#1 Da'Bulls
The Bulls got their wish, and are now making the tough decision on who to pick first this year. Beasly or Rose? Or will it be Zachary Feinstein? I think it's still 50-50. The Bulls can go one of two directions. They can Decide that Hinrich isn't the PG for them and try to trade him and then draft Rose, or decide that Tyrus Thomas will never become anything more than an athletic freak. It I were Paxon I woudl take Beasley. Reason is that Beasley is more talented then Rose bottom line. The only reason it's a two man race for the #1 pick is because Rose plays a position which is harder to fill with a quality player. Let's say the Bulls take Rose, and are unable to move Hinrich. What happens then? They have Rose, Gordon, Hinrich, and nobody that can score on the front line. They take Beasley and they have balance. This #1, and #2 I am still up in the air with. I think this 50-50 thing could go until draft day.
GARY'S PICK - MICHAEL BEASLEY

#2 Miami
Miami comes in a close second place, but probably has the best chance of being a #2, and still getting their PG in Rose. Miami is in such bad shape that it woulnd't matter if they got Beasley. Let Dwane Wade play some point for a year. It's not like he wouldn't lead the team in assists anyway if they picked Rose. So Miami is in a win-win situation here. Most likely I see Rose falling to Miami, but if it was Beasley then they win as well.
GARY'S PICK - DERRICK ROSE

#3 Minnesota
Minnesota has a young team. Not a bad team, but a young team. They are still learning to play well together. They have a base of what looks to be a great team down the road. For a while I was seeing "other" mock draft sites having Minnesota drafting Jerryd Bayless. Are the rest of you with me when I say that's crazy? They have a young PG in Foye who averaged close to 18ppg and more than 5apg in the last month and looks to be getting better with each passing day after missing half the season due to injury. Why replace him already with a younger PG who has basically the same skillset? That just seemed dumb to me. That's actually one of the reasons I deceided to go ahead and stop writing for other sites and come do my own. I got tired of this flawed logic I dealt with when writing for other sites. Look, Minnesota needs someone better than Marco Jaric at SG, and someone better than the potpourri of players they had at PF. Minnesota can go one of two directions. Do they go with one of the three top talents in the draft in OJ Mayo, or do they fill that PF need with Brook Lopez? OK, I know Brook is officially listed as a C, but Jefferson, and Lopez could play PF/C and they would both be fine. If this was my pick I would go with the Dwane Wade'esque player in OJ Majo. Reason is that OJ Mayo talent doesn't come around very often. You have a tremendous scorer in Mayo who can also handle the ball and last time I looked Minnesota was near the bottom in points per game. You just don't pass on an OJ Mayo talent....
GARY'S PICK - OJ MAYO

#4 Seattle
With Seattle at #4 you have to ask yourself. Who is worse for the team? Wilcox, or Watson? Both are not really my ideal players at their positions. First of all you have Watson who was thrust into starting this year because Seattle had nobody else to take the job. On the other hand you have Wilcox who has steadily gotten worse each year. If I had to access what type of player Wilcox will be in two years I can say with almost certainty a 13ppg 7rpb PF. Thats just average. As for Watson in three years I could probably say he will be on another team riding the pine or out of the league all together. Ok that was a bit harsh, but you see where I am going with this. Seattle needs a PG more than a PF at this point. Since this is a VERY deep PF draft, and the Sonics have FIVE more picks after they draft the #4 player it's probably safe to say they take the second best PG in the draft and go with a PF with the #24.
GARY'S PICK - JERRYD BAYLESS

#5 Memphis
Well this is easy right? Brook Lopez is still on the board, and Memphis is playing Hakim Warrick at PF. Warrick is not a PF, but does not have SF skills. So at the moment he seems pretty useless to me. Milicic can officially be called a bust after 50 years in the league. How old is Milicic by the way? Is he still 20? It seems that everytime someone calls him a bust someone else counters with a "He's still only 20 years old". Doesn't it seem like forever and a day that Detroit drafted him? So goinng into his 6th NBA season he will be 23 years old. How can that be? (Born: Jun 20, 1985 - Novi Sad, Yugoslavia). I know Seniors in college that haven't played a day in the NBA and are older than Milicic who is going into his 6th season. Wow! The point I am trying to make here is that Memphis after getting rid of Old Man Gasol needs some help in the front court, and the logical choice should be Lopez. As a matter of fact, that's going to be my selection as the Grizzlies GM.
GARY'S PICK - BROOK LOPEZ

#6 New York
Here is where it would have gotten a bit tricky if Mike D'Antoni hadn't becom the 24th Knicks coach in their franchise history. D'Antoni likes scorers. Who is the best scorer available? That's right, Eric Gordon. Quentin Richardson has already proven that his Phoenix success was based off of being open for a 3pt shot after Nash drew and kicked. Of course Isiah Thomas couldn't see that. Isiah Thomas couldn't see a Mack truck if it was 10ft in front of him. It's going to take a few years to undo the damage Thomas did, but a good start would be drafting Gordon. Gallinari would be another fit here since Gallinari is one of those fundemental type players that D'Antoni also is in love with. I feel that there might still be questionmarks with Gallinari which aren't with Gordon. So with the 6th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft......
GARY'S PICK - ERIC GORDON

