Feelin' Pretty Good About Miami's Draft

The NBA Draft happened last night and due to my extreme ignorance of college basketball, I'm not about to act like I know a damn thing about any of these players. If you're interested in reading about the overall outcome of the draft, I suggest you take a look at nbadraft.net's Instant Analysis and/or Tom Ziller's Draft Grades on NBA Fanhouse. I will instead focus my attention on my beloved Miami Heat's seemingly decent showing in the second round. I expect Teenage Trashstache will deliver his insight and analysis on the Thunder's draft night very soon. It will probably be something like twelve paragraphs of him raving about Cole Aldrich and how much heart he has. He'll also probably talk about Daequan "The Dayton Kid" Cook some more.

Now, onto the Heat's draft.

With the #32 pick Miami selected Dexter Pittman, a 6'11" 300 pound center from Texas, who apparently weighed almost 400 pounds in high school. He managed to drop 100 pounds, which supposedly earned him the admiration of none other than Sir Charles Barkley. At first, I was like, "why did Miami just pick some fat guy?" I was hoping they would pick up one of two 7-footers in Hassan Whiteside or Solomon Alabi, but after reading a bit and watching some video of Pittman, he seems to be a pretty athletic and skilled guy with a monstrous 7'6" wingspan. I know, I know. Watching youtube clips never tells the whole story, but I'm still excited to have a big body to man the paint. I'm hoping he'll be something like a hybrid of Big Baby and Kendrick Perkins, with Baby's motor and Perkin's D. Probably wishful thinking, but a Heat homer can hope, can't he? It's also worth noting that Pittman was a senior, so hopefully that experience at the college level will translate to the NBA. Also, this is a total buzzkill, but his fifteen year old brother was shot and killed just over a month ago, causing him to leave the NBA Draft combine.

With the #41 pick Miami selected another senior with freakish wingspan (7'4" and he's only 6'9" tall!) out of Mississippi State named Jarvis Varnado. Somehow the Heat managed to use their second pick on a player with an even sweeter name than their first draft pick, Dexter Pittman. I'm sure I'll eventually come up with a nickname for Varnado... like maybe something to do with tornados? In addition to having a totally sweet name, Varnado is the ALL-TIME LEADER FOR BLOCKS IN NCAA HISTORY!!! Yeah, sorry for writing that in all caps, but that kinda blew my mind upon reading it. He also is the only college player in history to record 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 500 blocks. I've been trying to keep from getting overly excited about this guy, but to get him in the second round seems like a pretty good pickup. Apparently his offensive game is very limited, but at the very least he provides an insurance policy should shot blocking specialist Joel Anthony leave Miami in free agency.

Lamest Dunk Contest Ever

From the look of the above video, the D-League's Dunk Contest from All-Star Weekend seems like it was actually worth watching. That's a nasty dunk by Dar Tucker going over 7-footer Brian Butch and the crowd looks way into it. Throughout most of the NBA's contest, you heard more sighs of disappointment than cheers from the crowd. The NBA might as well air the D-League Slam Dunk Contest next year. It would at least give the D-League some exposure and the players would be grateful to have a little bit of the spotlight.

Last night's Sprite Slam Dunk Contest was a total bust. To Nate Robinson's credit, he actually showed up and did some nice dunks. But if Nate Robinson won it for the third time, it should tell you something about the sorry state of the Dunk Contest. DeMar Derozan had his moments too, but he basically gave up in the finals with his two-handed windmill from about 4 feet in front of the foul line. Shannon Brown and Gerald Wallace? They might as well have not even showed up. Pathetic.

LeBron, where you at?

Video via Hardwood Paroxysm

SUNDIATA GAINES!!!!

Sorry Cavs fans, but I can't help myself from taking tremendous pleasure in seeing a player called up from the D-League's Idaho Stampede (yes, there's actually a sports team called the Idaho Stampede) hit a game winning shot to beat Cleveland. What a great story amidst a season that has been overshadowed by some idiot who brought guns into the locker room.

To give you some background, watch this video:



Now, back to last night's game. Deron Williams left the game in the 4th quarter after re-injuring his wrist, which set up an opportunity for the Jazz's D-League call-up Sundiata Gains, or Yatta, as his new teammates call him. The Jazz and Cavs would exchange runs in an absolutely insane 4th quarter. The highlights are worth watching, by the way. With the Jazz up thirteen with under five minutes to play, LeBron started to catch fire as he launched three-pointers that seemed like awful shots but somehow the ball found the basket time and time again. It appeared the Cavs were going to run away with it, but missed free throws down the stretch kept the Jazz's hopes alive. With seven seconds left, Utah's Kyle Korver hit a crazy Larry Bird-esque behind-the-basket shot to bring the Jazz within one. The Jazz would immediately foul Big Z, who hit one of two free throws. And then this happened:



This is some real hoop dreams come true type shit, and it just makes me feel so good inside. In the words of the great Charles Barkley, "That was awesome."