By Bob Finnan
RFinnan@News-Herald.com
The top five picks in the June 24 NBA draft appear to be etched in stone.
Unless there's a sudden change of heart, Kentucky point guard John Wall should be the No. 1 pick of the Wizards.
Ohio State's Evan Turner, Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors, Syracuse's Wesley Johnson and Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins are expected to round out the top five selections.
After that, things get a bit dicey.
While this may be a deep draft, it may not be full of immediate impact players.
One Western Conference general manager said the draft is "not deep on starters, but deep on rotation players."
Pacers director of scouting Ryan Carr agreed.
"I think there are a lot of guys that will be able to help teams," he told Indiana writers. "A lot of guys will get better, but it's going to depend on them putting in the work. You just have to find the right player that will help you with your pick."
Carr cautioned against judging any draft pick right away — no matter where he is selected.
"You're drafting kids that could be just starting to find themselves," Carr said. "They have a lot of work ahead of them before they'll be a finished product. It's a process through all this. You work hard and evaluate, and you try to project where you think they will be."
Heat personnel man Chet Kammerer said the draft is loaded with good power forwards. But the center crop is a bit iffy.
"I would say this draft definitely doesn't have the point guard quality of last year," he said. "This year, I would say ‘4s' would be the strength of this draft, and maybe ‘3s.'
"Some of the centers, it was kind of disappointing when the measurements came out, of players we all thought were a little longer."
Other draft minutiae:
- Indications are the Cavaliers will attempt to purchase a first-round pick. They currently don't have a first- or second-round selection. It will likely take $3 million to do it. Second-rounders last year were selling for $2 million.
- The Cavs have many needs, beginning with a starting center. They also need a point guard, shooting guard and possibly a small forward if LeBron James leaves. If Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas leave via free agency, they might be forced to play J.J. Hickson at center and bring Sasha Kaun over from Russia.
- Forward Gordon Hayward's play in leading Butler to the NCAA championship game has hurdled him almost instantly into the full glare of the NBA draft machine.
"It's kind of been surreal," the 6-foot-8 sophomore said.
After he's drafted, he will become the ninth active player from Indianapolis in the NBA.
"I really wasn't recruited in high school that much," Hayward said. "To go from almost giving up basketball, being a smaller kid, to playing at Butler, then to coming here, it's been kind of weird. But it has been exciting."
- Agent Mark Bartelstein said he "would not be surprised" if Hayward is selected in the top 10. Teams that have scheduled workouts for Hayward so far, with draft order: Sacramento (fifth), Golden State (sixth), Los Angeles Clippers (eighth), Utah (ninth), Indiana (10th), New Orleans (11th), Toronto (13th), Chicago (15th) and Milwaukee (17th).
- Look for Timberwolves GM David Kahn to be active trying to trade up from the fourth pick to the second pick for a chance to take Turner. Don't be surprised if either Al Jefferson or Kevin Love is traded by draft night.
- If the Wolves stay at No. 4 and don't move either up or down, they'll likely choose from between Johnson, Cousins or possibly Wake Forest small forward Al-Farouq Aminu.
Rumor mill
- Andy Miller, the agent for Cavs guard Sebastian Telfair, said his client has opted into his deal for next season. He will earn $2.7 million.
- The Spurs will listen to offers for guard Tony Parker over the summer, but they are not "shopping" him. He is entering the final year of his contract worth $13.5 million.
The presumption that George Hill's development makes him expendable is not true, even though he's a good, young combo guard. He still can't run pick-and-roll smoothly, and that's only about 75 percent of the Spurs' offense. By the way, if anyone's interested in forward Richard Jefferson, pick up the phone.
- Hawks general manager Rick Sund said the team will do whatever it takes to re-sign guard Joe Johnson. But he's not the one writing the checks.
Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon said they don't want to sign anyone to a bad contract. He said their payroll has increased by $24 million since this current ownership group has taken over.
"What we haven't done is make a mistake with a bad contract," he said.
Even though Johnson will likely get a max contract, many observers think he's not a max player.
- Florida International coach Isiah Thomas said on a Miami radio show he has no problem if Heat president Pat Riley returns as coach.
"Here in Miami, with Dwyane Wade, you have one of the top two, three players in the game today, arguably 1A, 1B, 1C, when you talk about Wade, LeBron and Kobe," Thomas said. "Now you got a guy who's coached championships sitting up in the front office. Now if he decides that he wanted to come back down to the bench, I think there are few guys in this league who have that prerogative, and he's one of them."
Quick shots
- Spurs swingman Manu Ginobili's wife, Many (no, that is not a made-up name ... Manu and Many, Argentina's first couple) recently gave birth to twins named Dante and Nicola. One reason the Spurs committed $38.9 million over three seasons to the 33-year-old, injury-prone guard, is because his Argentine heritage is big with the San Antonio's Hispanic fan base.
"The only thing we've told him is, ‘You have no clue how your life is going to change; and double so with twins,' " Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.
- Poor A.J. Price. The former UConn guard fractured his patella in a charity game recently and will be out of action for four months. His contract is worth $762,000 next season, but it's not guaranteed.
