toward the NBA for it's lack of talent... because it actually is for half of it. The rest is to just show and explain the whole concept of what this rule about "one and down" has brought to the pro level. It's kind of similar to a guys that's gun just jammed, so he points it down at his foot while he tries to unjam it. The next thing you know, BOOM! He just shot himself right in the foot due to his own stupidity. I hope the NBA gets a chance to read this, and if you do, then I want to know what you guys think about this subject as well. After all, I cannot be the only one that thinks that the NBA has become a weaker and more disorganized league than what it use to be when it was filled with some the world's best athletes.  I hope the NBA are happy with themselves because they may one day be the blame of what caused so many kids to give up the dream of an education in order to try and pursue a dream that seemed so bright thanks to their "one and done" rule but were never able to get to the top.