(I've moved this back up to the top after receiving an e-mail from Shoals clarifying/correcting my characterization of his position, which in turn helped me strengthen the end of the piece, I hope.  Apologies to Shoals, and please enjoy the new paragraphs.)

I've made a few references to this in the last few days, mostly around the D-League draft, but it's probably time to talk about Latavious Williams.  Because honestly, everyone else has so why not RU?  Williams, if you haven't already read, was Tulsa's first round pick in last week's D-League draft.  That fact is notable because he's the first player in D-League history to go straight there from high school.

The D-League wasn't Williams's first option.  His "mentor/advisor" Trey Godfrey wanted Williams to follow in the footsteps of Brandon Jennings and Jeremy Tyler and play overseas.  Said Godfrey (back in June):

There's no deal in place...There have been conversations with several teams in several different countries. China is one of them, but there is no deal on the table.

Four months later, there still was no deal on the table, and Williams entered the D-League draft pool.  The reaction to this news usually fell under the category of praising (or at least noting) it's historic nature and/or proclaiming what this move means for the future of basketball.  As someone who has called for those high school players who won't be attending college to take their game to the D-League instead of Europe (or Asia, or South America), my own reaction may surprise you: it's just too early to tell what this will mean.  I'll explain why after the jump.

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A reminder that we're having an Open Source Live Blog in this here comments section, so join us in roughly two hours as we follow the draft and watch Rick Kamla try not to say anything offensive.

It's finally here.  The D-League draft is tonight sometime around 7 PM eastern (7 is when the "selection show" starts on NBA TV), and as a preview for what to expect tonight, I thought I'd highlight some of the top players in the draft pool.  And I also wanted to go over what each team's needs are.  Oh, and I also thought a mock draft would be a good idea.  That's a lot of writing, especially when you're me and everything you do is overwritten.  So I've combined all of those ideas, sort of.  What we have here is a look at each team's major needs with an explanation of who they could draft, done in the first round's draft order.  So I guess that is almost exactly like a mock draft, except that I may talk about more than one player per team.  To follow along with each team's needs be sure to check out my rundown of each team's major returning and allocated players; Dakota, Fort Wayne...and the rest.  I'm not going to talk about every player in the draft pool, because there are 200 of them (you can find the full list here).  Also I should warn you that whatever I say in this preview is probably wrong.

I'll be tracking the draft on the D-League site this evening, so those of you who are doing the same or are watching it on NBA TV should come on by for the first Open Source Live Blog of the season.  The preview's below the jump.

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