Are You Feeling A Draft?
The Upside of Upside
You may have heard that the NBA Draft is right around the corner, taking place on June 23rd and 24th. The Grizzlies enter the Draft with three of the first 32 picks (3, 16 and 32), and as such there’s a significant portion of Grizz Nation that has spent the last few weeks deep in speculation. What will the Grizzlies do? Will we make a trade? Who will we select?
If you think you know, you don’t. Because nobody actually knows what will happen. There are endless possibilities and permutations, each dependent on prior moves and picks. It’s a riddle inside of a puzzle, with no way to predict how it all will shake out.
I’ve spent the last few weeks up to my neck in learning about the Draft prospects, sifting through the various measurables as Gary Parrish and I have worked on Grind City Media’s hit property, the Draft Board Breakdown show. Off the top of my head, I can tell you how many three-pointers Caleb Wilson made last season, Christian Anderson’s height without shoes, or how many times Keaton Wagler dunked last season. (Those answers, by the way, are seven makes, six-foot-one, and zero dunks.)
But the main thing I’ve focused on as we approach Draft season has been the argument around drafting proven skill versus finding upside. Upside means you have room to improve, ways you can get better. But upside also means you’re not as good at certain things as other people. Like I noted earlier, Caleb Wilson made seven three-pointers last season. He also only attempted 27 three-pointers. Clearly, shooting three-pointers wasn’t something he was asked to very often, and he made about a quarter of his attempts.
Does Wilson have upside as a three-point shooter? Sure! At the same time, look at a player like Cameron Boozer, who is often placed alongside Wilson in mock drafts. Boozer made 54 three-pointers last season and attempted 138, good for a 39-percent average. So, does Wilson have more upside than Boozer as a three-point shooter? Well, I don’t know. Because who’s to say Boozer, a full year younger than Wilson, doesn’t have room to improve as well?
All this endless speculation and discussion is what makes the NBA Draft so fascinating to me. Despite knowing some facts, I don’t know much more about what’s happening in team’s war rooms than anyone else. Like everyone else, I’ll be watching to see what happens, and you can watch live with us on Grind City Media. If you’re in Memphis, you can come join us to watch the Draft live with us at FedExForum.
There are a million ways it could all shake out. The only way to truly find out is to watch.
Haters Gonna Hate
At the start of the hockey season, my friends and I decided we would each root for a random hockey team. One friend grew up in Michigan, and has been a lifelong Red Wings fan. I spent a chunk of my life in New York City, so I selected the New York Rangers. My friend Brandon hails from Mississippi and wanted to choose a Southern team, so he picked the Carolina Hurricanes.
Fast forward a few months, and this week the Stanley Cup began with Brandon’s Carolina Hurricanes arriving as the hottest team in the NHL. Naturally, I immediately became a devoted fan of their opponent, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Do I know anything about the Golden Knights? I do not! But what I am intimately familiar with is how to be a hater.
Hating is a skill sports fans have honed for decades. We have teams that we like and root for, but perhaps more importantly, are the teams that we don’t like, the teams we root against.
Hating is how I morphed into a Spurs fan the last few weeks, when they squared off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Am I a Spurs fan? No, but I am a fan of ethical basketball, which necessitated my rooting against the Thunder. I’ve been a Mets hater almost as long as I’ve cheered for the Atlanta Braves. And don’t even get me started on the New Orleans Aints.
Sometimes we do not cheer for what we want; we cheer against what we do not want to happen. Haters gonna hate.
Cover Story
It used to be a big deal when you were named to be on the cover of a video game. It was like being on a magazine cover, or getting your own signature shoe: You were somebody who mattered, and being a cover star was something special.
Last season’s regular cover of EA Sports’ College Football game featured Alabama’s Ryan Williams and Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith. A “deluxe” version of the game had its own cover, where it seems like all were welcomed.
This year’s deluxe version of the game features a wild collection of college football stuff. Hey, there’s Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, hands on hips, smirk on face. Dante Moore is shrugging, Kewan Lacy is showing his grill. Last year’s deluxe edition was even more stuffed with personalities, from Kirby Smart to Reggie Bush.
Being on the cover of a video game may not have quite the same currency as it did a few years ago, but let’s be frank here: the people on the cover don’t matter in the end. Maybe it gets us talking a bit, helps us keep the game in mind as a possible purchase the next time we stumble into the digital PlayStation store.
At the end of the day, the folks on the cover won’t have much impact on whether or not I spend my fall playing NCAA 27. What matters most, as it does every year, is what’s in the game.
Odds and Ends…
- You can join along with the rest of basketball social media by playing the popular new game 82-0. The best I’ve been able to do is 71-11. (Hint, Wilt Chamberlain at center seems to be a glitch ensuring a high win total.)…Â
- Mister Rogers stamps are back!…Â
- Here’s Radiohead’s brilliant OK Computer album reimagined as Nintendo 64 songs. I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would…Â
- Would you like to try some bread made from a mummy?…
- I feel like making mussels this weekend…