i haven't done this in a while, so let me indulge in a sports analysis...

2007 draft

First Round:

1. Portland: Greg Oden – low-post big man that would anchor a revitalized franchise. Rip City Revival.

2. Seattle: Kevin Durant – Can this guy save the franchise? Maybe, just maybe.

3. Atlanta: Al Horford – best player available. Tag-teaming with the Landlord.

4. Memphis: Mike Conley, Jr. – plays like Tony Parker, will be Iavaroni’s Steve Nash

5. Boston (but goes to Seattle): Jeff Green – consummate role player / glue guy.

6. Milwaukee: Yi Jianlian – will China’s 50 Cent fit with Bogut and Charlie V? head-scratcher…

7. Minnesota: Corey Brewer – 2007 MOP will complement Foye in the backcourt.

8. Charlotte (but goes to Golden State): Brandan Wright – adds size and length to a thin frontcourt, without compromising Nellie-ball.

9. Chicago: Joakim Noah – another energy guy in a team filled with energy guys. Needs work on offense.

10. Sacramento: Spencer Hawes – adds size. Can learn from Brad Miller. Franchise, though, seems to be lost.

11. Atlanta: Acie Law IV – team finally gets a PG. Fearless. Next Sam Cassell, perhaps.

12. Philadelphia: Thaddeus Young – another complementary piece for Igoudala, but still a bit raw, though.

13. New Orleans: Julian Wright – another piece of the puzzle. Will do the little things. Will spell david west and peja.

14. LA Clippers: Al Thornton – Best Player Available (Crittenton will not fit here, Law and Conley are gone). Will definitely add scoring off the bench.

15. Detroit: Rodney Stuckey – fits Piston basketball (goodbye, flip murray!) could be chauncey’s successor.

16. Washington: Nick Young – another offensive tool to help Agent Zero. Shooter.

17. New Jersey: Sean Williams – risk-reward pick, will help defensively with a team bereft of shot blocking

18. Golden State: Marco Belinelli – fits Nellie-ball to a T.

19. LA Lakers: Javaris Crittenton – another head-scratcher (Farmar last year, now him?) does this mean Smush is out? Bigger question is what will happen to Kobe?

20. Miami (but goes to Philadelphia): Jason Smith – adds ceiling, but that’s pretty much it.

21. Philadelphia (but goes to Miami): Daequan Cook – Heat are reloading for another run at a title.

22. Charlotte: Jared Dudley – hard worker, athletic, another complementary tool

23. New York: Wilson Chandler – adds more athleticism, remember that Zeke can find talent

24. Phoenix (but goes to Portland): Rudy Fernandez – Spanish Ginobili? Fits well with the current roster.

25. Utah: Morris Almond – Utah need scoring from backcourt. Morris is the 3^rd in division I in scoring. If he can play like what coach sloan asks for defensively, pencil him in as a starter.

26. Houston: Aaron Brooks – you have luther head, rafer alston, mike james, the son of john lucas, bob sura, bonzi wells in the backcourt. How will he fit in that log-jam.

27. Detroit: Arron Afflalo – can score. Would help in ending over-reliance on starters.

28. San Antonio: Tiago Splitter – typical Spurs pick. Expect him to contribute down the road.

29. Phoenix: Alando Tucker – hmm… kinda reminds me of shawn marion…. Hmmm…. Maybe… just maybe… wasn’t marion being dangled around…

30. Philadelphia (but goes to Portland): Petteri Koponen – finnish PG still needs seasoning

Second Round:

31. Seattle: Carl Landry – can compete with the logjam of forwards

32. Boston: Gabe Pruitt – 1^st round talent, made delonte expendable

33. San Antonio: Marcus Williams – another 1^st round talent, not expected to contribute immediately

34. Dallas: Nick Fazekas – could replace croshere in the rotation as the white boy reliever / poor man’s version of dirk

35. Seattle (but goes to Boston): Glen Davis – Big Baby needs to address weight and conditioning concerns, but could back up al jefferson at the low post

36. Golden State (But goes to Charlotte): Jemareo Davidson – hard-luck kid will improve frontcourt depth (okafor, may, brezec)

37. Portland: Josh McRoberts – another glue guy. Little known fact: he was a teammate of oden before. Maybe that would help his chances..