#7 LA Clippers
OK, this would be my second confusing situation. You have differnt ways that the Clippers could go with this pick. On one hand the Clippers have Elton Brand expiring after this year, and will either need to re-sign him (which is highly unlikely) or they would need to replace him. The Clippers also have a SG/SF need to be filled. Oh, did I mention as it stands now the Clippers have FOUR players signed for the 2009-2010 season? This not cointing this years pick, and I am assuming they pick up the team option on Al Thorton. Next season they will have a huge hole to fill at just about every position. Why not start with either UCLA product Kevin Love, or Danillo Gallinari? Gallinari matched up with Thorton, and Kaman is a nice start. Love with Thorton, and Kaman is better. I know my mock draft says Love will go to Charlotte, but after thinking about it for a day or two, and reading up on some workouts Love has had I might have to change this. The Clippers wouldn't have the fastest front court, but they would have one of the best rebounding front courts in the league. Sorry Bobcat fans at Bobcats Planet. I am changing my mind on this pick. So with the 7th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft....
GARY'S PICK - KEVIN LOVE

#8 Milwaukee
The Bucks have a few different directiosn to go here, but because of salary constraints they might limit themselves to shoring up the SF problem. As it stands they have Mason for one more season, and Simmons for the next two seasons. Neither Simmons, or Mason are in the plans for Milwaukees' future. Plus, the Bucks have issues scoring the ball. they were in the bottom tier of teams averaging a mere 95ppg as a team. There is a bit of good news though. Ramon Sessions upped that averaged all by himself with his tremendous passing ability late in the season. The downfall is that they have Mo Williams signed for the next centruy, and if they give more minutes to Sessions look for Williams minutes, and value to drop below what he current salary is which will make him next to impossible to move. The Bucks are young at C, and PF. If they plan on keeping Yi around look for the Bucks to shore up their SF position with some scoring. I had though of either Randolph or Gallinari for this spot, and since Randolph isn't the proven scorer of the two look for Gallinari to be the 8th pick.
GARY'S PICK - DANILLO GALLINARI

#9 Charlotte
I hope my friends at Bobcats Planet are OK with this pick. I believe Kevin Love was the consensus pick, but with Love only falling to the #7 the Bobcats have to move to Plan B. The Bobcats are in need of someone who can fill either a PF spot which would move Okafor to C, or a C spot which would keep Okafor at PF. There are a couple good choices here. Dare I throw Arthurs name into the mix here? No thanks. I have a feeling that this is where ESPN got the Idea that Arthur was a top ten talent. On the plus side, Arthur would theoretically fit with the Bobcats game plan. He's athletic, can play defense, and does not need the ball all the time as we saw in Kansas. Rebounding is not his cup 'o tea but don't the Bobcats rebound well enough at the other positions to make up for Arthurs lack of rebounding? The bottom line is yes, and no. If the Bobcats want someone to come in and play some defense and grab a couple boards a game why not just offer the Sacramento Kings their pick for Mikki Moore? 9ppg 5rpg and almost a block a game is probably all they will get out of Arthur. That's a Mikki Moore statline. The Bobcats should move in the direction of DeAnrdre Jordan here. Jordan was a stud coming out of high school, and one of the most highly recruited players in last years freshman class. Texas A&M did not do Jordan justice. He was in the wrong type of system, and had a coach who wouldn't let him see the floor for consistent minutes always going with the veterans instead in big game situations. Jordan isn't going to knock your socks off with great shooting ability, but he is a 7'0 player who knows how to play defense, and is athletic as hell. This would even afford the Bobcats the ability to move Nazr Mohammed back to the bench where he belongs, and keep Okafor at PF. With the Bobcats getting May, and Morrison back next year they should see an improvement in their scoring, and bench. So with the 9th pick in the 2008 NBA draft.......
GARY'S PICK - DEANDRE JORDAN

#10 New Jersey
The Nets need front court help plain and simple. Josh Boone, and Nenad Kristic are not the answer. The next three years the Nets have a great looking back court in Harris, Carter, and Jefferson. Jefferson playing SF. But the big men in New Jersey are pretty bad. When a guy like Josh Boone leads the team in front court production you know you are in trouble. Josh Boone wouldn't see the floor on some of the better teams, and here you have the Nets starting the poor guy. I know I am being harsh on the guy, so I will say that in this year of starting he has at least shown he can be a decent energy guy off the bench which is a good thing. The problem with the Nets being the #10 team is that at this point there is a dropoff in my opinion in PF talent. Do you trade this pick with another team and then pick up a guy like Darrell Arthur a few picks down the ladder? Do you draft a guy like Anthony Randolph and try to play him some minutes at PF? Randolph is as skinny of a player as you will ever see. I saw a picture of him standing next to a cheerleader at LSU. The cheerleader maybe was 5'7 and 115lbs. She looked big compared to Randolph. The good thing about Randolph is that he has skills like a young Kevin Garnett. Very few people got to see this guy play, luckily I was not one of them. In seeing quite a few games this year I was able to come to this conclusion. "Young Kevin Garnett". Randolph has the athleticism, length, height, mid range jumper, and weak side defensive ability that every team needs. you will never see him directly challenging big players for position, but you will see Randolph jump into the television screen out of nowhere to grab a board, or come from the weak side to block a shot which will look like is coming from nowhere. This kid has skills, and hopefully the Nets will take a chance on him.
GARY'S PICK - ANTHONY RANDOLPH