Calm Down About the Draft a Little

By ANDRE BIAS

Each of the thirty National Basketball Association (NBA) teams spends a great deal of money on scouting players. The look into players skills and weaknesses and determine if they have what it takes to play in the NBA, which is considered to have the best basketball players in the world. Even with all that money spent on scouting some teams waste draft picks and contracts on players that turn out to be bad players. On the other hand some great players get pick in the second round of the NBA draft and become stars.

Looking back at some of the last few drafts you can point out many players that were taking late in drafts that should have been taken higher. One such player is Gilbert Arenas. He was the 31st pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, which placed him in the second round. As a second round pick his contract was no guaranteed, meaning he had to earn a contract. This past season he was fourth in the NBA in scoring, which is not what is expected from a second round pick.

Another player that slipped through the cracks was Michael Redd. He was drafted the 43rd player in the 2000 NBA draft and has turned out to have a better career than the 44 player picked ahead of him. Many of the player picked ahead of him are no longer in the NBA or are not productive players. This past season Redd averaged more than 25 points per games. That just goes to show you, scouts spend a lot of time making predictions and evaluations but they can still be wrong.