But while the spectacle of the draft is one of the most overrated things in the NBA, the reaction and analysis of the draft is important… well, kinda. This article by Jeff Andriesse of RotoExperts.com looked at the first round picks during the last decade who averaged 30 or more minutes per game during their rookie seasons. He found that just 29 rookies over the past 10 years averaged 30+ minutes a game (an average of less than three a year for the mathematically challenged). And if the experts are correct about the quality of this draft class, then we are probably looking at the under on the number of rookies who will significantly contribute to their team in 2009-10.

But in the spirit of at least one rookie in 09-10 being worth our fantasy time, what did some other, smarter, people have to say about the draft

Matt Buser did a live draft chat over at his new site, busersports.com. Man, that is the one draft related event I would have liked to been at if only to bombard him with questions like, “so, when this draft thing all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together” and “did you get those panties I sent you in the mail?” Oh boy, I like Buser a little too much.

Bust a Bucket (home to the world’s greatest header) had another live draft chat with some of the basketball blogosphere’s best and brightest: A Stern Warning, With malice, T-Wolves Blog, BlueBlitz.Net, Hoop Heads North, and 2nd Round Reach.

Barley’s Mouth finishes off the live chat threesome with their own sick and twisted recap of the draft and follows it up with an ode to Michael Jackson and draft recap all in one. Like Michael, the recap is incredibly entertaining, but I wouldn’t leave your children alone in the house with it.

Speaking of Brendan at 2RR, he already has some preliminary day after draft reaction up including some smart words on the Nets. Although I’m not so sure about the Yi Jianlian part.

I’m not sure if Evil E sleeps or is even human, but he already has updated depth charts for every team in the league based on yesterday’s draft.

If you’re like me and don’t like to actually watch the draft, but still want to be able to speak coherently about it or drop some nuggets at your cocktail parties this weekend, then Empty the Bench has a great recap of the draft complete with honorary awards.

And while it’s still too early to grade the fantasy implications of the draft picks, it’s never too soon to grade the suits.

* Actually, my life is not better than that. Instead, I watched 4 hours of Michael Jackson music videos.

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Sports2Debate has updated their NBA Mock Draft for 2009. Yeah, it’s still at least 39 days away, but we’re already springing forward tonight, so it’ll be here before you know it!

Rootzoo has 7 Top Fantasy Basketball Keepers. Which is more than ironic, because (and I swear I’m not lying), I was going to make my own list of keeper rankings today. Of course, only having 7 keepers in your list isn’t going to help that much if you’ve got more than 7 teams in your league. So, I’ll still be getting that list together (hopefully later today or tomorrow).

Something else to look at for next season: iPhone app for fantasy basketball draft. It sounds like everyone has to be using the app, though, and since I want a a Google phone rather than an iPhone, I won’t be able to be in your draft if you’re using that app. (For the record, if someone wanted to give me an iPhone, I wouldn’t turn it down or anything).

Also, let’s hope that you can do pre-rankings so that your draft doesn’t end up looking like this:

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To get you started, Sports2Debate has an NBA Mock Draft (two rounds even!) so you can familiarize yourself for the tournament. Their Mock was updated just 3 days ago, so it’s got to be at least somewhat relevant, right?

DraftExpress was the site I was hitting up last year to get the latest on the Bulls luckiest lottery ever. NBADraft.net is another one that I’ve heard of. And I’ll throw in MyNBADraft.com because they were the 3rd site on Google, which has to count for something.

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Who is the easiest to get along with on the Bulls?
Joakim Noah, because he speaks French.

Who do you want the Bulls to take with the first pick?
Derrick Rose, because he is from Chicago.

I’m sure there was more to it than that, but she was also busy with getting autographs for me (and a bunch of other teachers who were too scared to ask).

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Here’s my new mantra:
Oh, pleasely, Paxson, Beasley, Paxson.

I bet you wouldn’t think I thought I could be a poet at one point. Yup. I was even in a Poetry Slam once. Not at the Green Mill, of course… but nevertheless, I did perform a piece of spoken word in front of people who were not my parents, nor friends, nor my uncle (in law).

Anyway, enough about me… How about them Bulls???

Yeeeeeeee HA!

Update(s):

I guess my lack of knowledge about college basketball is showing something fierce right now… It seems everyone (who matters) around the blogosphere wants the Bulls to take Derrick Rose.

Blog-A-Bull has a poll you can vote in. What the hell, another post from Blog-A-Bull.

Top 10 Chicago Sports also says to pick Rose. And they often post things like Top 10 Sexpots Who’d Play Disney Characters, so you have to listen to them at least a little.

