The draft remains the cheapest and smartest way to build a team, though (assuming the GM knows what he's doing), and the past few seasons have seen large numbers of rookies contributing immediately. Some (including DraftExpress) have called this year's draft extremely strong, so that trend should continue. When evaluating team needs, I'll look at who will/will not be under contract next season, as well as the team's recent draft history. Any contract information I use comes from ShamSports. The previous divisions can be found here: Atlantic/Pacific/Central/Northwest

Today we turn to the Southeast Division; like the Northwest, all teams but one (the Wizards) made the playoffs, but that masks some real questions for many of the teams in this division.  The Hawks just embarrassed themselves in their playoff series against the Magic; the Bobcats may or may not be losing their coach Larry Brown; the Miami Heat got by this season essentially on Dwyane Wade plus spare parts, and now Wade's a free agent.  So there are some interesting questions heading into the draft.

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I've decided to start putting together a list of all of the NBA pre-draft workouts for the upcoming NBA Draft since I didn't see a list anywhere else.

I'm sure this will undergo many different updates between now and June 24th's draft.  That said, you may as well bookmark it now.

As a reference, I linked the date, or unknown date, with the article I found the information.  Some of the workouts aren't published anywhere else on the internet, however, so not everything is going to have a link - in those instances, you'll just have to take my word for it.

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Hello again!  Back after a brief hiatus and continuing this week is our look at what each NBA team needs in the run-up to the NBA Draft.  The draft remains the cheapest and smartest way to build a team, though (assuming the GM knows what he's doing), and the past few seasons have seen large numbers of rookies contributing immediately.  Some (including DraftExpress) have called this year's draft extremely strong, so that trend should continue.  When evaluating team needs, I'll look at who will/will not be under contract next season, as well as the team's recent draft history. Any contract information I use comes from ShamSports.  The previous divisions can be found here: Atlantic/Pacific/Central

Today I'm looking at the Northwest Division, which had four of its five teams make the playoffs.  That fifth team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, might've actually been worse than the Nets if you ignore W-L record.  So they're not exactly close to competing with their immediate competition.  Nevertheless, each team has some pretty concrete areas they could address through the draft.

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Here it is - Ridiculous Upside's second stab at mocking the 2010 NBA draft.  I hope you like it, but if you don't, we'll have these updated every Monday - and the lottery on May 18th will certainly (probably) bring more changes.

You'll notice there weren't that many pick sthat changed from last week's rendition (at least early in the draft/types of players selected for each team), but those that did change were the direct result of:

• feedback from people in and around the NBA (sources, as they call them),
  
• myself being able to watch more of some of the players I was interested in
• feedback in the comments on picks that made more sense than what I originally pegged in Version 1.0
• Players deciding to go back to school instead of staying in the draft.

Please check out our Guide To Mock Drafts to answer any questions before any flambéing occurs.  After the jump I've provided brief analysis on all 30 first round picks, along with links to blogs about each team and player (updated this week to incorporate what I could find from SB Nation's wonderful plethora of college blogs).  Feel the excitement!

Also, if you have any issues, leave the feedback in the comments.  If there are so many issues that you think you can make a better version, post it in the fan posts and, if we like it, it could make the front page.  If there are enough people that use the fan posts for their mock, we'll probably have a contest - with prizes!

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If you were fortunate enough to observe Coach Mac conducting practices over the course of this past season your impressions would probably be that he really knew his X's and O's on the offensive end and he went out and got the kind of players that fit well into his system.  This was certainly the case if you watched the Stampede play.  We scored big time. Anyone remember the night the Stamps put up 165 - in ONE Game?

Okay, so the Stampede didn't stop many people around the rim.  Offensive players from other teams salivated when they came into Boise knowing they had a good chance bolster their scoring averages a few ticks.  So while the home team ran and gunned their way to over one hundred points on over one hundred possessions, the visitors got to do a little of the same.  However, Stampede opponents usually burned out somewhere in the fourth quarter and the Stamps won.  Then the NBA came a callin' and the revolving door that is the D-League reared its ugly head.

At the beginning of the season the Stamps were wearing teams out, but that's when the Stamps had Tolliver, Gaines, Gansey, Smith, etc.  Tolliver and Gaines went to The League while Mike Gansey got traded and Lanny Smith tore up a knee.  For a time the Stamps had a shock blocker and low post scorer in Cedric Simmons.  He gave us a real inside presence and played well before heading off to China.  Lots of changes to be sure.  Patty Mills had a couple cups of coffee in Boise before sticking with the Blazers too.  But give credit to MacKinnon.  No matter who came in or went out the offense continued to put up impressive numbers.

What the Stampede ended up with were very good perimeter players like Taylor, Karl, Barrett and most improved player of the year Mildon Ambres.  Even Lance Allred chucked them up from outside.  But without a consistent low post man and more than anything an inability to stop anyone driving to the hoop The Stamps started dropping games and ended the season at 25-25 and just missed the playoffs.

Mackinnon knows his stuff, no doubt.  It would have been interesting to see how the season would have gone under Coach Mac if guys like Tolliver and Simmons had been around to protect the basket all season, but that's not how the D-League rolls and when players are moving from one place to another know one knows what will happen by the end of the season. It's crazy, but it's crazy fun trying to figure what will happen next too.

Thanks to Coach Mac for bringing his offensive style to Boise and we wish him well.  Maybe the next Stampede coach can build on the improved play of guys like Ambres, Bergersen, Hurdle, Yemi (no one can spell his last name), McKenzie and Dabbert.  Can't wait for the season to start and see what happens next in the flux we can the NBADL.

-lee tao