Random thoughts and observations from the NBA draft

Well, the newest crop of young millionaires have officially been minted and distributed among the NBA's 30 teams and what have we learned?

For one thing, we now know -- as if we didn't already -- that the NBA's one-and-done rule isn't working. Nine freshmen, in all, went in the first round, a new record, meaning that nine college programs around the country are in the unenviable position of having to rebuild, or reload, for the second straight season.

I'm not sure why the NBA insists that these players take up space on a college roster (and sometimes, even a college classroom) for one year before turning pro. If they're going to jump at the first opportunity, anyway, they might as well be allowed to go into the draft straight out of high school. What's the difference?

The current system is a lot like a baseball team dealing for a veteran free-agent-to-be at the trade deadline. Sometimes the rent-a-players work out. Most of the time, they don't. Just ask Southern Cal (which could very well end up on probation because of O.J. Mayo's short stay), Kansas State, Arizona and N.C. State if they really, truly benefitted from any of their one-year wonders. Even Memphis, which did at least get to the Final Four, still fell short of the national championship in its one and only shot with top pick Derrick Rose.

A much better solution for everyone involved would be a system similar to the one used by Major League Baseball -- in which players can be drafted out of high school, but can decide not to sign and go to school if they choose. But once they enroll and step onto campus, they can't be drafted again until after their third year. It seems like that would make a lot more sense than the one in place now. Maybe that's why David Stern and the Players Association haven't thought of it.

A little closer to home here in North Carolina, I'm still trying to figure out what the Charlotte Bobcats were thinking as they made their first-round selections.

They went into the draft with the stated intent of getting a bigger, specifically, to add a strong post presence that would allow them to move Emeka Okafor over to power forward. But even though Stanford's 7-foot-1, 258-pound Brook Lopez was still available, the Bobcats opted instead for point guard D.J. Augustin out of Texas.

Now, Augustin is certainly an excellent player with the potential to be a highly effective NBA point guard ... but not when you've already invested a lot of money in another young player at the position. Maybe Charlotte has a deal worked out to move Raymond Felton for a big. If not, then Michael Jordan only added to his less-than-stellar reputation as a miserable drafter, because after trading a future first-rounder to Denver for the 20th overall pick, His Airness wasted it on some French stiff who averaged only five points per game in a Euro league and might not be NBA ready until 2010.

Huh?

I guess there's always next year's lottery.

As for the draft as a whole, the biggest winners were the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers (who didn't even have a pick). Why? Because they did a great job of trading picks for proven veterans who will help faster and more significantly than anything that would have been available to them otherwise.