2010 NBA Draft: Led By John Wall, Kentucky Sets Record With Five First Rounders

It’s been a long night with a flurry of trades (thanks, Sam Presti), but here are my initial reactions to the draft that was;

Washington Wizards. Obviously, it all starts at the top for the Wizards; landing a franchise-altering talent in John Wall, who immediately makes this team relevant after having faded into oblivion in the post-Arenas gun incident days of last season.

Some college basketball stars waited until late Thursday night before hearing their name called; Lance Stephenson, Solomon Alabi and Willie Warren come to mind.

Still, others you’ve come to know well during their college careers went the whole night without a team selecting them.

56. Minnesota Timberwolves -- Hamady N’Diaye, Center, Rutgers

N’Diaye has a 7-foot-4 wingspan. He was a frightful shot-blocker, closing down the paint for Rutgers, though his offensive game is, as you might have guessed, euphemistically a work in progress.

The picks are coming fast and furious at this point. Here are the 46th through 50th picks.

46. Phoenix Suns -- Gani Lawal, Forward, Georgia Tech

The trades are coming in at a whirlwind pace at this point.

41. Miami Heat, Jarvis Varnado, Forward, Mississippi State

A few notable college names came off the board in the between the second set of five picks in the second round. Here are the 36th to 40th overall picks in the draft.

36. Detroit Pistons -- Terrico White, Guard, Ole Miss

The second round of the 2010 NBA Draft has kicked off and right off the bat three consecutive centers were taken. Here are the first five picks of the second round:

31. New Jersey Nets, Tibor Pleiss, Center, Germany (Rights to Pleiss traded to Atlanta)

This pick is going to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the deal involving Trevor Booker made earlier in the evening.

And I’m cheating and borrowing pre-draft analysis from Matt O’Brien, who had this to say about the 6-6, 225 small forward:

And we have a new record: Kentucky has set a record for most players drafted in the first round of a single draft, with five now. Orton is a complete enigma after averaging three points and three rebounds in his one and done season at Kentucky.

Still, he’s got an NBA frame and he’s young, so the Magic apparently are willing to take a chance that he can develop. The more interesting questions is whether this signals a willingness on the part of the Magic to move highly-paid backup center Marcin Gortat.

As we speculated, there was no way the Grizzlies were holding on to all of their backcourt players, after drafting Xavier Henry, Dominique Jones and Greivis Vazquez (to go with holdovers O.J. Mayo and Mike Conley). The Grizzlies have reportedly sold the righs to Jones to the Mavs, per ESPN’s Marc Stein. Draft Express’ Jonathan Givony further reports that the Mavs paid the Hawks $3 million for Jones’ rights.

With last year’s rookie Rodrigue Beaubois, an explosive point guard, and Jones, a muscular combo guard, the Mavs have the foundations of a stellar backcourt down the line.

Never a lock to be a first round pick, even after testing the waters after his junior season, the fiery Venezuelan sneaks into the first round as a surprise selection by the guard-heavy Grizzlies.

He spent four years playing for Gary Williams at Maryland and left as one of the program’s most decorated players. He spent most of his time running the point, with the ball in his hands, an extension of his coach on the court.

You might remember Jordan Crawford from the crazy Xavier-Kansas State Sweet 16 this past year; that’s right, the 35-foot jumper that forced a second overtime. Well now he has an NBA home, heading down to Atlanta after the Nets took him 27th overall and shipped him to the Hawks as part of the Damion James trade.

Crawford packs quite a bit of scoring punch, and provides decent insurance if Joe Johnson does indeed leave Atlanta this offseason.

And, this pick already has been dealt, according to Yahoo! Sports.

James is going to the New Jersey Nets, who ship two picks to the Hawks: the 27th and 31st overall.

The first four-year player selected tonight, Booker finished fifth in scoring all-time at Clemson with 1,725 points. But he did more altering other teams’ shots, blocking 249 shots in his four seasons.

And, this just in — he’s going to the wheeling, dealing Washington Wizards.

You might remember Elliot Williams from Duke two years ago: he was the lightning-quick freshman guard off the bench whose emergence as a starter catalyzed the team. He left Durham following his freshman year to transfer to Memphis to be closer to his ill mother, and he absolutely lit up C-USA as a sophomore.

