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| Surface
Feeders |
May 18, 2010
By Ron
Richards
One of the truisms of writing is to
write about subjects you really know
something about. Perhaps that’s why I feel
comfortable using examples from fishing and
golf in writing about the NBA.
And like almost all writers who write about
the NBA, I’ve never played a minute of NBA
basketball. Those who did can’t write about
it well, with very few exceptions. Perhaps
it’s an either-or thing in heaven when
handing out talents. Some men can write,
some can sing or play the piano, and a very,
very small percentage of men can play NBA
basketball. I said men, for the talents
necessary to be a NBA ballplayer are owned
exclusively by men. That ought to tell you
something about how hard it is to play NBA
level basketball, and that it’s not a knock
on women athletes.
Back to fishing. One of my favorite fishing
pastimes is to drop a well-matched imitation
of the emerging bug onto the surface of a
beautiful trout stream. If you do it right,
the action is almost non-stop and the
feeling of anticipation waiting for a
surface slurp is so entrancing that time
slows to a crawl and hours can fly by like
minutes. Sometimes, if the conditions and
water clarity are perfect, you can even see
the fish rise from their holding pattern in
a pool or run, holding their fins out like
flaps on a F-22 Raptor and floating up to
the surface to sample the buffet on the
water, then sink back down to wait once
again.
It reminds me, of course, of the pool of NBA
prospects holding in a slick, each one
fighting for the dominant position. The
biggest, strongest and fastest hold the
prominent positions at the start of the
draft year, but during the year some of the
prospects rise up the pecking order by
outstanding play during the college season
or tournament, some impress during the
combine or workouts as teams get an up-close
look at a player. And as one ascends, one
must drop, for the flow dynamics of water in
trout streams and the dynamics of the NBA
draft order only allow for a certain number
of players.
In a river or stream, there might be only
one perfect spot in a pool for a feeding
trout to wait, his napkin tied around his
scarlet gilled throat and his knife and fork
in each hand, er…Fin. With trout, it’s all
about conservation of energy. Lunkers want
to eat the most with the least effort, so
the calories gained exceed the calories
spent while waiting and feeding. Those fish
get bigger, just like Uncle Ralph who eats a
lot and does very little…..Except there are
no fat fish, only big fish.
In the NBA draft, each year is different in
that there might be ten solid NBA big fish
in one draft, fifteen the next, or in a bad
year, only five. Some years, there are no
lunkers in a draft, other years there might
be several. It varies. And like the trout
stream where the big fish are the survivors
who’ve learned how to exploit their
environment, each year there are several
would be NBA’ers who use the process to rise
in the draft. Sometimes, it’s not
intentional, it’s simply that talent finds a
way to rise to the surface. And there are a
few, thank heavens, who exploit the flaws in
the draft process to earn a paycheck without
ever amounting to squat.
It’s a fascinating process, the NBA Draft.
It’s the trickiest draft in all major
sports, and if anyone says he really has a
handle on it, really understands who will
succeed and who will fail, check your
pockets for your wallet.
Oh, you can make educated guesses. You can
study game tape, study stats than indicate
trends and weaknesses. You talk to friends,
to former coaches, talk to the kid himself
if you get the chance. You watch him play or
run drills in a controlled environment,
measure his height, length, weight, or time
him in sprints and agility drills, see how
high he can jump.
It all helps, and it all means nothing.
There are perfect prospects who for whatever
reason, fail. It might be an injury, for it
doesn’t take much to slow down an NBA player
enough to make him average. It might be he
really doesn’t like the game of basketball,
he just likes the attention and money. Those
guys break your heart. The Jazz know more
about those players than seems fair. He
might be weak and susceptible to the dark
side and wind up a druggie or alcoholic.
That happens more than you would like to
know.
We’ll know tomorrow night where the Jazz
draft this year, it might be in the top
three, or drop a few places from the ninth
spot we’re in now. Then, we can start
talking about names, which player might
slide or climb, or if the Jazz get really
lucky, we won’t have much of a problem. It
might come down to one or two players, like
Jon Wall or Derrick Favors. That would be a
nice position to be in.
But just remember this, when someone rises
in the draft like Greg Monroe seems to be
doing right now, someone else drops.
Sometimes, the good ones drop while the
pretenders rise. Sometimes a GM or owner,
for crying out loud, falls in love with a
player and drafts him long before his talent
window. Remember Sheldon Williams? I
remember him playing in the Rocky Mountain
Revue against Paul Millsap, also taken in
that draft, and watching Paul kick the
stuffing out of Williams. Paul Millsap has
done a lot of stuffing kicking since then,
but it has to hurt when the player he
humiliates was drafted fifth, and Paul was
taken in the late second round. Ouch.
Whether Paul becomes a lunker or not will
probably be decided this year, since he’s
the heir apparent to Carlos Boozer. He’s one
of those guys who break your heart. Goodbye,
Carlos.
There has been lots of wailing and gnashing
of teeth about how unfair it is that the
Jazz will probably wind up drafting ninth,
barring a miracle. A little voice told me
third pick, but I wouldn’t bet any money on
it. The same voice told me to ignore the
blond sitting in back of me in high school.
Oops. A few years, a little meat on the
bones, braces gone and a little
maturity……Like I said, oops.
But back to drafting ninth, if the ping pong
balls drop frantically and avoid a lucky
Jazz bounce, there will be at least three or
four players the Jazz can pick who you’ll be
able to point to in the coming years as the
big fish in the draft, maybe even a lunker.
It’s harder to see which fish is going to
get bigger, for while there is a resident
lunker or two in each draft, when you get
towards the tenth pick, most of the fish
look pretty much alike, and knowing which
one will become a big fish and which one
will wind up in a grass lined creel waiting
for dinner isn’t easy. In fact, it’s damn
tough. In fact, sometimes it’s just better
to be lucky. Fact is, sometimes you just
can’t tell which guy has the heart of a
steelhead trout, and which guy has the heart
of a chub.
And while I’m definitely not psychic, I
sometimes get a feeling of what’s going to
happen in life. Sometimes, it’s not
something I want to hear. Sometimes, not too
often, it makes my heart soar, and most of
the time, it simply gives me enough hope to
make it through another day. This is one of
those times. Just got a feeling this is
going to be a very good draft for the Jazz,
perhaps a turning point in Jazz history. I
hope so.
Weather report says it’s going to rain
tomorrow, dang it. If I can’t golf, perhaps
the Weber River has a fish or two that might
take pity on an old duffer. I promise I’ll
set you free after a pleasant tug and
tussle. Then, on Tuesday night, May the
18th, we’ll find out which part of the river
the Jazz will be fishing.
Just got a feeling about this draft. Let’s
hope I’m right.
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