And, Thank You Isaiah is evidently going to have a 7+ man riot if the Bulls don’t take Rose.

Update 2 Two more links:
The initial Midnight Posting by Tremendous Upside Potential with off-the-dome reasoning for Derrick Rose. And another one so blantantly pro-Derrick Rose it’s not even funny. But it does have a YouTube video that’s pretty funny.

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JE Skeets is kind of like me in that he doesn’t really follow college ball. So, he’s done all of non-NCAAB-heads a favor by picking out who to watch for in the Final Four games this weekend. I watched OJ Mayo and Michael Beasley turn in rather tepid performances in their first-round matcup, so I’ll be interested to see what the rest of these guys (some of whom I do actually know by name) will bring.

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It’s not often that one gets selected to host a Carnival. It’s certainly less often when Matt wants that Carnival to happen right around when your blog is celebrating it’s Blogiversary. So, without further Ado, Happy 3rd Blogiversary to Give Me The Rock!

Oh, and a Carnival too… Let’s see what we gots…

I have voluntarily submitted for Matt his post regarding BlogABull’s 4th Blogiversary. Yeah, he beat me out by just over a year. In the comments on that post, he points out that Desipio has been around in one form or another for 10 years. I’m tempted to argue that if it’s not called the same thing it doesn’t count, but I was over at Blogspot for a good 8 months, and I’m not going to easily give that up, so here’s to GMTR making it to 10 years!

Speaking of the Bulls, here’s an interview by Mike North of Joakim Noah. It’s an audio interview, and if Mike North wasn’t so annoying, it’d be an excellent interview. I’m liking Joakim.

Speaking of liking players: Bright Side of the Sun has a double-wide post on Steve Nash’s Charity Game. The second post has something about wanting to get close to the players. Thanks for writing that up, Sue B. Next time, Sue, maybe you need to work on your outfit. I’m thinking something like this girl has:

Next up, from NBA Glue, something that fantasy heads can appreciate: Starting 5s for teams for which you might not know the starting 5s. Or if you’ve been taking the summer off like the guys at Fantasy Basketblog, this is an easy way to catch up on what’s been going on. The NBA Glue is also holding things together with a preview of the Atlantic Division teams. Another good way to catch up in case you’ve been frozen in carbonite.

Kind of looks like he got hit with the NBA Glue.

Speaking of NBA Glue, Ryan McNeill from HoopsAddict brings together Matt Kolsky from the Chicago Sports Review (holla!) and D-Wil from The Starting Five for a Podcast about the Eastern Conference teams at the Vegas Summer League. For those of you that aren’t podcastingly inclined, you can also read a summary of the audio file. I, myself, listen to several podcasts, but I have been holding out from making one for at least 2 of GMTR’s 3 years on the web. Everyone says I’m a bit of a low-talker and/or I mumble when I’m not really making a point, so I don’t think I’d make the best podcaster unless I pretended to be someone I’m not.

Speaking of someone I’m not, I’m not a Sports Agent. Nor do I want to be one. But Paul Shackman and Darren Heitner and a bunch of other guys do. In their submissions, they talk about what to do with Yi Jianlian now and Kevin Durant’s shoe deal with Nike, which is evidently the second largest endorsement deal ever [citation needed].

Speaking of endorsement deals, Give Me The Rock recently signed Rachel for $1 to tell people “If you like basketball, it’s pretty good. It’s really not that dorky or anything.” I think we might have overpaid for that one.

Speaking of Rachel, I’m sure that many visitors here wish she was the one running this Carnival, even though I’m sure those same visitors don’t actually realize they wish she was the one running the Carnival. If you can imagine the referrals to this site, the majority of which come from Google Images, then you can come to some understanding of what I mean.

Speaking of hot girls associated with the Nets, check out this post from Becky and El Friends Du Nenad with Nenad Krstic’s girlfriend.

Speaking of ways to sneak in posts with cool segues out of 8th grade, here’s Steve – with no experience with the Carnival – taking it to the rack strong! By rack, I was going for something related to Nenad’s girl or something attached to a dancer, but I’m not sure that it came across clearly enough for those of you who don’t have your mind in the gutter. So, just so you know, I was going for “taking it to the rack.”

Oh, and here’s the links:
http://mvn.com/nba-takingittotherack/2007/07/25/finding-perspective-while-we-search-for-a-fix/
http://mvn.com/nba-takingittotherack/2007/07/22/donaghy-and-vick-tip-of-the-iceberg/

Speaking of: SCANDAL ROCKS THE NBA

Trusted Advisor which I’m not sure is an actual NBA blog has a post about the NBA and it’s newly found need for transparency.