Williams is heavily left-handed, great at getting to the hole, although his shot is a work in progress. He’s a bit redundant with Jerryd Bayless, so it’ll be interesting to see what the wheeling and dealing Blazers do with them.

This pick is for the New Orleans Hornets, who swung a deal earlier in the evening in the Cole Aldrich deal.

Brackins spent three seasons with the Cyclones, starting from Day 1. He averaged 20.2 points as a sophomore then 16.5 as a junior, leading his team in scoring both seasons. He’s got great size at 6-10, 230 pounds and averaged a block a game for his career.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Spurs have stolen an underrated player in the draft. This year, it’s James Anderson, who San Antonio nabbed at 20th overall. Anderson was a preposterously efficient scorer at Oklahoma State, and figures to give the Spurs an excellent kick-out option for the Spurs to punish teams for doubling.

Indeed, Anderson’s 35% shooting from three-point land belied his smooth stroke, considering the amount of defensive attention he attracted as the Cowboys’ focal point on offense. Along with George Hill and DeJuan Blair, San Antonio is well on its way towards building a nice young nucleus to complement its aging Big Three.

Bradley made the all-Big 12 rookie team one year after being named the top high school senior in the country — yes, ahead of John Wall and a couple other players already selected tonight.

He scored just 11.6 points per game during his lone season with the Longhorns and hit 36 percent of his 3-point attempts. He also showed promise as a defender.

There has been a trade. After the Thunder selected Kentucky’s Eric Bledsoe 18th overall (that’s the fourth Wildcat to come off the board, for those of you keeping score at home), they will reportedly trade him to the Clippers for a future first round pick, according to Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bledsoe would have been an odd fit in Oklahoma City given that they already have Russell Westbrook, but on the Clippers, Bledsoe will have a chance to come along slowly behind Baron Davis (assuming they don’t move the conditioning-challenged former UCLA product). Bledsoe has an NBA-ready body and a solid stroke from three-point range, although he struggled with turnovers as a freshman. If Bledsoe can figure out how to run a team, he could be an absolute steal at this point in the first round.

This pick should be for the Washington Wizards, who reportedly made a deal earlier in which they received Kirk Hinrich and this pick from the Bulls.

So this trade means one thing for Chicago: Cap space created to attempt to lure LeBron James away from Chicago.

After getting his pink slip shortly before the NBA Draft set off, dead man walking-GM Kevin Pritchard has made his first move of the night: the Blazers will acquire Luke Babbitt (who Minnesota drafted 16th overall) as well as Ryan Gomes in return for Martell Webster, according to Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Babbitt is a sweet-shooting big (over 40% on threes) at 6-foot-9, who figures to play the three-spot in the pros. An underrated athlete -- he famously jumped 37 inches at the NBA Combine -- Babbitt has a mutlfaceted offensive game, and rebounded well in college, although that was against some lesser competition at Nevada.

Perhaps unfortunately for him, the Bucks will need him to produce, especially considering last season’s injury to Andrew Bogut. He could be pressed into early service, ready or not.

That makes it three Kentucky players in the lottery of the 2010 NBA Draft. The Rockets landed Kentucky junior forward Patrick Patterson with the 14th pick. The bruising 6-foot-9 Patterson figures to make an immediate impact for the Rockets, coming in with a polished game, including range out to at least the college three-point line.

Patterson fills the void of an athletic-four the Rockets had after moving Carl Landry as part of the trade that brought them Kevin Martin this past season. If Yao Ming can come back from his foot problems, Houston could boast a formidable front line next year.

Another early entry — that’s 13 in a row if you’re counting at home — Davis heads north as Chris Bosh insurance. Or perhaps as a definite attempt as a replacement, since few people believe Bosh will be back in the dinosaur uniforms next season.

There were high expectations for Davis (6-10, 225) entering his Tar Heels career, and you could argue that he never lived up to them. He doubled his scoring as a sophomore to 13.4 points per game and shot a high percentage from the floor but he never dominated (though he blocked 129 shots in two seasons).