38. Philadelphia (but goes to Utah): Kyrylo Fesenko – adds size. Could it be that the Collins twins’ days are numbered? He’s mean and physical.

39. Miami (but goes to Indiana): Stanko Barac – the guy that comes to mind is primo brezec… that guy did play in Indiana… but I don’t know why indy would take him.

40. LA Lakers: Sun Yue – Chinese Toni Kukoc… Phil could use a guy like that…can he understand triangle in Chinese?

41. Minnesota: Chris Richard – another undersized big man who compete with other undersized big men. Will eat space.

42. Portland (but goes to Philadelphia): Derrick Byars – guy can score, but will eat into green and ashton korver’s minutes. But he is better than koponen right now.

43. New Orleans: Adam Haluska – might replace d-mason in new Orleans

44. Orlando: Reyshawn Terry – adds perimeter threat. Could get minutes with possible grant hill departure

45. LA Clippers: Jared Jordan – solid if unspectacular pg. Could compete vs Daniel ewing if Jason hart leaves.

46. Golden State: Stephane Lasme – shot-blocking specialist. Would definitely add size and defensive intensity to the equation.

47. Washington: Dominic McGuire – adds depth to wings to team having injury issues

48. LA Lakers: Marc Gasol – adds size and ability (does he have Pau’s skill?)

49. Chicago: Aaron Gray – still does not exactly address low-post scoring, but adds more size and depth

50. Dallas: Ronald Seibutis – stashable overseas. Donnie nelson knows international basketball (save for pavel podlokozine)

51. Chicago: JamesOn Curry – can he play under Scott Skiles? I doubt. But he can score.

52. Portland: Taurean Green – why not take a flyer on him? He can play and has NBA genes. But it is a big logjam there at the point. I smell trades afoot.

53. Portland: Demetirus Nichols – ditto, but at least, there is a less logjam situation at the wings.

54. Houston: Brad Newley – aussie shooter, but still does not address size in the frontcourt.

55. Utah (but goes to Philadelphia): Herbert Hill – another big guy to add to the mix. We’ll never know…

56. Milwaukee: Ramon Sessions – hmmm… good talent. Might be insurance given both boykins and mo Williams are free agents.

57. Detroit: Sammy Mejia – another backcourt player? Something’s afoot here in Detroit. (delfino, hunter, murray, maybe billups?)

58. San Antonio: Giorgos Printezis – again, typical Spurs pick. Expect him to be stashed overseas, given the current talent.

59. Phoenix: DJ Strawberry – could he spell Steve Nash? Marcus Banks was not the answer.

60. Dallas: Milovan Rakovic – who’s this guy? Another one of those stashed in euro peeps.

Winners:

1. Portland - Greg Oden. Jettisoning Z-Bo was addition by subtraction. Can LaMarcus make the sophomore leap? Rip City Revival!

2. Seattle - Kevin Durant. next on the agenda: Rashard Lewis. could this be the team PJ Carlesimo makes his comeback and chokes the opposition? he's long due...

3. Golden State - they add size and athleticism to the nellie-ball. it is expected that monta, etc. will replace j-rich's scoring. i don't think they are finished yet.

4. Atlanta - need size: Al Horford. need PG: Acie Law. they better improve. Phoenix is watching.

5. LA Clippers - offensive spark in Thornton. Jordan can compete vs ewing. next step: jason hart and quinton ross

Losers:

1. Philadelphia - i am technically not sold on how billy king drafted. thaddeus young, jason smith? maybe byars.

2. Charlotte: i do not know how getting j-rich will affect gerald wallace.

3. Houston: drafted 2 guards. pretty much Yao in the low-post. what if he gets hurt again...

4. Lakers: their drafting does not still address one thing: kobe.

5. Milwaukee: yi? when you have charlie v? should have been brewer.