Also seen at hardcourtmayhem.com/blog
I started doing previews for the NBA Draft. I started previewing as many picks as possible. Unfortunately, I was only able to finish eight articles. Here?s how it went down:
WAS ? John Wall
PHI ? Evan Turner
NJN ? Derrick Favors
MIN ? Wesley Johnson
SAC ? DeMarcus Cousins
GSW ? Greg Monroe
DET ? Al-Farouq Aminu
LAC ? Patrick Patterson
After the fifth pick, my predictions were way off. So I start off at the sixth pick all the way up to the 60th. At the end, I will finish with 62 articles in the series. I start out at the eleventh pick for the New Orleans Hornets.
The New Orleans Hornets are now on the clock, as they hold the eleventh pick of the 2010 NBA Draft.
The Hornets want to help compliment Chris Paul. They could really use a big man. Or, maybe, they could use a swingman. But the best that were available were big men.
It seemed that New Orleans would consider guys like Patrick Patterson, Ed Davis, Cole Aldrich, and Daniel Orton. It seemed interesting.
The Hornets got their pick in.
"With the eleventh pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, the New Orleans Hornets select Cole Aldrich from Kansas."
Aldrich seemed like a good fit. Rumors, however, start swirling up quickly that Aldrich would be traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It seemed like an interesting trade.
Here was the trade rumor:
New Orleans Hornets Get - 21st pick (which would be power forward Craig Brackins) and the 26th pick (which would be swingman Quincy Pondexter)
Oklahoma City Thunder Get - Veteran swingman Morris Peterson and Cole Aldrich
The trade went down. Now you are going to see a lot of articles like these in the series. The question many would ask is if "So, which team will you cover?"
The Oklahoma City Thunder. The eleventh pick is Cole Aldrich and now he is on the Thunder. So technically, the title should in fact say the Oklahoma City Thunder instead of the New Orleans Hornets.
But, the Hornets selected Aldrich, so that is why in the title it shows the Hornets. Hope this clears the confusion. So with this, I am covering the Thunder.
And just to notify you for future articles, you are going to see a lot of this since many trades of draft picks went down in this year's draft. Alright, let's move on.
--
The Oklahoma City Thunder get a great deal out of this. Now, they have a future at center. I would not be comfortable having Nenad Kristic as my center if I were the general manager of the team.
The Thunder will easily make Aldrich the starter and he can do a lot for the team. With this, I see the starting five looking like this:
PG: Russell Westbrook
SG: James Harden
SF: Kevin Durant
PF: Jeff Green
C: Cole Aldrich
I think Harden will beat out Thebo Sefalosha for the starting shooting guard spot. Harden has a lot of potential and I think he deserves to be the starter now.
The Thunder hopefully get a lot of good out of this. Hopefully. Aldrich is predicted to be a bust.
Oklahoma City needs to stop that from happening.
Welcome to the NBA, Cole Aldrich!