Speaking of more posts about the scandal:
With Malice on gambling in sports and Epic Carnival (a new one to me) find the NBA at fault for the reasons behind the scandal and With Malice has another post to help us find our way after the scandal.

The SportsBiz blog has a post about how no one will let the NBA into Vegas now that there’s the whole betting on games thing.

Speaking of other things the NBA shouldn’t do is: allow players to make more rap albums. Of course, the WolvesWatch says that Troy Hudson’s new album isn’t too bad. I got a little hyped up for Ron Artest’s album, but T-Hud isn’t going to even get me to think about going to iTunes, let alone Amazon or something.

Speaking of the Timberwolves, the College Wolf at the Twolves Blog has a pretty in depth post about how to fix the Wolves. The need an in depth plan like that. Cause, well, they’re not really going anywhere as they are right now. Kevin Garnett needs to make a Daughtry-like album to express his anguish.

NOTE: This was written before I heard about the Garnett trade

Speaking of (see above) the Sports Biz blog, they have an article on the people buying part of the Hornets. Maybe they should have held out for a share of the Sonics. Or at least a piece of GMTR blogiversary cake.

Speaking of holding out, I am holding out on posting a review of the book authored by a guy who is interview here because I haven’t had time to finish it. But since I grew up in Portland, and now live in Chicago, I am 100% sure that the 1984 draft was the most important draft in my personal NBA history. Read an interview with the guy who wrote a whole book about it, and you’ll see how it changed not just Portland and Chicago, but the entire NBA forever.

Speaking of drafts that are probably important in the personal history of other authors of this blog LOY’s PLACE remembers Reggie Lewis.

Speaking of Celtics swingmen, Matty G – a member of Red’s Army – tells readers (and Celtics fans in general) why to be patient with Gerald Green. And it’s not just that his name works really well with the team’s color scheme.

NOTE: This was written before I heard about the Garnett trade. So, now I guess it’s the Twolves’ fans who will have to wait for their young stars to bud, while the Celtics dominate the East.

Speaking of dominating the East:

And if case you needed a post somehow related to the above subject matter, please click this link to get to the Washington Wizards Blog.

Speaking of posts that will make people happy, Epic Carnival has an opinion on the always opinionated Stephon Marbury and his desire to play in Italy a la David Beckham in reverse. Except not as good looking. Nor famous. Nor with a good looking, famous wife. But they will both be playing sports that no one in the country really cares about.

So there’s your Carnival of the NBA #47, aka stealing everyone’s thunder to celebrate GMTR’s 3rd Blogiversary. Want to celebrate your own blogiversary by hosting the Carnival? Or maybe you don’t have an upcoming blogiversary, but want to host the Carnival anyway? Just click on over the the Carnival of the NBA group on BallHype and you can have your cake and eat it too.

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And in completely unrelated, but maybe interesting to someone news: There a sort-of MMORPG basketball game called Cyberdunk. It’s kind of like those old school drug baron games you’d play online, except with a basketball player instead of drugs. I’ve created a player, but so far haven’t played in any games. I see a whole bunch of Joe Npc Smith type characters meaning that the game needs more real players. If you’re into that sort of thing, come on over and see if you can get in the UK league with me (yeah, I tried for the US, but it could be worse).

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Just to recap:

Best image from the Playoffs:

Best image from the Draft:

So, yes, Patrick and I are already communicating via Email about the Team Previews to come this Summer. And as I’m sure anyone reading this knows, there was a lot of move making on June 28th, so a lot of fantasy analysis that needs to be done. I can only hope that you are looking forward to having it brought to you as much as we are looking forward to bringing it to you. Cause that’s a lot of looking forward.

In the mean time, though, check out Fantasy Basketblog’s Live Draft Blog, Fantapedia’s brief fantasy take on the draft night trades, Lang’s Draft Recap from SLAMOnline, and Blog-A-Bull’s opinion on the Joakim Noah pick (cause I’m about the Bulls, lest you forget it).

And if that’s not enough, check this:

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NBA Bloggers Mock Draft (one of several hundred). Thanks to The Hype for posting it. I think it’s on other sites like CelticsBlog.com, but they were getting so much traffic earlier in the week that their server couldn’t handle it.

Also, I think it’s a joke, but maybe – just maybe – The Hype is live blogging Draft Day for a full 24 hours. I plan to do the same, but my 24 will start when the draft is over. Or something. Maybe.

PS: KG probably wouldn’t be a good fit for the Suns. But at the same time, I can’t really fault them for trying.

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