The 2007 Draft: Who Will Keep Brewer Company?

I've always considered myself a draft geek. The NBA draft is my favorite sporting "event" of the year. The NCAA tournament is second on that list, mainly because I'm watching for prospects in preparation for the NBA draft. I take to the draft like Oprah takes to a box of Krispy Kreme's or like Rosie O'Donnell takes to a Mary Kay Saleswoman. I devour it, I eat it up.

This season, I've hardly given the draft a second thought. It probably has something to do with the fact that all the best prospects available for the Jazz at #25 will be wing players who, if drafted by the Jazz, will likely spend the 2007-2008 season sitting next to Ronnie Brewer and CJ Miles on the Jazz bench during games and after the games will be in the video room with AK watching the newly released Matt Harpring Instructional Video.

Without further Freddy Adu (Real frickin' Salt Lake just beat DC United, this is my way of paying tribute to a big win) let's get to this thing.

To prepare for the draft, NBA teams will make a draft board, essentially ranking the prospects from best to worst. Rather than a Mock, I will do the same by making my draft board, then will guess as to what the Jazz' draft board will look like.

My draft board:

1. Greg Oden
2. Kevin Durant

Tyson Gay just ran a 19.61 200m in the U.S. Track and Field meet I'm watching as I type this - the second fastest time ever. That was impressive.

3. Julian Wright
4. Nick Young
5. Al Thornton
6. Mike Conley
7. Corey Brewer
8. Al Horford
9. Yi Jianlian
10. Jeff Green
11. Brandan Wright
12. Morris Almond
13. Sean Williams
14. Acie Law
15. Rudy Fernandez
16. Joakim Noah
17. Spencer Hawes
18. Jared Dudley
19. Alando Tucker
20. Javaris Crittenton
21. Nick Fazekas
22. Thaddeus Young
23. Derrick Byars
24. Zabian Dowdell
25. Marco Belinelli
26. Rodney Stuckey
27. Jason Smith
28. Marcus Williams
29. Glen Davis
30. Gabe Pruitt

Those are the best 30 players in the draft.

The Jazz draft board will look something like this...

1. Aaron Gray
2. Spencer Hawes
3. Nick Fazekas
4. Kyle Visser
5. Josh McRoberts
6. Morris Almond (he gets a spot here on the Jazz board thanks to his apparent admiration for a certain former football player on the current Jazz roster)
7. Jason Smith
8. Tiago Splitter
9. Marc Gasol
10. Adam Haluska
11. Marco Belinelli
12 thru 30. "just a bunch of troublemakers who don't take the game seriously, have no idea how to practice, have no sense of basic basketball fundamentals, won't learn the plays, will dunk the basketball when they have an opportunity, etc. Or to sum it up - "talented athletes".

In conclusion, if he's available, expect Aaron Gray (in what the Jazz would consider a stroke of luck akin to Chris Mullin agreeing to trade Derek Fisher) to be the starting center for the Jazz next season (sorry, Memo but you just can't compete with that), with Ronnie Brewer holding down the fort (pun intended) on the Jazz bench for another season.