Expansion Draft Results & Analysis

by Jon L on Sep 3, 2009 1:00 PM EDT in D-League News Comment 3 comments

After cutting down the nets in Colorado, Billy Thomas will be playing for the Maine Red Claws this season.

While RU had its mock draft on Tuesday, yesterday was the actual expansion draft with the Springfield Armor and Maine Red Claws picking from among the guys who finished last season with either Colorado or Anaheim, both of which are now no more (though Springfield is kinda-sorta the new Anaheim). The teams were actually drafting the D-League rights to these players, not the players themselves, so in some cases the teams were drafting guys who have already signed elsewhere, in the hopes that they're either cut by the NBA or come back from overseas during the season, in which cases the players would join whoever drafted them. A round-by-round list of the picks can be found here, but since there were only two teams drafting I'll just list the final "rosters":

Springfield	Maine
Marcus Campbell	James White
James Mays	Trey Gilder
Eddie Gill	Billy Thomas
Kentrell Gransberry	Noel Felix
Cedric Bozeman	John Lucas III
Jamar Brown	Kedrick Brown
Malick Badiane	Dominique Coleman
Marcus Taylor	Joe Dabbert
Cameron Bennerman	Josh Davis
Kirk Walters	Andre Patterson

Overall, the Red Claws bet heavily on the players I was talking about above, taking James White and Trey Gilder (who both have at least partially-guaranteed NBA contracts) with their first two picks, then followed up later in the draft by taking Dominique Coleman, who's going to play in Belgium, and Joe Dabbert, who's going to be in Korea. If these work out it was a good draft for them, but if not then they'd better hope to get some NBA assignees this season. The Red Claws also were able to pick up Josh Davis in the ninth round, though, which is crazily low, so that was definitely a good pickup.

I really like what Springfield did in the draft, taking up the best center in the draft with the first pick (Campbell*) then surrounding him guys who can score like Bozeman and Mays. They also seemed to have cornered the market on available big men. Felix and Davis are the only two players Maine has right now who can play in the middle. There really were two different philosophies at work here, with the Armor taking guys who can contribute immediately and maybe keep fans coming to games once the novelty of having a new team wears off. Both teams will be filling out their rosters with players from local tryouts, of course, but at this point Springfield seems more ready to start the season.

* Thanks to an alert reader for reminding me that it was Marcus Campbell who was drafted, not Hubbard.

But that's just one man's opinion. What do you, the viewers at home, think?

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I love that Eddie Gill is in a d-league expansion draft. The guy is what, 31? What is there left to develop in the literal sense

White and Gilder probably hope that they never have to report to Maine, but those are solid picks.

There's Gotta Be More To Life

by Norsktroll on Sep 3, 2009 3:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Having worked closely with professional basketball this summer I spent many hours researching the players from both the Arsenal and the 49ers that would be available in this years expansion draft. I also conducted extensive research on the historical analysis of players signing with teams overseas and the likelihood of them returning to the d-league and making an impact. While Springfield did pick up two good players in Bozeman and Mays no one has yet noted that these two have already signed contracts to play in China and will not be with the Armor at the beginning of the season. This could pose as a problem. I believe the Red Claws picked the two most talented players in the draft and yes White and Gilder may sign with an NBA team but if it doesn’t work out the Red Claws has their rights. Maine does a great job with their basketball operations so I believe that they are confident that fans may see White and Gilder playing in Portland this season. Also it was not noted that 5 of the players Maine drafted have had NBA experience and 6 of them were NBA D-League champions with Colorado.

by bdunne32 on Sep 3, 2009 5:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

While Springfield did pick up two good players in Bozeman and Mays no one has yet noted that these two have already signed contracts to play in China and will not be with the Armor at the beginning of the season. This could pose as a problem. I believe the Red Claws picked the two most talented players in the draft and yes White and Gilder may sign with an NBA team but if it doesn’t work out the Red Claws has their rights. Also it was not noted that 5 of the players Maine drafted have had NBA experience and 6 of them were NBA D-League champions with Colorado.

by bdunne32 on Sep 3, 2009 5:47 PM EDT via mobile reply actions 0 recs