It is clear that the July 1st is on the minds of every NBA team and fan. The NBA Draft went by last night, and there wasn't anything special to it, other than the fact that the Kentucky Wildcats basketball programs provided five first round draft picks. Even more interesting is G John Wall was the first ever #1 overall pick for the school, which has had a storied history. Wall was taken first by the Washington Wizards, and F Evan Turner was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers. The draft picks following those two didn't seem to spark any interest among viewers.
The most interesting part of the draft is what teams were doing to shed salary. The Chicago Bulls traded G Kirk Hinrich to the Wizards, just for a second-round pick. The Bulls were merely shedding Hinrich's salary so they can acquire two max free agents. The Miami Heat also did the same, trading G Daequan Cook and their first round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Teams seem to be interested in a free agent class that includes F Lebron James, F Chris Bosh, G Dwyane Wade, F Amare Stoudemire, and plenty more.
Another interesting aspect of the draft happened to involve the Portland Trail Blazers. They fired their general manager Kevin Pritchard, but he asked to be in charge of the draft still, and the team allowed him. He proceeded to get rid of F Martell Webster, and there is no telling what Pritchard's intentions were. People are lauding him now for being a class act and handling the firing the right way. We may never know because he won't say it publicly, but he probably was screwing the franchise over.
When it's all said and done, the teams who went out of their way to clear cap space better be significantly better next season. If not, they will have a depleted roster, and will have to re-stock it with below average players. No team wants to be in that position, so a lot of teams are taking a big risk by shedding salary and dumping players.
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