The annual NBA Development League Draft was held last Thursday, but it took a little while to gather the thoughts needed to actually analyze what each team had done in the two hours it took 16 teams to select 127 players. After a weekend to think about it, however, the official Ridiculous Upside 2011 D-League Draft grades are enclosed below.

In an interesting turn of events, D-League.com actually beat your's truly to this column. Considering the Matthew Brennan replacements inexplicably didn't account for trades or returning players, however, it still seemed worthwhile to put this together on Sunday evening -- after watching the Green Bay Packers continue their undefeated season, of course.

The difficult thing to think about when analyzing the D-League Draft is that, typically, the only picks that are going to make a roster will come within the first four rounds as returning players and those that made the team by way of local tryout will account for at least half of a team's roster -- and typically the top half, at that. This isn't to say that the Austin Toros pick of Dan Vandervieren in the seventh round was worthless, just that it's more or less a crap shoot after the first few rounds.

Continue reading this post »

The 2011 NBA Development League Draft took place on Thursday night via conference call. This morning's report was going to be a sort of D-League draft grades post, but considering there are still a number of trade rumblings floating through my iPhone's message list, that will be have to be held off on for a little while.

Instead, on this lovely Friday morning, let's talk about Mac Koshwal and the Bakersfield Jam. The Jam had an outstanding draft -- which shouldn't have been hard considering they amassed three first round picks -- but it turned out even better than most might imagine when all was said and done.

The official board for the Jam had them selecting Siena's Edwin Ubiles, Koshwal out of DePaul and Virginia's Mustapha Farrakhan with their trio of first round picks. Before the night was over, however, Bakersfield flipped Ubiles and fellow draft pick Travis Walton (out of Michigan) to the Dakota Wizards for Osiris Eldridge and Renaldo Major.

That's an outstanding haul considering the draft's circumstances, but Koshwal could end up being the best haul of the entire draft.

Continue reading this post »

The 2011 NBA Development League Draft is done for another season following the beautiful mess that was Thursday night's conference call. The first two picks went as planned with Jamaal Tinsley and Alando Tucker and the rest was as gloriously unpredictable as every other D-League Draft has been since I began to cover them.

It's pretty difficult to say who exactly had the best draft as the 90 seconds in between picks doesn't leave a lot of time for reflection and there are still numerous trades being bandied about (not to mention the fact that returning players play a key role), but there weren't too many ridiculously random picks in the first couple of rounds.

Continue reading this post »

Live updates with my love analysis will be here, for those interested. If you don't have Twitter, just keep refreshing.

The 2011 NBA Development League draft will take place via conference call in just a couple of hours (6 p.m. Central Time with audio and everything else available to follow the happenings over at D-League.com). Not a lot is known aside from the top pick likely being Jamaal Tinsley for the Los Angeles D-Fenders -- something I've assumed ever since his name was thrown into the hat -- but a lot of fun things are being rumored.

I didn't get one question today about my mock draft so either A) none of the D-League coaches have checked Ridiculous Upside while prepping for the Draft; B) I was dead on or C) I was really far off and nobody wanted to hurt my feelings. That or nobody really knows what is going to happen this evening.

The most interesting stories of the night probably revolve around how much teams have done their research. Are Jamal Sampson and Chris Taft, two players working on an NBA comeback, healthy enough to warrant a high selection? Will Al Nolen's foot injury be healed in time for training camp? What's the deal with Jason Ellis? Is Byron Eaton really 240 pounds?

Another interesting thing to watch will be the dynamic in different selections between teams owned by NBA clubs and those that are focused solely on winning. Sometimes a solid D-League player matters more than Ridiculous Upside when it comes to putting butts in the seats.

Continue reading this post »

Alando Tucker was a first round pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. After spending a few seasons with the Phoenix Suns and some time abroad, however, the former Wisconsin Badgers star has found himself waiting to find out where he'll be selected in the 2011 NBA Development League Draft.

Tucker, a 6-foot-6 wing, is presumed to be selected by the San Antonio Spurs owned Austin Toros with the second overall pick in the D-League Draft when their time comes on Thursday night's conference call. Considering he's just now entering his prime, wasn't terrible during his time in the NBA and has previous overseas and D-League experience, it just makes sense that the Spurs would be interested in seeing what he has to offer.

And, as I found out this week while messing around on Twitter, Tucker has more than just basketball talent to offer as he recently released a music video (embedded below).

Continue reading this post »

The NBA Development League Draft will be held tonight, via conference call, at 7 p.m. ET. Everything I've heard indicates Jamaal Tinsley will be the top pick, but as of Thursday morning, the rest is all up in the air.

I have written extensively about the best comeback stories, the best rookies and the top names in the Draft, but all of that doesn't really mean anything as there are two separate thought processes heading into tonight's festivities -- the NBA-owned/operated teams, of which there are nine, are focused on the best players with big league potential while the D-League teams just want to win.

The consensus top seven players in the draft seem to be Tinsley, Alando Tucker, Cedric Bozeman and Jamal Sampson with rookies Durrell Summers, Chris Wright and Cory Higgins all interesting youngsters with relatively ridiculous upside ... but how that list shakes out is anyone's guess.

If I were going to put together a mock draft this morning, after not deciding to gather any information until late Wednesday night, it would have to look something like this:

Continue reading this post »

There was a basketball player by the name of Tristan Thompson who concluded an impressive but brief career with the Texas Longhorns last March. The 6-foot-8 power forward was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and even appeared in a couple of international competitions with Team Canada.

That Tristan Thompson, despite the above picture alluding otherwise, is not entered in the 2011 NBA Development League Draft. That Tristan Thompson is actually ineligible to play in the D-League at all this season -- at least until the end of the NBA lockout.

There is a Tristan Thompson entered in the D-League Draft this year, though ... he just doesn't exactly deserve to be mentioned in front of Jamaal Tinsley and ahead of some other worthy candidates.

Continue reading this post »

Rookies are a vital component of NBA Development League rosters as each team is required to carry at least one first-year professional basketball player at all times. Considering nine of the 16 D-League teams are being ran by an NBA front office this season, getting the first extended look at undrafted free agents is probably just as important for D-League teams' parent franchises as is it is for the minor league team itself.

The 2011 NBA Development League Draft will be held via conference call on Thursday evening with quite a few rookies having signed contracts to be eligible to be selected. Among the top candidates, at least as identified as such by your's truly, are Michigan State guard Durrell Summers,  Mustapha Farrakhan of the Virginia Cavaliers and Cory Higgins, a former standout at Colorado and the son of Charlotte Bobcats' president of basketball operations Rod Higgins.

Other notable rookie names in Thursday night's draft include South Florida big man Jarrid Famous, Dayton wing Chris Wright, Iowa transfer Jake Kelly, Kansas shooter Brady Morningstar, Seton Hall's Eniel Polynice, Mychel Thompson (son of the former NBA player and brother of draft pick Klay Thompson) and two players who played their college basketball in North Dakota -- NDSU's Michael Tveidt and the University of Mary's Anthony Moody.

Continue reading this post »